MHK
Guest
Day 4, armed with a renewed sense of explorative purpose, we were expecting the fruits of our labor to reap benefits. Upon our arrival the boat crew had informed us that as of yet no one has been able to find any access to the engine room, in fact, Greg Doyle the owner of the boat had put a free trip offer open to anyone that found a passage. Much of the evenings review of the boat plans and most of the planned penetration had this objective in mind. With this back drop in mind Andrew G, Gideon and I progressed with a penetration that we felt would render further progress. Earlier we had found a few routes through the Seamans mess and Ward officers pantry that looked promising so we charted a route that made for interesting diving, magnificent photo opportunities but fell short of producing a direct route that we had hoped for. Armed with detailed deck plans, having invested significant time and energy now in our new found goal of finding the elusive entry point to the engine room we put our heads together and devised a coordinated attack. As our time on the trip was now running short we decided that Marcel and I would continue through the corridors from dive 1 and Andrew, Eric Engberg and Gideon would head through a passage way more towards the stern area. Marcel and I pushed somewhat further but still found no direct access, whereas Andrews team had much greater success. Andrews team had chartered a path that required finding a hatch door that may or may not be shut, that may or may not be forever frozen in history and may or may not ever be able to be opened again. After a few attempts at opening the hatch lock they were successful and were able to open the lock. However, lifting and opening an extremely heavy metal hatch that has been sitting under 190 of seawater for over 63 years is still another project. Luck was shinning this day and the team was able to open the hatch. The team then made their way through the silt caused by this commotion to video the first entrance to the engine room since that fateful day 63 years earlier. Were told by the locals that many explorers have been searching for this entrance for decades so we felt quite rewarded that we were able to find it on our first expedition. Dive 2 that day Marcel and I had hoped to follow Andrews lead to the engine room for further exploration. The current once again picked up to the strongest point of the trip. In hindsight we probably should have bailed once we hit the wreck and the current hadnt subsided. Given the strength of the currents and carrying 5 bottles each we didnt reach the penetration point until 16 minutes into the dive. Given this Marcel and I decided not to penetrate at that point so we did another pass around the wreck. Given the strong currents we didnt cover much ground, the sun had begun to set so ambient light was fading. We did 30 minute BT and spent the better part of an hour decompressing in strong currents processing all of our dives. This was to be the last dive on the Repulse of the expedition and I couldnt help but use this quiet time to reflect on our time on the Repulse. We had covered a great deal of the wreck during our time there, and as a team we had documented all that we had hoped for, and then some, but we could spend weeks and weeks more and not nearly begin to cover all the opportunities that this wreck has to offer. 700 in size and multiple levels provide for a wealth exploration opportunities that cant possibly be exhausted during one expedition. My time there had expired; soon I would be back to the hustle, bustle and fast pace of normal life. I would soon be trading my 3 mil wetsuit for a suit and tie, punching in at the office and returning to the workplace. I have no regrets opting to stay at the Repulse at the expense of missing the opportunity to dive the Prince of Wales , Im confident Ill return to this part of the world so Ill look forward with great anticipation for the next adventure. This last hour of decompression would allow one final uninterrupted opportunity to process our experience and I milked it for every second I could.
To be sure the Repulse is an extraordinary dive experience filled with endless potential in terms of exploration opportunities. Her proud history and courageous demise have provided me with a great experience to look back into this time capsule of history and provided me with a snapshot that Ill carry with me for years to come. In order to break up the ride back to Singapore the Grace steamed overnight to the wreck of the Seven Skies. The Seven Skies was a 880 Swedish Supertanker sank in 1969 that now lies 220 below the surface. The cause of her sinking remains a unsolved mystery, some speculate that the company that owned her was in financial trouble and the insurance money received by her sinking relieved some of the problems, others claim that there was a mysterious explosion on the port side of the ship, while still others speculate about additional conspiracy theories. Whatever the true cause, the answers remain buried 220 below the surface. For my part however, my thoughts were still in the Repulse so I opted to sit out this opportunity. I wanted some additional time to reflect and process my dives. I wanted my last dive memories of the trip to be the faded view of the Repulse as we slowly worked our way up the deco line as the sun was setting and the ambient light seemed to fade in a strangely coincidental timing with our ascent. For me that was the way the trip needed to end, and so it did.
