Just got back from the Empress trip.
I had a chance to meet John's in-laws. We were invited for dinner and were able to watch 2 empress video's he brought up.
What a guy, what a family! Just think, we tripped over each other just 2 weeks ago, here in this forum.
It was unfortunate he had a working/holiday and could only do 3 dives with us, but 3 is better than none!
We managed to get in 9 dives out of a possible 10 in 5 days. We did a total of 10 hours under water. John was with us on Wednesday when we only got in 1 dive due to nasty winds!! By the time the guys literally dragged me into the boat, like landing a big tuna, we had 4 to 5 foot rollers. I said, "Now THAT'S Diving!" My buddy/instructor just grinned ear to ear.
It's quite unforunate that being such a small guy, I have a hell of a time on a boat such as Jean-Pierre's. It's not really the boat to be doing doubles/stages on and off the boat dives. You have to roll over the side or giant fall off the back after straddling the rear deck. The chances of hanging up on gear grows with every entry. One of our divers lost a fin while entering for a dive. It got caught on a cleat and pulled clean off........the Empress claims another piece of gear.
The vis was poor on Monday and Tuesday, but started to clear up as the week progressed. By the end, we had a good 15ft!
It was quite disorienting at first. I had memorized the deck plans for the area I wanted to explore, but I was still 4 or 5 dives figuring out just where the heck I was. At about Thursday, we had gotten a good read on our area of penetration (1st class gangway/Blast-hole/1st class dining/Kitchen) and by Friday we had penetrated to the kitchen a few times. We saw the stove with the plates warmers, lighting fixtures, pottery, vases (all broken) chair legs, carved banisters, checker-board floor tiles, tonnes of piping and electrical wiring to get hung up on (and I did).
The other highlights were 1 lost line, one solo penetration, reel hang-ups...the usual stuff
:wacko:
Haha.
I must admit, by Monday evening (Day 1), I was quite disaapointed by the lack of vis, the poor state of the interior and the quantity of vegetation growth on the outside, limitting what I could visually discern (steam winches, the bow writing, railings etc) but by Friday I embraced the challenge and wished I had more days to explore her. 5 days and 9 dives didn't even do justice to even the smallest portion of the wreck. We didn't even get over to do the stern, and I had on quick swim over the actual end of the bow, with a quick dip to the starboard side at 135ft to see the lifeboat and davits.
My small wish list that I wrote for" things to do on trip one" was left only half complete, but I was fully satisfied.
John got some stills, I left my camera on the boat. I could have brought it down a couple of times, but with all the penetration we ended up doing, it would have been suicide to try and get to where we went while dragging a camera along. Next time, I'll be more organized as I now know what I'm up against, and I'll spend a dive or two getting some good shots.
We're already setting up next years trip!!!
You're darn right I'll be there!!
She's got me good........
Thanks again for the company, John!
