Dover Hard Core, The Henry B Plant

[Mark Chase]

1. Paul Oliver
2. Pikey Historic Diving Equipmnet Diver
3. Scubajay
4. Mark Chase
5. John Perrin
6. Colinicky
7. G Wizz
8. Carl Freeborn
9. Debs
10. Jim Brian
11. Jacki Mac



Dover Hardcore

DIVE 1

So having had the Delta boys cancel diving as it was too rough for them, I went in search of some hard core divers and found them courtesy of Paul "force6? pha" Oliver. I had had a dodgy dive the other week I needed back in the water so I signed up.

Howard phoned to say those lovely people (or was that lying barstewards) at AP Valves still hadn’t sorted out his Inspo head so he arranged to borrow my spare. So I strip it check the milivolts of the cells, clean the contacts, reassemble it, fit new batteries and calibrate it. Then Andyp phones to say ha cant get gas in time so I leg it round Pete’s to scrounge tanks and leg it home to fill them. Then Andp P tells me he has no bailout gas so off I go again

I really should open a dive shop.

I had agreed to go out for a Thi Curry do with the badminton club with my wife and I decided despite the 5:30am go it would be politically smart to go anyway. Soooo in bed at midnight after lashings of Thi green curry and a bottle of Rioca.

I didn’t make the 5:30 alarm as the first call to the loo hit about 3am. This was followed by multiple trips to the loo and a hunt for one of my wife’s tampons to shove up my arse during the dive, just in case.

In the car park at Dover at 6:10 for an early meet with the Dude to sort out his unit. Most of the others turn up but his Dudenes hasn’t shown which is unlike him. When he finally hits Dover there is wailing and gnashing of teeth due to a forgotten scrubber and resultant totally useless rebreather.

Dave the skipper saves the day by lending the Dude some of his historic diving equipment. It had one of those quaint old fashioned 18ltr cylinders and a pony and a funny bubbly thing you put in your mouth but we were told it was all in working order so we had a go.

Andyp was a no show so I reloaded all his tanks and Howard’s head back into the car

The sea was not too bad for the 22mile trip out to the Henry B Plant. We dropped in to find a glorious 15m viz on a spectacular wreck. I was diving with the Dude and Paul Oliver was diving with Jay (Scubajay) as a loose four. Paul was running the line as it was a return to shot dive but Howard and I decided it would be hard to get lost on this wreck so we meandered off along the side.

What a cracking dive. Some of the biggest lobsters I had ever seen. On one I only saw a claw but that was enough for me to leave it well alone. I did get my hands on one later but it was so large I couldn’t hold it and it thrashed its way to freedom.

The wreck is lying on its side toward the front section. Venturing under the starbed side of the bow is worth the effort of squeezing in, as the side of the ship is now a carpet of green white and pink anonomies. It was quite beautiful. Howard alerted me to a dangly knife and I tried to re stow it but the lanyard had amazingly got wrapped around the first stage of my bailout tank. How the hell it can do that on a leg mounted knife I have no idea. Exiting over the sharp edge of the bow we found ourselves faced with the large gun on the for deck pointing valiantly toward the sky. The super structure here was quite intact and large holes in the decking allowed access to the mid ships. A monster crab was soon in my clutches and Howard assisted in bagging the beauty.

The ship had a cargo of temporary bridge tracks and we also found many of the ceramic isolators used on high power cables. Not much in the way of brass but that didn’t detract from the many interesting nooks and crannies we explored.

Howard signaled that we should locate the up line so we dropped back to the starbod side and not only found a reel line but also found we were 10m from the shot. Cooooooollllll.

Howard checked the gauges on his historic diving equipment and decided he had another 10mins of bottom time. I checked my ones and reckoned I had another couple of hours. We ventured off toward the stern and more inviting nooks and crannies but all too soon I herd Howard shout f#ck it, which is I believe the technical term for “we are out of bottom time” when using historic diving equipment.

