Finless
Guest
For those of you who are multi dive forum participants, I have posted this elsewhere! Faithless person that I am!
The 'revisited bit' relates to a wreck called the Pontos which is obvious if you know I've never been to Hamburg.
From a previous post (lower down this page) you may know of a dive on an 'Unknown' wreck where fellow diver Colin found a piece of brass on the wreck with the name The Pontos on it. I had the important task of being Mr Verifier and Markus (***'s wrong with RHIB diving then!!!!! - Inspiration charter, Eastbourne - www.trojanmarine.co.uk - Markus I expect 2 doughnuts or toffee yum yums next week!) had checked the details that same day, notified the Hydrographic Thingy People and generally did most of the research. Well, Saturday 8th Oct was the return visit to recover the brass!
My Friday evening preparations were delayed by having to search and recover SWMBO from a pub in Bexhill at 7pm, having gone for a 'quick drink after work at 2pm with the girls'. It didn't sound too promising when I phoned from the car outside the pub and the location was "news to her...hic" as she thought she was somewhere else! FFS!
By the time she had followed me indoors from the car I had to spend a few minutes picking natures dandruff off her as she had fallen over in the garden and was covered in leaves. Fortunately she was unconscious within ½ an hour and I was able to get back to my kit.
By 9:45 I had the wing on the cylinders, all the pipe work connected, gas analysed, gas usage v dive times planned (using my marvellous spreadsheet), torch battery on charge and my backup deco run times written down on my slate. There were a few bits to do but a man HAS to go for a pint on a Friday - good job I did as I got ½ shares in a £250 payout from the Club bandit.
5am the alarm goes off. 5:30 I wake up again and sort out a coffee, ablute and load up the kit. 6:45 leave home and at 7:00 arrive at Eastourne - it's tough living this close to a dive boat . Out through the 8:00 lock and off we go over a fairly lumpy sea with 9 other divers, Markus and Susie (Ric's SWMBO who is also a diver but was acting as temp boat aid).
Unfortunately the electrics failed (didn't affect the engine) on the way out causing the widget that says where to go to switch off. A number of tools, curses, piss takes and one bit of sticky tape later it was fixed and we made it to the dive site in time for slack. In the middle of this I remembered I had not programmed my dive computer with the correct mixes (34.7% O2 and 73.4% O2). It was at this time I remember why Cochrans are not too popular with some divers (I'll explain this to anyone who doesn't know why).
As is my want I dropped in last (having helped a little to get some of the others get ready) - the first bag was already up! I dropped down the shot feeling happy that my fears that the vis would be poor after the recent 'stir'were proved to unwarranted. I sent the anchor up on it's bag and made my way along side the wreck.
The wreck which was upside down with only the hull showing (abt 4 mtrs sticking up?) and I later realised I had found it in virtually the same place as on the previous dive and, coincidentally followed the same route round it (no compass). As I rounded the pointy end (I think) of the wreck and went back the other way on the other side of the hull I was greeted by a big shoal (200 ish?) of pouting hovering about. I stopped to watch for a minute before continuing. I think the fish were stoned because, even on open circuit, I almost had to bat them out of the way. As I reached the end of the hull I headed out over the sand to the stern section which was just a murky shape in front of me. As I got there I met Colin and Ric (both on YBODs) to be given what I thought was a shrug from Colin. I assumed this to mean he couldn't find the brass bit but turned out to be that he was winding me up (I now reckon he was trying to get his tool bag in a comfier position . I immediately set about looking around and found the spot within one minute only to find the brass plaque gone. Colin relented and pointed to his goody bag and I relaxed feeling pleased he had 'got it' and exceptionally pleased with myself for finding the right spot - my navigational skills are usually represented by a minus score.
This bit of the wreck (the stern?) whilst small in area curiously seems to be the right way up and stands 6 or 7 mtrs proud of the sea bed with a bit of mast sticking up. I stopped to have a look at a cuttlefish for minute, had a 'feel round' in the sand in case there were any doubloons there. Sadly I'm no richer but I did see a couple of tiny star fish shaped things (from my poor description Ric later thought they were brittle stars?). Ric and Colin had gone by the time I returned from the dark side of the wreck (they were in the water abt 30 mins before me). The current started to pick up a bit so I stayed in the same area in the shelter of the wreck. There was a little 'swim under' where I stopped to try some telepathic communication with a conger. I obviously thought something it didn't like as it backed away from me. There were loads of brown crabs and I didn't see any lobsters. By the by I haven't seen many spider crabs this year?
