Tour de Sur (Eastbourne, France, Littlehampton, Lymington, Weymouth) Part 1

[aquaholic]

The plan for last week originally started out with a two day trip (Mon/Tue 3/4 July) from Eastbourne on Our W to go across to France (Fecamp) and back and dive something midway on each leg. As with all good plans they are subject to change and I then decided to also book the following weekend on Wight Spirit from Lymington (8/9 July), followed by a booking to fill a space on Voyager on Saturday 1st July out of Littlehampton. Now it would be silly to go all that way to the south coast and back twice in a week, so I finally responded to an email with late spaces on SkinDeep out of Weymouth for Wed - Fri 5-7 July.

Took Thur/Friday the week before off work so I could sort out my gear and get my gas logistics sorted. Decided to take two sets of 7 L tanks to drive the KISS RB and a set of twin 12s with dil just in case...

Given the glorious weather I was feeling quite hopeful that this should turn into a good week, and am happy to say I was not disapointed .

Long drive down the M1 via M40 to Guidlford (don't ask) on Friday night hampered by road works and stupid traffic. Finally got to my destination at 22:30... groan.. had to be on the boat for 0600 the next moring.. got up at 0445 to drive to Littlehampton and was first one on site. Unloaded the car as the others trundled in one by one. Only 8 divers on the boat, so had oodles of space - great.

My buddy Al was trying out his new meg on his first propper sea dive on the unit. The chap next to me was fiddling with his inspiration, but couldn't get sensible readings out of his sensors, so decided in thd end not to dive. Si found that leaving his KISS unwashed in the garage all winter does not do it any good, but managed to resolve most problems with some help from Colin and was able to dive. Having spent all spring sorting out various issues with my unit I was releaved to note that it actually behaved itself for once.

Got kitted up as we neared the site and sat ready and waiting as the shot went in (now there is a first for me this year ;-). In we jumped in to lovey slack clear water. Fantastic vis all the way. Just great. And just as well as I still haven't sorted out my main torch and was using a backup single LED torch.

Wreck was known as a German Merchant. It sits upright in 60m and is huge! Dropped on to the stern and into the galley area with lots of crockery poking out of the mud. Large platters and plates about, but mainly just plain white. Collected a couple of sourcers than swam on to midships and back to shotline again.. time was passing much too quickly. Wreck quite intact, huge whinches and lots of large pollack cruising by. Fantastic. Up the line we were last onto the deco station, so release the leader and drifted off to sit out our deco. Lovely dive in fabulous conditions.

Steamed back into Littlehampton, unloaded kit and went for a drink in the pub. Drove up to Chesham for a BBQ and to stay with friend overnight. Leasurely drive down to Eastbourne on Sunday. Met up with my buddy Pete and haded for a nice pub near Polgate for a spot of dinner. Sat in the sun in the garden. Could think it is summer in good ole England .

Disgustingley early start on Monday.. 0445 meet on the boat. Get there in time and load kit onto boat. Other divers already there and loaded. Get sat up, than decide to go for a snooze till it's time to dive. Can't cope with all these early starts. Get woken up 1 hourt before dive time by Sylvia and handed a cup of hot chocolate - lovely. Target this time is the Lanfranc. Another sunny hot day, another dive with great vis.

The wreck is a 'no touch' zone as we are staying in France overnight, so we just watch the shaols of pollack, bib and various cockoo wrasse in glorious orange and blue drift past. There is a huge monofil net draped across most of the wreck catching lots of large crabs and lobsters.. to many and too deep to cut out of the net - such a shame. Manage to swim nearly the whole length of the wreck, but call time just before we reach the bow and ascend on our dSMBs. Pete consents to sit out my suunto at 6m which only needs about 7 minutes more than my tables. Back on the boat Sylvia made us a lovely lunch and we sat eating it on deck in the sun. What else could one want!

Arrived in Fecamp around 17:00. Dave dad a spot of bother trying to fit the boat into the rather short visitors bearth and got permission to stay at the hammerhead at the end of the pontoon used by the local vessels. Went for a great dinner in one of the restaurants at the harbour followed by an early night at the Hotel D'Angleterre.

Back on deck at 0700 having picked up some pan o chocolat at the backery as we passed. Decided to grab some more sleep before the next dive which was to be the Warilda. Just as we had dropped our shot we could make out the Michelle Mary approaching the site as well and in record time a 'devil headed' diver and buddy dropped down their shot (see trip report from Paul Oliver).