We headed back to the shot to meet up with Paul and Jay who were clearing the anchor. I had glanced at Howard’s gauges and seen the needle well into the red so when he stopped to see what Paul was up to I politely reminded him to get his arse up the shot now or I would kick him. He did a good impression of a sulking school boy and carried on up the line.

I hung around with Paul and Jay to sort out the anchor and then we started our ascent. There was a line running off the shot and I didn’t like the way it looked so slack and wasn’t twitching. Normally you can tell when someone is reeling back. We had all been in the water for a while so I decided to hang back and see if everything was OK.
Just as I was getting worried I noticed a torch in the distance. I signaled OK to them (I think it was Jim and Jacki) and they signaled back so I started my ascent.

Deco was deco but despite my stages getting all tangled up with my knife lanyard I found the new clipping location was giving me good trim and deco was much less of a back ache than before. Jacki had a major leek on her pony reg so Jim and I sorted that out but appart from that deco was uneventful.

Back on board and it was time to lash everything down. The homeward trip was going to be a roller costar.

Nobody cared it had been a cracking dive.

Dive 2 to follow later.

ATB

Mark Chase

[Lou]

Gits - I can't believe that Andy didn't show - now I am mad Kick his arse for me and tell him he took my place and I am out for him will you

[Paul Oliver]

Yes it was rather outstanding, a completely intact Liberty ship in 15m of Viz and no need for a torch except when you entered one of the many entry points.

I could not believe the condition it was in and could easily recognise most of what i was looking at. The gun still on its platform just back from the bow was a highlight, but also the temptation to have a quick look under the superstructure at the end was hard to resist.

Unfortunately i had to skip the nice long swim through Mark and Dude did on our way back as i had line to reel in. I had one lobster that normally would have gone in the pot, but let it go in anticipation of getting one of the bigger ones i had seen on the way out.

I think this wreck will be staying on my revisit list for quite some time to come, and i have the stern half and quite a few entry points yet to do.

This was not Jay's first YD gig but he has now had a proper taste of a YD gig with the Dude very much on form and he now understands our detailed dive planning, team signals and various dive formations and procedures

I really need to get a new pencil for my wetnotes so i can at least write a message in future

Dive 2 was probably the best 2nd dive i have ever had, and I'll wait for Marks report before saying more

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Lou

Gits - I can't believe that Andy didn't show -

You should pay more attention to Mark's post then, Mr P seems to have a reputation

[Lou]

Originally Posted by Fiona

You should pay more attention to Mark's post then, Mr P seems to have a reputation

I know, but I thought that was only for early morning, deep and scary stuff

[Fiona]

Originally Posted by Lou

I know, but I thought that was only for early morning, deep and scary stuff

The don't call him Mr Unreliable for nothing

[Madfish]

A cracking report Mark, but could you just clarify - You Did What? with your wife's tampax???????????

Dianne

[divegyrl]

Mark,
Brilliant....... I almost feel like I was there!
Damn summer cold......
IF I had gone there would have been a spare scrubber in the back of my car as Justin's unit is there, and we would have been a 'loose 5' diving together.......
Paul keep me on the list for the next time.......
unfortunately I'll be in sunny Florida with 6 nurses for the October 2nd dive......

[Paul Oliver]

Must add that as always Dave was smack on with the shotting on both wrecks and lending Howard his kit was extremely generous as he was looking forward to diving this wreck himself, as its one of the very few in the area he has not dived before.

Basically the way Neptune operates is it has 3 crew 2 of whom dive and a non diving qualified 2nd skipper in Alan who provides the surface cover. So the crew between them can ensure that the shot is tied in at the start and released at the end. They also gather spidge, as they know most of the wrecks very well, at times so everyone gets a souvenir if they want one.

It really is an outstanding service

[Janos]

Bastards! Sounds like you had a great time.

I've just found out that my zip is knackered too

Janos

PS - On the... er... plus side, I think the shower is no longer leaking.