We have several more expeditions and excursions planned to allow like minded divers the ability to gain valuable real life dive experiences. Our next two trips will be the Gunilda [262] in the Great Lakes area and the Lusitania [300] off the coast of Ole Kinsale in Ireland.these two projects are already sold out, but we do have an awesome expedition planned for the first two weeks of January 2005. We will be running an expedition to the HMS Hermes I. The Hermes I was the first purpose built aircraft carrier in the world that was also sunk by the Japanese First Air fleet on April 9, 1942 off the coast of Sri Lanka and now sits in the 230 range. The Hermes I is virtually unexplored and undocumented and should provide for a unique, once in a life time opportunity to continue to dive the carnage from the Japanese fleet during WWII. This trip will also be exclusive to DIR divers only; we will only offer 12 spots so for further information about this trip please contact me off list at mhk@5thd-x.com . Just so you know the price isnt finalized yet but plan on it being in the $5K range.
Special thanks to local GUE instructor Gideon Liew for all his hard work, effort and energy that he put into making this trip run as smoothly as possible, allowing for substantial pre-trip planning based on the desire to run this trip on a strict DIR basis in accordance with standard GUE protocols and standardized mixes. Gideon, thanks man you were awesome!! For further information on Gideons operation please see www.livingseas.com.sg
To be sure the Repulse is an extraordinary dive experience filled with endless potential in terms of exploration opportunities. Her proud history and courageous demise have provided me with a great experience to look back into this time capsule of history and provided me with a snapshot that Ill carry with me for years to come. In order to break up the ride back to Singapore the Grace steamed overnight to the wreck of the Seven Skies. The Seven Skies was a 880 Swedish Supertanker sank in 1969 that now lies 220 below the surface. The cause of her sinking remains a unsolved mystery, some speculate that the company that owned her was in financial trouble and the insurance money received by her sinking relieved some of the problems, others claim that there was a mysterious explosion on the port side of the ship, while still others speculate about additional conspiracy theories. Whatever the true cause, the answers remain buried 220 below the surface. For my part however, my thoughts were still in the Repulse so I opted to sit out this opportunity. I wanted some additional time to reflect and process my dives. I wanted my last dive memories of the trip to be the faded view of the Repulse as we slowly worked our way up the deco line as the sun was setting and the ambient light seemed to fade in a strangely coincidental timing with our ascent. For me that was the way the trip needed to end, and so it did.
We have several more expeditions and excursions planned to allow like minded divers the ability to gain valuable real life dive experiences. Our next two trips will be the Gunilda [262] in the Great Lakes area and the Lusitania [300] off the coast of Ole Kinsale in Ireland.these two projects are already sold out, but we do have an awesome expedition planned for the first two weeks of January 2005. We will be running an expedition to the HMS Hermes I. The Hermes I was the first purpose built aircraft carrier in the world that was also sunk by the Japanese First Air fleet on April 9, 1942 off the coast of Sri Lanka and now sits in the 230 range. The Hermes I is virtually unexplored and undocumented and should provide for a unique, once in a life time opportunity to continue to dive the carnage from the Japanese fleet during WWII. This trip will also be exclusive to DIR divers only; we will only offer 12 spots so for further information about this trip please contact me off list at mhk@5thd-x.com . Just so you know the price isnt finalized yet but plan on it being in the $5K range.
Special thanks to local GUE instructor Gideon Liew for all his hard work, effort and energy that he put into making this trip run as smoothly as possible, allowing for substantial pre-trip planning based on the desire to run this trip on a strict DIR basis in accordance with standard GUE protocols and standardized mixes. Gideon, thanks man you were awesome!! For further information on Gideons operation please see www.livingseas.com.sg