Anyway, I was up to about 9 mins of deco and as the current was picking up I decided to send the DSMB up (tied to a sturdy bit of wreck) and then swim round it for a bit (divers equivalent of a handbag at the disco?). Once the bag was up I decided that, as I had been round this bit of the wreck about 6 times, I would drift on the bag for a minute or three and watch the sea bed go past. After about 30 seconds I was fed up of sand and headed up.
I haven't downloaded the data from dive computer yet but I think max depth was 32 mtrs, air to air time was about 50 mins. Started on 210 bar and finished on 70 bar in the 10s and 120 in the 3 ltr deco. I was actually back on the boat before Ric and Colin. Vis was probably about 8 to 10 mtrs (I could still see the sand without a torch from 8 mtrs up my line with the tide running. There was loads of ambient light - no torch needed apart from the nooks and crannies.
The only down side to the day was that there was only one doughnut each although Ric liberated Markus' secret stash of choccy biscuits.
Back in Eastbourne lock many pictures were taken of the brass thingy (in the shape of a small straw boater hat) and us. A pint was had in the Marina Yacht Club .... I tell you, for the diving I do, it doesn't get much better than that.
The conditions this year have been consistently the clearest I can remember (unsurprising as I can't remember anything before May! ).
The following information was submitted by Markus (skipper/owner of Inspiration) as an addendum to my post:-
Just an update on this...... The recovery of the item, which we believe is the boss from the remote (steering) wheel, is being reported to RoW and we are also in contact with a descendent of the owners of the Shipping line (A.C. de Freitas) who is currently researching the histories of ships of this line for a book that he is writing.
The 'revisited bit' relates to a wreck called the Pontos which is obvious if you know I've never been to Hamburg.
From a previous post (lower down this page) you may know of a dive on an 'Unknown' wreck where fellow diver Colin found a piece of brass on the wreck with the name The Pontos on it. I had the important task of being Mr Verifier and Markus (***'s wrong with RHIB diving then!!!!! - Inspiration charter, Eastbourne - www.trojanmarine.co.uk - Markus I expect 2 doughnuts or toffee yum yums next week!) had checked the details that same day, notified the Hydrographic Thingy People and generally did most of the research. Well, Saturday 8th Oct was the return visit to recover the brass!
My Friday evening preparations were delayed by having to search and recover SWMBO from a pub in Bexhill at 7pm, having gone for a 'quick drink after work at 2pm with the girls'. It didn't sound too promising when I phoned from the car outside the pub and the location was "news to her...hic" as she thought she was somewhere else! FFS!
By the time she had followed me indoors from the car I had to spend a few minutes picking natures dandruff off her as she had fallen over in the garden and was covered in leaves. Fortunately she was unconscious within ½ an hour and I was able to get back to my kit.
By 9:45 I had the wing on the cylinders, all the pipe work connected, gas analysed, gas usage v dive times planned (using my marvellous spreadsheet), torch battery on charge and my backup deco run times written down on my slate. There were a few bits to do but a man HAS to go for a pint on a Friday - good job I did as I got ½ shares in a £250 payout from the Club bandit.
5am the alarm goes off. 5:30 I wake up again and sort out a coffee, ablute and load up the kit. 6:45 leave home and at 7:00 arrive at Eastourne - it's tough living this close to a dive boat . Out through the 8:00 lock and off we go over a fairly lumpy sea with 9 other divers, Markus and Susie (Ric's SWMBO who is also a diver but was acting as temp boat aid).
Unfortunately the electrics failed (didn't affect the engine) on the way out causing the widget that says where to go to switch off. A number of tools, curses, piss takes and one bit of sticky tape later it was fixed and we made it to the dive site in time for slack. In the middle of this I remembered I had not programmed my dive computer with the correct mixes (34.7% O2 and 73.4% O2). It was at this time I remember why Cochrans are not too popular with some divers (I'll explain this to anyone who doesn't know why).
