City of Waterford

[Mark Chase]

City of Waterford Shandy Gig

The sun shone down as we splashed into the welcoming sea and dropped serenely down the shot line in awe at the wreck appearing out of the blue 30m below.  I thought I caught a glimpse of a glittering reflection of the legendary cargo of gold bullion when A passing whale shark annoyingly obscured the view but …..

Then the bloody alarm went off at 5.45am

OK so its pissing down with rain and the only up side is that I don’t have to scrape the frost off of my car before setting out to Brighton. Strange but true just as I pass Gatwick airport it stops raining and the grey glow of morning doesn’t look too bad.
Arrive at the Marina and unload kit meet rest of the gang and spend ½ hour singing the praises of the new flat loading ramp.

With a last look back for Andrew who was flu ridden but said he might pitch up but was obviously too ill we set off. The boat was packed and even had one chap kitting up on the floor. In attendance were Howard Dive Dude, Bob Cooper, Dan Adams, Mark Ellison, Spike, Spikes luscious lady (OK sorry, I forgot her name but she was luscious), a couple of my old M8’s from Just Diving and a few I didn’t know.

In light of Dan's reported force 7 weather warning we lashed the gear down and I got my knife ready to offer up a blood sacrifice to the Nautilus and we all held our breath as we left the safety of the harbour to start crashing the ship through massive errrrr 12” waves. Well not all of them were 12” some were 6” but the 12” ones did look menacing.  Dan shrugged and started on about what it said on the forecast yesterday and a group decision was made to teach him what an isobar looks like.

I was diving with Bob and we opted to bin the stage bottles and go for 32% back gas profiles and a 45min bottom time. Bob’s deco profile was shorter than my own but he is a lithe fit looking dude who did chin-ups to pass the time whilst I am a fat git who just sat dreaming about my McD when we got back. As a result we agreed to follow my plan home.

So we were second group in and down the shot we did a bubble check at 6 and dropped on to the deck at 28. A very agreeable 4-5m viz was found at 12c and we soon discovered that the City of Waterford is a nice little dive. Lots of interesting bits to investigate winches sticking, up rooms with sinks and baths in, penetration points for those that are inclined to do so. Loads of life and drifting into a shoal of Pollock on the bow was a highlight of my dive as was Bob shining his light sabre into a bowl packed with shrimp. If he had got a bit closer he could have cooked them with that torch.

We couldn’t find the stern section so we think it is broken off and away from the main wreckage. There was a debris field but rather than loose the wreck we didn’t cross it. Half way through the dive my torch failed. I was later to find it had flooded due to the cable entering the head snapping, bugger. My back up torch was deployed and in doing so the rear-locking ring fell off. Unbeknown to me Bob saw it fall but didn’t know what it was and he collected it. The rest of the dive was a bit stressful for me as having noticed the locking ring missing I tried to do the dive whilst holding what was left of my torch together. Penetration was out as I was on my back up torch and we had circled the wreck twice so we decided to call it a day with 40mins on the clock.

I sent up a blob and bob free ascended. Bob ascends like a humming bird raising effortlessly to a stop and then holding it like he was meant to be there and going up or down is not even considered. Mighty impressive stuff.  We did our practice routines with reaching various clips and doing shut down drills. Any poise I had attempted in the water went out the window as I fafed about with my post and isolator manual drills but at least I managed to reach the valves. This was with a thinsulate on but with it pulled up to give a bit of slack on the shoulders.

Apart from cramp (for me of course) on the 6m stop the dive ended sweetly. We surfaced and couldn’t see the boat. Which was surprising as it was pretty calm, so I said to Bob don’t worry M8 I’ve got an EPERB, which got a good laugh. We were last back on board apart from the Skipper Steve who popped in later for a dip after his oppo got back on and it appeared every one had enjoyed the dive. Spike had had his torch flood and explode which was a pisser but it was generally agreed to be a good day.

We did a drift dive on the way back, Well I say we that was me Dan and Paul I think as no one else was daft enough to get back in. That said it was an OK dive with a few fish and a lobster to entertain me.

All in all a good day. Bob was a cracking dive buddy and an all round nice bloke (he brought biskets) Howard was on form as usual and the weather held good all the way home.  

Can’t be bad

ATB

Mark Chase

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>Sounds like you lot had a excellent time .

Were the waves really 12 foot ?

ATB

Andy

[Mark Chase]

No M8 thats 12&quot; (inches)

ATB

Mark Chase

[Diving Dude]

l'd say they were at least 12ft, we neraly missed the pod of Dolphins because of them.

Mark, their was another YDers on board, the guy up the front oposite me was Allen, l'm not sure what he calls himself on here.

So if you read this Allen please add to the thread.

Also you omitted something about Bob, l,m sure it was to protect him from the scorn of his DIR buddies.
He stood in Mcdonalds Car Park whilst you and l ate the big thingy new burger.
Now this must be against DIR principles.
l can't remember if he gave way to temptation and had a burger? or if he just smelt ours.

Nice to meet the other Yders, Dan, Mark and the two Spikes.

This must be about the 10th time l've dived the City of Waterford and l think its a great dive, a lot of the sand filling the bow section has washed out and it is now an easy penetration.

Added
l suppose sooner or later l'll have to accept the tag &quot;Southern Shandy drinkers&quot;

But l'm still going to resist for the moment.

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>DD ya SSD,,, welcome to the clan

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>mark , i was taken the pi$$ , coz i use METERS now ,,,,,,,,,, plus we had waves of 1.95 mts here at Dover yesterday

Andy

[Spike Jackson]

Thanks for organising the trip Mark - we had a great day out. It was fantastic meeting some of the YD-ers and also finally getting to see the technicolor dream dry suit!
Realised when I got home that not only had I flooded my primary torch but the backup (which failed halfway through the dive) was flooded too! So not a good day for torches!
Other than that was perfect.

[Getafix]

I usually only 'lurk' but since Howard has requested a posting here goes:

A good days diving,the wind only got up at the end. The City of Waterford is quite a good dive. Since i was first down i had it to myself for a few minutes and i made sure the shot was not going to be pulled out (as per Steve the skippers instructions) by wrapping it around part of the bollards on the bow. Maxed out at 34m on the Port side,then made my way toward the stern in the viz of 4-5m,both front and rear holds appear to be collapsing down so you need to follow the wreckage (and scallop net ) to get to the stern which is still intact.Then drifted back on the slight current down the starboard side over the remains of the mast to get to the bridge and engine room area and poked around in there.Lots of life all around the wreck with the usual Pouting and Pollack and 4 Congers hidden in the wreckage.

On the way back in Steve and i managed to convince Howard that the drift would be idyllic (Ok, Steve actually said &quot;you may as well do it since you're here&quot so he unpacked all his kit again and nicked the air out of Steve's cylinder so he could do more than 5 minutes. Mark also decided to join us,and it was a reasonable dive with a fair few fish and 2 lobsters in the wall for a max of 14m.

Not at all bad for December, good dive,good company,and a great boat and skipper...............got my fix !!    

Alan

 

[Paul Oliver]

Alan

Good to see you posting, and glad you all had a good dive.

Dive Safe

Paul

[Mark Chase]

Sorry Alan I didnt know you were a YD chap.

For the sake of info I know Alan from my old membership to Just Diving

ATB

Mark Chase