Diving - 29th/30th - interested anyone?

Peace

Right lads and ladies,

Its been a long time since we had a dip and this weekends diving was washed out by weather. I'm well up for a bit of diving asap and since i've got an exam coming up at the end of may its this next weekend or nothing for another month.

I would be looking to head to donegal and dive a couple of wrecks. The Laurentic would be high on the list but i'm open minded... as in i'd like to talk to the dive op (undecided on who to dive with) and see whats good to go. I have no idea what way tides are next weekend so exposed sites may not be accessible...

Its possible that a couple of dives will be to 40m so judge for yourself if you're up for it or not.

I'm not going to push to make this a boards dive weekend - i know a few people have 18/30m max depth limit and therefore possibly excluded depending on what sites get decided on. Everything is still up in the air right now.

Post it up if you're a gogo!

donny

would love to but sadly I'm working this weekend...
I'm meant to be diving the Laurentic towards the end of June and am hoping to fit in the U-260 again in July. If I get both of those done I'll be quite happy.

Evil Phil

I shall be climbing, soz.

Peace

So were heading up friday evening... its myself MickL and Nordicdiver (and a couple of women non divers... always handy to have groupies around)..

We're diving with Diveology and the sites are Laurentic (40m) & Argo Delos (40m) & another wreck TBD... Could be a second dive on the laurentic, we'll have to wait and see.

Got some accomodation at last... the area is very busy and we didn't book ahead and were nearly dissapointed!!!

Will post up and let you know what went on. (like it or not!)

Peace

Folks,

Got 2 excellent dives in over the weekend, both of them on the Laurentic. For those of you who don't know the Laurentic is a wreck of a White Star liner that sank after hitting a mine 2 miles outside Lough Swilly, off the Cost of Donegal...reasonably close to Malin Head.

Dive 1: 10:30 am 1/05/04 Max depth 37.5m
Weather is cracking. Clear skies and the sea state is just about perfect to get on the wreck. We just missed slack water so the tide was starting to flow a little bit. Headed down the shot line which was tied onto one of the Laurentics big n' honkin guns... How the hell did i miss this the last tie i dived it? Well anyway, it took me a minute or two to get control of my breathing as the descent was tought fighting the current. To the right were the boilers, i think i counted about 5/6 big lads. We continued towards the stern of the wreck and followed the prop shaft to where the wreck ended. Its pretty broken up at the stern but i didn't want to miss it this time. This took about 10 minutes to get there so we turned back and started to make our way towards the bow. Its a big wreck and the current was slowing me down... but NordicDiver seemed to have a small DPV somewhere... ffs how the hell is he finning so fast! Next we found the boxes of bullets (again i don't remember finding those the last time i dived her) and started to examine them. Some large shell casings are scattered around. By the time we had had a good look at these it was time to deploy an SMB (29minutes into the dive) .. we were scheduled to start the ascent at 30minutes. At 32minutes the smb was on the surface and we were a little bit late leaving the bottom but it was ok since the dive plan was planned to a depth of 39meters but since it was low water I never got deeper than 37.5... so i just held the same Deco schedule. Deco was long... about 30 minutes at various different depths and it was getting a bit chilly towards the end.

Dive no 2: 2/05/04 11:00am Max depth 37.4m
Hit the wreck this time just at the ass end of slack water but it was still hard work getting down the line and again i was feckin nackered when i hit the wreck. God only knows what my air consumption was for the first minute or two on the wreck. When we got on the wreck it was straight off to visit the boxes of bullets and have another look. This time i was diving with MickL who hadn't seen the bullets before. On the way over i saw another big honkin gun (the second) lying under some of the wreck.. it was kinda crossed over by girders but easily spotted. After the bullets we headed to the bow section. Big winches and the anchor are to be seen here. The rail is still intact and the bow is lying at about 45degrees tilt. It was very cool just hanging there looking at the bow... after alll it was one of the white star liners. Just as we were heading back towards the boilers/upright gun/shotline i saw yet another gun. This one was lying on its side pointing forward. After examining it for a minute or two we began our trip back to the shot. At 25 minutes we started to head up and saw another group of divers coming down the shot. I didn't spot it but apparently they were carrying crow bars and lump hammers... excellnt lads.. don''t worry about leaving any wreck after you... i'm sure noone would want to visit it after you. :rolleyes:

Anyway hanging on the shot line there was a fair current running... again i had about 30minutes of deco to get done and sure enough my old companion the cold was back... I'm am so getting a warmer undersuit. The shot line got a bit crowded after a few mintues as the other group of divers were on the way back.... they had a short dive it seems.

I have to say both dives were very good and i'd reccomend the wreck strongly. Its broken up from the salvaging but is still a great dive. However its an tough dive and its deep. So diving single cylinders isn't a great idea. I was diving twin 12's with EAN50% in a stage for accelerated decompression. A serious dive! and i'll definately be going back.

Diving was done with Diveology. Rib ride was 45minutes each way... but that can be shortened by launching from a different point. Accomodation was a local B&B.