Baltimore and the submarine

thistlegorm

those of you who recently raised questions about the quality of service offered by the dive operator located on the pier in Baltimore will be glad to hear of its demise.

was down there recently for some great dives - and dived with aquaventures - who were top quality in every respect.

did fastnet and the kowloon bridge...

but not the U260 - would like some info from any of you who have dived the sub. how deep, what did you dive with (tank size, pony etc.), approx dive time, currents, difficulty etc.

Evil Phil

Hello thistlegorm and welcome to boards.ie!

Mick L

Ah the Thistlegorm, my first proper wreck penetration I dived ( I emphasize wreck and not the boards.ie member). Best day of diving in the Red Sea.

Haven't dived in Baltimore yet but plan to. Definitely plan to do the Kowloon and the U-260. According to the Aquaventures Website the u-boat is in 36 to 42m. I'll be doing it on twin 12s, manifolded no pony. From doing similar profiles in Scapa Flow I'd say you'd get about 15min bottom time but that depends on the conditions like current as you've already mentioned.

What was the Kowloon bridge like?

donny

I dived with Aquaventures an two separate occasions and found them to be excellent

I've dived the Kowloon twice and finally got to dive the U-260 in May.

As far as I can remember our max depth was 43 metres or so. Your no stop time at that depth is 9 minutes if I remember it right. We stayed for 12 mins, and then did the relevant deco stops.

I dived with a 12L and a pony. In the 12 minutes we had, my buddy and I managed to cover the entire wreck although it was a bit of a rush to do it in this time and I'd like to see it again in more detail. Ideally I'd say you'd want at least two dives to see it properly.

I think we both came up with 50-70 bar left in our 12L and didn't need to go near the pony, but I would definitely recommend to anyone to bring a pony along, just in case. It'd be a good idea to dive with a pony beforehand just to get used to it.

Our overall dive time was something like 35 mins I think. The only difficulty we had was that even at slack there was a very strong surface current and we just about managed to drop on the shotline after getting dropped in the water.

It was an excellent dive and I hope to do it again as soon as I get a chance. Its well worth going to Baltimore to do it. Make sure that you're adequately experienced and that you've built yourself up to that depth in the weeks leading up to it so you don't get narked off your tits straight away.

Enjoy

thistlegorm

Mick L: "What was the Kowloon bridge like?"

Did two dives on the Kowloon Bridge recently. It is huge - and I mean huge (apparently the biggest diveable wreck in Europe). And the fun part is that because there is so much of its iron ore cargo it practically has its own magnetic field and therefore your compass will not work (bermuda triange-esque!!!)

You can be in the cargo hold and think you are on the seabed with no wreck - it is that big. On one of the dives the plan was to go to the bow - where the anchor chain was is now a super swim-through - but ended up not finding the bow!!!

It is a good dive - but after all that - as wrecks go (apart from its size) it is not particularly interesting and there is not a whole lot of life (big conger, ling, pollock - but not a lot of them).

Mick L

There was a program about the U-260 on TG4 last night. Looks like a great dive alright. The camera work on the program wasn't great but it justs makes me want to dive it even more, start looking into a few of those openings and hatches and see what's in there.

patto_chan

U260 is an excellent dive. Unfortunately I've only been able to dive it twice this year. I initially did it some years ago using a single tank but you really should have an independant air source at that depth. Now use twin 12s. The bow is smashed open but there is lots to see: conning tower, periscope, props and rudders. About 42m and can be pitch dark so make sure you're dived up before you try it.

BTW - Must disagree with Thistlegorm. Have always found Baltimore Watersports to be excellent. They're still there - just not using the pier anymore. (Have dived Aquaventures in the past also and have no complaints with them.)

NordicDiver

Hi

I have dived the U260 once, well i cant really say i have dived on U260 because my divebuddy used up all the air he had and had a strange express in his face when he saw his computer closing in on 0 min no stop deco time and was in a rush to get to the surface.

We (he) had used some time to get down and there was some current too, soo at the time i saw the tower on the u-boat my buddy(who wants them;) ) was on the way back, dont think he even saw the tower, i think our dive time was about 15 minutes with safety stop.

Hope too go there sometime with a group who will dive it with deco soo i can have 25-30 minutes or soo on the wreck.
Anyone going ?

Peace

Nordic,

Sorry for not spotting the post before today, what am i a couple of months late.... who's counting??

Anyway, myself and MickL haven't dived this wreck and would be interested in doing it. Clocking up a bit of deco isn't a problem, we've done our Technical training.

So listen if you want to mark it down in the diary for sometime early next season then i'd be happy to do the same?

Anyone else who wants a piece of this are welcome!

NordicDiver

I thought this board was dead until now, no posts since looong time

Anyway...Peace, that will by perfect and any date is ok

Except beginning of feb , (going icediving in Norway with students. Last year we had an inst. coming from the UK and he brought with him students and his regs froze, and he spent time in coma at the hospital , relly scary for his students ! I saw there was an ad in Diver magazine this year to, so mayby we will have some UK students too, )

Peace

Originally posted by NordicDiver
I thought this board was dead until now, no posts since looong time

Anyway...Peace, that will by perfect and any date is ok

Except beginning of feb , (going icediving in Norway with students. Last year we had an inst. coming from the UK and he brought with him students and his regs froze, and he spent time in coma at the hospital , relly scary for his students ! I saw there was an ad in Diver magazine this year to, so mayby we will have some UK students too, )

The board isn't dead just noone diving lately. A lot of the scuba operators take their boats out of the water for the winter for maintenance and cleaning.

The date i'd be aiming for would be maybe the start of march. But its a ways off yet.

Why did the guy end up in a coma when his regs froze? I would assume they'd just go into free flow (being a downstream valve) and he could make an ascent on either his own air or a buddy/student? I've never had a free flow on a dive but i can't imagine it being the end of the world.

NordicDiver

Well he was under the ice, so he had to swim a few meters to get to the hole,,his reg froze, no air or little air no one really knows + panic so the guy was not breathing when we puled him up from the hole, he was with two students.

Its normaly not the end of the world to have your regs freze up and it normaly happens before you enter the water also.