Not quite the Resurgam but we had a good pint

[Fiona]

We where due to dive on the Resurgam over two days, but when we arrived on Friday Ron had the weather forecaste for the area and it didn't look too good, so we were given another option, so we chose the other option, which was to dive the RMS Leinster over on the Irish side, now the introduction of Guiness seemed to be the clincher and no one seemed to bothered.

When we arrived the guys where still building the kitup benches and the dive ladder, the steel which was due to arrive hadn't done so and Ron had to go and pick some up. We loaded our dry bags on the boat and bunks were claimed. My bags seemed to make their own way down to the bottom bunk of a two berth cabin , the other cabin was an 8 berth one. Since most people had arrived we decided to go and find some food, we headed off into Holyhead to the Boathouse but this was rather busy, back in to cars and round Holyhead to another pub I know called the "79", they dont sell food anymore, we seemed to walk round Holyhead and in the end we found ourselves in a Chinese near where we parked the cars. Lets just say not the best meal in Holyhead.

Noel had joined us in the restaurant and we all headed off back to the boat, we loaded the dive kit on and parked the cars. Noel being the last to arrive ended up with me in the nice two berth cabin. I am sure someone else will post, Dawn whatever is written here beleive nothing.

At 4.30am the engines started and we were off to dive the Leinster.

RMS Leinster

The Leinster left Dun Laoghaire at 9am on the 10th October 1918, approx. 15 miles out at around 10 the Leinster was sunk by two torpedoes fired by UB-123 and send to the bottom with the loss of 501 persons. Included in the fatalities was 19 year old Josephine Carr a shorthand typist, Josephine was a member of the newly formed Women's Royal Navel Service and was the first WREN to die on active service. The fatalities were 22 Postal workers, 180 Civilians, the Leinsters Captain Birch and 35 crew, the rest were military personnel returning from leave and included several nationalities.

On 18th October UB-123 was lost in the North Sea when she struck a mine, Cpt Robert Ramm and his crew were lost.

We decended the shotline on to the bow of the Leinster and Neil and I were on the port side, the ship was covered in Plumose anenomes, large pollock and wrasse, viz was in the region of about 4 metres and there was a small current which took us along side the wreck from bow to stern. Neil and I ascended with a dive time of 47mins. On the surface I dekitted and Kevin who was in the saftey boat took my kit onboard I ascended the ladder, Neil was very impressed with the ladder which was well down in the water. If it hadn't been so high I think I would have even managed this ladder (some pictures of this later).

We now headed for Dublin Bay for the surface interval, lovely interval sat out in the sunshine, some of us caught too much sun . We were then ready for the second dive which was a coal ship called the Marley, the marks had been given to Ron so the postition was shotted and down we went, we were dropped up current of the wreck and were told we would drift on to it, but I ended up on a sandy bottom and without my buddy, I waited a bit for Neil and then headed off for a few minutes to try and find the wreck but failed, so I ascended on my delayed, on the surface I waited for the Cicala to pick me up but they needed to pick a nother pair up first. When they came alongside me Neil did a commando jump from the Cicala into the water, this was to assist me as they were going to winch my kit up for me boy these guys are good.

We had dinner outside in the sun, lovely chilli, rice and cheese. We then headed for port, we were going to berth somewhere but that berth had been taken my the Lightship so we headed for a nice town called Howth. Ron took some details for the authorities which didn't seem to be around, we went ashore and obviously headed for the nearest cashpoint, bloody Euro We found a small pub probably the first one we came to and I think they thought a coach party had arrived, "what can I get you" said the barman, crickey that was a silly question, nearly everyone had Guiness well what else. Neil's sister Becky came to join us from Dublin, after a couple we headed back to the boat. I went to read some had a couple more glasses of wine and the remainder of the chilli.

Ropes off and back to the Leinster for another dive on her, we probably did about the same profile. The original plan was to try for the second dive on the Resugam but the weather monkey was against us so I think the best option was taken and we battoned everything down and headed back to Holyhead, which was about a 4 hour run. I headed for my bunk as this was the best place to be.

Back in Holyhead to unload the kit and say goodbye. I can say I had a great weekend and I am sure everyone else did. OK we didn't do the Resurgam but we got two lovely dives on the RMS Leinster which I would not have had the oportunity to do.

Thanks Ron for posting this and all the Crew of the St Cicala.

[onthetrain]

Fiona,

A pity you had to change your plans, I was looking forward to hearing aboutthe resurgam. Seems like you had a gr8 weekend anyway.

Thanks for posting

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by onthetrain

Fiona,

A pity you had to change your plans, I was looking forward to hearing aboutthe resurgam. Seems like you had a gr8 weekend anyway.

Thanks for posting

Aye but that's Anglesey for you.

[angleseydiver]

If you REALLY want to dive the Resurgam, both Elfyn and Scott can get the necessary permissions. Too far for the Julie-Anne,

As an added bonus the Empress doesn't do sea-bed
ATB,
Terry

[Richie]

Big thanks to the crew of the Cicala and all the YD'ers aboard for a great weekend.

I'll post something more complete when I've got my head in gear a tad more.

Cheers all.

[Billy the Kangaroo]

Many thanks to Ron and crew of St Cicala for service over and above the call of duty ( surprise trip to Ireland )

- and other divers ( especially James who helped with my "incident" and the support of all on board.) For those who weren't there I will post my version of events and wot I've lernt in another section of YD.

Great trip, good diving, wonderful team and buddies.

Bill....

[Steve S]

where else but in the diving world could you plan for a weekend in Wales and spend it diving in the emerald isle as usual the company was fantastic, and the diving good even though slack doesn't seem to happen in Ireland so a big up to everyone for making the trip a blast especially Ron and the Cicala crew I am definitely up for the "I will arise" 2 tour

Safe diving,
Steve

[jamesp]

When you arrive on board to be met with"the weather looks ropey, how about going to Ireland?", You just can not help but love the guys!!!

So we did not dive the Resurgam, but had a couple of decent dives somewhere I would not of thought of going, and a decent pint of Guinness to boot! All I have to do now is persuade Emma it was not planned in advance!!

Thanks to everybody on the boat for looking after us, excellant chilli, even better at midnight, esspecially Ron for putting up with us. Thanks to the YD crowd for wellcoming a newbie like me.

Good weekend, no complaints!!

[Mick F]

Glad you all enjoyed your day trip guys. Next time, if possible, plan it in advance & we can provide a "proper few" pints o' plain

The Leinster is a nice dive, the only problem being that the HSS ferry drives straight over it 6 times a day so dives need to be carefully timed.

Chin up Fiona, hopefully you'll get the Resurgam next time round.

[Odin]

Great report!
Lucky sods...
Envy mode on...
Paul