Pete and I got kitted up slowley and managed to get all the way to the bow on this wreck, where we watch a couple of divers making their ascent from the top - 'tis a small ocean . Saw the most humongous lobster under a plate than decided to bag up ourselves. Took me a while to work out where the light flashes came from as we sat at 6m on our deco stop... looking up at the surface I could see the water to be confused and lightning flashing - ahhh! As we surfaced the weather had passed and it was relatively calm again. Long haul back to Eastbourne. Arrived just after 18:00. Did a spot of shopping in Asda for the next few days and headed on to Weymouth.

TBC... see Part 2 below

[Paul Oliver]

Hi Anke,

Did not realise you were on Our W. Twas a rather cracking dive

[aquaholic]

Originally Posted by Paul Oliver

Did not realise you were on Our W. Twas a rather cracking dive

Ships that pass in the night.. and all that . Dive was bril indeed!

Anke

[aquaholic]

... so equipped with a tripple redundancy pack of magnums ice cream, one in mouth, two carefully stowed in the cool bag, sitting on my left for emergency access in the passenger footwell I headed on to Weymouth. A27 was nice and clear, tank was 1/2 empty, the sun was shining, sun roof open, I was wearing shades and no hat. Called Ian to check on weather forecast - 'what weather' he said, 'its lovely and sunny down here'. Ropes off at 1000. Goody!

Got stuck behind some Sunday driver on A31 so decided to go via Wool. Got to the Bunker later than anticipated around 22:30. Said 'hello' to a couple of guys still in the lounge, unpacked car, then went to bathe KISS and put to bed.

Breakfast at 0830 - groan... managed to roll out of bed, get in Kathy's way in the kitchen to make some coffee, fall onto chair and scoff some food. Loaded car and headed for harbour.. where was that sun gone? At least the forecasted wind of 4-5 was not evident either.

Got a space on the bench. Unloaded with some kind help from the guys as the pontoon was rather far down the wall (Kath, you wouldn't have loved that ladder!). Boat moderately busy with 11 divers going (two megs, five Inspos, one KISS, remainder OC). Met my new buddy Ryan and his Inspo. 1030 Ian decides to leave port and head for the Salcette. Decide to leave weight belt with 2kg off as been feeling a bit too heavy the last few dives, making my back ache.

We are a bit late, so Ian puts his foot down and we arrive in record time. Shot in, divers ready, off we go, go, goooooooooo....!

Shot straight down to near midships. No problem submerging, so guess I didn't need the extra 2kg.. Lovely vis, though a bit dark due to lack of sun. Some plankton about. Swim to bow. See open hold and would have loved to take a look, found shard of a cup rim with the P&O logo - HQT! Fab. As Ryan was heading on didn't bother to explore further. Lots of big pollack about. Picked a swim-through midships through some girders. At 25 minutes Ryan called the dive as per plan and we headed up. Will find out now if I did need those weights... But all was fine on the stops. Lovely cup o choco back on the boat. Ian chuntering about a new wreck a local fisherman has told him about and that he is going to check out tonight and maybe let us dive tomorrow. Sounds very exciting. Back in harbour in no time. Unloaded stuff and went for a drink.

Even later ropes off on Thursday. I'm starting to like this. Opt against breakfast in favour of a lie in. Slurp coffee on way to the boat. Get loaded than off to park the car and a quick visit to the chandlers. Only seven divers on the boat. We are doing the new wreck. Ian is all excited about how many congers he saw in one hole of the boiler. He claims to have seen no shiny stuff, but then he was on air....

Matt decides to take his camera for this dive to check out the congers. .. he got some cracking shots of 11 conger noses sticking out off a single hole in the boiler. There were also a fair few big ling swimming about and lots of huge crabs and the mother of all lobsters. Guess this truely was an unknown mark that even the fishing crowds have not yet disturbed too much.

Vis is again great, depth 58m to the floor. Wreck is not very large, maybe 50m long.. quite smashed up midships with lovely shaped stern and recognisable bow. Single boiler and small engine - looking quite old. Ground is hard rock. Only pockets of gravel & sand trapped amongst the wreckage. Saw the remains of a dinner plate near the shot, but it is plain with no identifying marks. Also found a beer (?) bottle with embossed 'Graeves & Whitnall Ltd, Stafford', but the neck is broken so I leave it down there. It did have a nice bulbous neck collar, so may be an indication of the age of the wreck.