As is my want I dropped in last (having helped a little to get some of the others get ready) - the first bag was already up! I dropped down the shot feeling happy that my fears that the vis would be poor after the recent 'stir'were proved to unwarranted. I sent the anchor up on it's bag and made my way along side the wreck.
The wreck which was upside down with only the hull showing (abt 4 mtrs sticking up?) and I later realised I had found it in virtually the same place as on the previous dive and, coincidentally followed the same route round it (no compass). As I rounded the pointy end (I think) of the wreck and went back the other way on the other side of the hull I was greeted by a big shoal (200 ish?) of pouting hovering about. I stopped to watch for a minute before continuing. I think the fish were stoned because, even on open circuit, I almost had to bat them out of the way. As I reached the end of the hull I headed out over the sand to the stern section which was just a murky shape in front of me. As I got there I met Colin and Ric (both on YBODs) to be given what I thought was a shrug from Colin. I assumed this to mean he couldn't find the brass bit but turned out to be that he was winding me up (I now reckon he was trying to get his tool bag in a comfier position . I immediately set about looking around and found the spot within one minute only to find the brass plaque gone. Colin relented and pointed to his goody bag and I relaxed feeling pleased he had 'got it' and exceptionally pleased with myself for finding the right spot - my navigational skills are usually represented by a minus score.
This bit of the wreck (the stern?) whilst small in area curiously seems to be the right way up and stands 6 or 7 mtrs proud of the sea bed with a bit of mast sticking up. I stopped to have a look at a cuttlefish for minute, had a 'feel round' in the sand in case there were any doubloons there. Sadly I'm no richer but I did see a couple of tiny star fish shaped things (from my poor description Ric later thought they were brittle stars?). Ric and Colin had gone by the time I returned from the dark side of the wreck (they were in the water abt 30 mins before me). The current started to pick up a bit so I stayed in the same area in the shelter of the wreck. There was a little 'swim under' where I stopped to try some telepathic communication with a conger. I obviously thought something it didn't like as it backed away from me. There were loads of brown crabs and I didn't see any lobsters. By the by I haven't seen many spider crabs this year?
Anyway, I was up to about 9 mins of deco and as the current was picking up I decided to send the DSMB up (tied to a sturdy bit of wreck) and then swim round it for a bit (divers equivalent of a handbag at the disco?). Once the bag was up I decided that, as I had been round this bit of the wreck about 6 times, I would drift on the bag for a minute or three and watch the sea bed go past. After about 30 seconds I was fed up of sand and headed up.
I haven't downloaded the data from dive computer yet but I think max depth was 32 mtrs, air to air time was about 50 mins. Started on 210 bar and finished on 70 bar in the 10s and 120 in the 3 ltr deco. I was actually back on the boat before Ric and Colin. Vis was probably about 8 to 10 mtrs (I could still see the sand without a torch from 8 mtrs up my line with the tide running. There was loads of ambient light - no torch needed apart from the nooks and crannies.
The only down side to the day was that there was only one doughnut each although Ric liberated Markus' secret stash of choccy biscuits.
Back in Eastbourne lock many pictures were taken of the brass thingy (in the shape of a small straw boater hat) and us. A pint was had in the Marina Yacht Club .... I tell you, for the diving I do, it doesn't get much better than that.
The conditions this year have been consistently the clearest I can remember (unsurprising as I can't remember anything before May! ).
The following information was submitted by Markus (skipper/owner of Inspiration) as an addendum to my post:-
Just an update on this...... The recovery of the item, which we believe is the boss from the remote (steering) wheel, is being reported to RoW and we are also in contact with a descendent of the owners of the Shipping line (A.C. de Freitas) who is currently researching the histories of ships of this line for a book that he is writing.
ne bullock was. This would explain why hull is lying almost upside-down and remainder is upright..No sign of any of these on last dive but high protein diet and genetics would explain massive crabs on this wreck. Hope the weather stays good for next Saturday.Have a good week,John.
