Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.
Benefits of registering include
Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
www.gs-diving.com/dive-info/lust-for-rust/hms-prince-of-wales/
A hand sketch picture of PoW by W. Muirhead 2004.
I had dived the props and the port side but never seen the starboard side of this wreck. 65m on oc did not allow me a lot of time to swim around.
Acutally, it looks like Repulse to me!!
Thanks for that, Centrals. Wonder where I can find similar drawings of the wreck of the Repulse? There's some great material, including good schematics and U/W photos the the Death of a Battleship PDF at www.pacificwrecks.com/.../hms/.../death-of-a-battleship-2012-update.pdf but that's just for the PoW, not the Repulse.
It would be great if anyone has anything which might serve as a sort of a dive site map for the Repulse which I could laminate and bring along on some dives.
Just got back yesterday. Great trip and will go again.
We dived Maratime Fidelity, however the vis was not that good and the current reasonably strong. Would have liked to explore it more if the water was cleaner, but just managed the top deck (2 dives).
We then motored out to the Repulse. Current was very strong along with wind and swell making the first day a total loss as the risk was too high. Second day we tried in the morning but again the combination of weather and current forced us to abort the first dive. Later we got a dive in. My first mistake was taking a 5 mm wetsuit as I cooked and and only managed to cool off on finding a thermocline at about 50m. The water temp is 31C on the surface and can be in the order of 26-23C on the bottom. We managed another 4 dives on the Repulse which we enjoyed. Didn't penetrate much as we were open circuit so insufficient time/gas for too much play. In any regard, there is much to see and explore outside. Anyone on a breather had more time to explore, although they did say it was significant risk where they did penetrate. On the deco run back the current seems to hit the Repulse and then shoot up at about 45 degrees thus acting like a strong up current constantly. It was reasonably hard work going hand over hand down the anchor line too on the worst days of current.
We were diving with Tech Thailand/MV Giamani. The boat crew were very good and had all their **** together regarding risk and options. I was very impressed with Simon and the crew. The boat had an engine problem which meant we had to lose a dive or two to limp home (such is life). So that meant only one dive on Prince Of Wales and we had to abort the Sarah D dives (not a great loss there). The Prince of Wales was a great dive and we would have loved to do more on it, however time was against us. Its a beautiful wreck to come down on in clear vis which we had on the day. We only managed to run about 50m along the hull from the bow before having to turn back, but wanted to spend more time underneath her.
Managed to drown an Intova camera (second dive), have a deco reg fall apart (so much for buying second hand regs and getting them serviced) and lose a weight belt on the deco line while being bashed about with the current.
I will go back again and do more diving in that area as there are a number of choice sites there. Unfortunately the current runs constantly there, with the best times being where it slackens off sometimes during the day. Seems to constantly run in the same direction, just the strength changes.
You cannot afford to lose the down line or deco line/bar as due to the high currents you will scoot along very fast and disappear quickly. In this circumstance they have an inflatable that they use to follow you and recover you. Also take a yellow SMB as well in case you need additional gas on deco (for anyone not familiar with this procedure, you shoot your orange SMB to show where you are, and if you are low on gas shoot the yellow SMB up the same line with a slate indicating gas required). They then come down with additional gas to continue the deco.
If there is anything else I can help you with let me know.
Nice report! The wreck dive other than HMS Repulse & Prince of Wales that had wicked strong current was aircraft carrier HMS Hermes off east coast Sri Lanka 2010: I went through 50 bar of 11L open circuit doubles backgas in 5 min, pulling hand-over-hand along the downline to reach the wreck at 48m, which only left about 5min penetration time (next time I will bring a stage bottle and a scooter).
Nice report! The wreck dive other than HMS Repulse & Prince of Wales that had wicked strong current was aircraft carrier HMS Hermes off east coast Sri Lanka 2010: I went through 50 bar of 11L open circuit doubles backgas in 5 min, pulling hand-over-hand along the downline to reach the wreck at 48m, which only left about 5min penetration time (next time I will bring a stage bottle and a scooter).
Yes we had the same issue which was compounded by the high water temperature and a 5 mm wetsuit, so we also used travel gas so we saved our back gas for bottom use
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