Ryan and I go for a swim around the whole wreck. Find a few bits of brass, but not worth picking up. Meet Ian at the bows shouting 'Ling, Ling' into his reg.. man happy on air again . Than Ryan frantically pulls at something on the ground.. the head of a telegraph, though again fairly broken. Ryan puts his lift bag in the head case rings.. the lift bag goes up .. and the centre clockwork and handle fall on the floor by his feet , I nearly flooded my mask when I couldn't stop laughing. Go to investigate the area he has just vacated and dig out the remains of a compass, but the bowl and glass cover are totally gone only the gimbal rings remain. I can see shards of glass on the ground. I put the ramains into my goody bag for investigation at the surface. Also relief Ryan of the inners of the telegraph that he is still shlepping about and attach the bag to the shot line. Go for a look around the stern where there is a shard of blue glass in the locker area, but not much else evident. Time to go up. One of the others brought up a mangled porthole, but still no clues that would allow identification. Ian thinks it might be the SS Kong Grottum, but if you read on you'll find that that is not likely .

Friday saw us on the pontoon for 0700 (does that time exist???....).. loading stuff on in automatic mode... drink more coffee.... Off we go to dive the Iolanthe. Sky is overcast and wind is blowing up.. guess the forecast is coming true just a bit late... Still the conditions are manageable and we all have an enjoyable dive to 45m in reasonable vis.. Wreck is huge and spread out, still an impressive dive with lots of crabs and fish about. Seemed to me there was more plankton about on the stops. Water at 6m was a balmy 15 degrees. Back on shore at 11:30.

Clear all gear off the boat and say farewell to a nice crowd of divers. Thanks for having me on the boat, guys. It's been a great three days. Off to Asda for some more shopping. Than head back to the Bunker to sort out the KISS and wash everything down.. forecast for saturday is looking doubt full, but here is hoping....

Sun started to reappear in the afternoon. Went for a nice beachcombe walk over chessil beach collecting driftwood bits for the garden (sad that, really sad.. when house things take over from diving tasks).

See below for part 3..

TBC

[aquaholic]

Saturday (8 July 2006)... alarm goes at 0730.. roll out of bunk, make coffee, get sorted, make sandwiches (economy measures ), load car, drive off..

Lovely and sunny morning . Some slow cars out early blocking my progress.. get to Lymington in reasonable time, but am last to start loading the boat.

Due to not so favourable forecast dive target has been moved closer in.. now doing the 'Inger - not' (the real Inger was ID'd by it's bell found on a wreck further east...). Dave thinks this wreck is likely to be the Kong Grottum (sounds familiar???). However, Dave has two reliable sources suggesting this vessel sank closer to the Isle of Wight, rather than Weymouth.

Slow steam through choppy water past Isle of Wight to dive site. As we get further offshore the waves seem to subside - nice!

Jump into nice clear water. Can see wreck and divers from approx 25m down the line. Bottom at 62m. Ship broken in half with bow and stern pointing in nearly the same direction. Shot at stern with plenty of divers at midships, single boiler and small engine. Hear banging noises as we reach the bottom - two guys already hard midships. Head right to the bow for a nose about. Nice upright bow, several crab and lobster pots in a heap, plus trawl net on starboard side.

Do a lap around the bow. Lots of life, large lobsters and crabs. Rocky ground making it unlikely any china would still be about to allow us to ID the wreck. Lets hope the metal stuff has some identifying clues to offer. Swim back to the stern and do a tour around there. Time passes all too quickly and so we deploy our bags and ascend. Can see other buddy pairs at 6m - what fantastic vis. This summer seems to be quite exceptional so far.

Back on board expecting to be last up, but two dSMBs rather close to eachother still bobbing on the surface... and staying there for another 30 minutes.. wonder what is going on... At last they surface.. one diver had purged all his gas from his deco stage during the dive and not noticed. J had bumped into him on the stops and shared his stage of O2 for an extended deco, so both were fine in the end. Pfuuuuuh!

Smooth journey back to port in lovely sunshine, but dark clouds sooming on the horizon. Spidge is an engine repeater telegraph and a rectangular plate.. no writing visible under the crud, but maybe once it's cleaned?. Dave says, the telegraph looks the same as that recovered from another known norwegian wreck build by the same yard as the Kong Grottum, but it is easy to try and fit a wreck to known facts to get a match, so we still don't really know which wreck we dived. More luck next time, maybe...

Forecast for Sunday is bad, so we call it off and head home. Means a lay in and a leasurely drive back to Leeds for me. Great end to a fantastic week! and best of all the KISS RB behaved itself and I only used the equivalent of a single 7 l tank for trimix and O2. Fab!!!

[aquaholic]

Originally Posted by aquaholic

Wreck was known as a German Merchant. It sits upright in 60m and is huge!

Wreck was idenified by the crest on the pottery as the 'Livadia',
built: 1922 in Luebeck, 3094 BRT, LxWxH: 354x48x22 feet, tripple expansion engine, sunk by shells from Dover long range battery on 4/10/1943, owner: DOAL - Deutsch Ost Afrika Linie (German East Afrika Line)