Acclivity

[paul-gte]

6am saw steve at my place ready for the trip upto seahouses, 2.15 hours later we stood on the harbour side awaiting our boat ( Glad Tidings V11). 18 divers boarded a spacious boat owned by Billy Shields and we set off, 45 mins later we arrived at the dive site of the Acclivity. Steve and myself were the 2nd pair in the water but 1st down the shot due to the 1st pair forgetting a computer. Viz was a good 10m and the ship soon came into view, the skipper had shotted approx mid ship, those that know the Acclivity it is where the gaping hole is located. we dropped over the edge and swam into the wreck where all the fish were hiding and had a rummage around, apparently the bell has never been found. we exited through the far side (port) and circumnavigated the exterior anti clockwise at sea bed level(32m). the wreck lies listing to its port side with its decking collapsed but the main structure still in place, and the propelor still there. we had another foray inside ( just in case the bell was waiting for us) before slowly ascending to the starboard side of the ship at 26m and swam from the stern towards the bow arriving at the shot line at our planned ascent time, the only snag was we had planned on the Acclivity being deeper so we had loads of gas left, nothing for it then, c''mon steve another 2 mins i signalled kind of in the way when a kid wants to play out longer, he didn''t need much persuading and we enjoyed another few minutes gliding across the wreck in really slack water, back to the shot with our ascent planned with deep stops and our computers set in ds mode, ascended to 17m 1min stop with gas switch, then slowly upto 5m with 4mins of stops , another pair of divers ascending below us so i attached a jon line (available at duck and dive) and steve and myself did our stop hanging off that, upto 3m and a further 1min stop and then slow to the surface where we reboarded the boat via the lift. total dive time 46mins back gas used 120 bar of 30% , deco gas 50 bar used of 49%.
Next dive was 2 hours later at a place called Knivestones , this was more scenic with a few well broken up wrecks and the seals loitering in the distance but no-one got to see one in the water, well apart from me, we saw plenty of lobster, crabs inc one the size of a dinner plate in a lobster pot, loads of pipe fish which are quite playful when you put your finger out they wrap themselves around you before swimming up into your bubbles, wrasse and various other critters, steve found a weight pouch with 7 kg of weight in and lugged it round for a while before sending it up on a bag but not before i had put 3 kg in my pouch, i spent the rest of the dive staring at the seabed , i had no choice , any way ascended to 5m for the stops and a seal swims right under us , how lucky is that, well not for the seal i dropped the weights and killed it,
only kidding
thanks to steve for a good day and take my advice visit the Acclivity if you can
cheers Paul