Trip Report: Team Well 'ard Cool Force Ten dive the Rotorororororua (24/8/7)

[Janos]

Well. Where to begin? Sitting at work on Tuesday I wasn't happy about the weather - it had been blowing up all week. However it was from the North, and forecast to die down at the weekend, and I reckon'd it would be 50/50 as to whether we'd get out.

Thursday evening and things are looking a lot better, so I fill my tanks and prep the KISS. Sadly they are not looking better for poor old Smudge, skipper of Scimitar. He'd recently gotten his engines serviced, and since then has had nothing put problems, although I think the engineers are now back on board to do the job properly this time. Instead we were diving with Huntress II out of Lyme Bay

After MY LAST WEYMOUTH DEBACLE I was leaving no chances so it was an early start for me and I let the house at 6:00am for an 11:00am leave.

Arriving in Lyme Bay at 9:15, I thought I would be the first one there, but IanI was there before me. I talked crap with him a little while before I unloaded my kit onto the boat, parked the car, and got myself a DCI-preventing breakfast roll and a cup of tea and settled down.

Thirty minutes later and a pikey-wagon rolled round the corner. Swearing, shouting, and giving the finger to the locals, Howard turned up, accompanied by the lovely Blanaid.

Getting the Dude's kit on board was a team exercise, but once it was safely on board, Howard too had a bacon buttie and a cup of tea. As we were to be diving together it was important that we matched our pork consumption.

We were joined by The Duck and the weather was brightening up nicely, and I'd forgotten to bring a sunhat. The Duck pointed out a milliners, and I bought myself a nice straw number from the two old dears who ran it for the princely sum of £5.

On board we met Milldog who was diving two J cylinders banded together and we were off.

Hunter II is a good boat and with only six of us on board there was a huge amount of space for us all. I think she'd be fine for a club trip of twelve divers, but it might be a little tight with 12 twinsets or rebreathers. Although there is plenty of space up forward and a nice little cabin where we hung around and talked crap.

I talked crap with Graham, then with the Dude. Then with Ian, then with Graham again. Then with Blan, then with the Duck, then with the Dude. Oh, and we fixed the Dude's VR3. I think he'd put it on upside down or something. Blan had a hanset problem earlier in the day, but managed to fix it on the way out.

Soon enough we were on site and I kitted up. I then realised that I hadn't plugged in my BOV correctly, dekitted, fixed my BOB, rekitted, and then was finally ready to go.

I jumped in and swam to the shot and turned round to look for the Dude, and was slightly surprised to see Ian following him. It later turned out that Blan's handset problem had reappeared and she had missed the dive

I waited for Howard at 10m and we did a bubble check before descending to the wreck. Howard tried to communicate to me that Ian had missed the shot and so while we spent five minutes or so exploring the wreck near the shot hoping that he would appear but sadly it was not to be. We later found out that he'd left his mask at home and so had been using his spare, which didn't fit particularly well and had been leaking all the way down so had aborted the dive.

So. The Rotorua. What is she like? She's a massive 11,000 tonne liner that went down in WW1 after a torpedo struck here. There's a drawing of her HERE

Viz was good. About 10m to 15m, and Howard and I set off. I lead at first, but took us to the smooth side of her hull. We dropped down to the seabed before Howard took charge and, by accident more than design, took us to the engine room. This is where the torpedo struck, and the engine now pokes up though the wreck and lies exposed. Underneath there was a largish lobster whom Howard managed to chase out and I ballsed up the bagging of.

One of these days we'll have to get Chasey to video me and Howard trying to catch lobsters and set it to the Benny Hill theme tune.

Nearby the engine there was a room which we entered. I spotted a brass guage and Howard spotted the second lobster of the dive. After molesting him for a little while we exited by a different hole we'd come in by and made our way slowly to the stern.

On our way to the stern I spotted a second lobster. He was in a hole, and I was working out how to get him out when Howard pointed out the other, larger lobbie walking out in the open. Once again the Benny Hill theme tune played as we ballsed it all up.

Near the stern there is a huge room. I'm not sure what it was, but there was another big lobbie there. And no. We didn't catch him. We did manage to catch one lobster though. But he was tangled in line so I cut him free and let him go as he only had one claw.

Where was I? Oh yes. Big room at the stern. So we had a poke around there for a bit. Viz was spectacular - 10 or 15m at least. Then we ascended to the top of the stern where there are a few small cabins, and I spotted a bath and toilet. After 45mins I reckoned that we had about 100mins or so of deco to do and so it was time to blob up. We ascended and waited out the deco.

I had my underwater MP3 player with me which helped pass the time, and also a small (two inch) fish swam in figures of eight around us.

Deco done we surfaced and sped back to port. The sea by now was flat calm and the sun was beating down on us. I was so hot that I went bare chested, and Blan almost did the same. Hunter II has a fly bridge, and this was a perfect spot to put the world to rights on the way home.

This was a fantastic day out, and sitting here now tapping away with a cup of tea on my desk I still have the smile on my face.

Thanks go to everyone on board, and especially the Dude for organising the gig and buddying me.

Janos

[Mal Bridgeman]

Top report as usual Janos .... It seems like YDers have been very lucky this week ..... almost makes up for the sh*t weather so far this year!!

Mal

p.s. I like the way you have photo'd yourselves next to some proper diving gear

[Janos]

Originally Posted by Mal Bridgeman

p.s. I like the way you have photo'd yourselves next to some proper diving gear

Howard ???????

[DanE]

Nice report. Was out at Brighton yesterday and had similarly good conditions and viz, resulting in much the same smiley face experience.

Ain't diving great?

dan

[Diving Dude]

Yes it was a great day out and a stunning wreck.

Two things marred the day for me, the 4.5 hr drive home and the fact that the muppet diver l was with didn't share his underwater MP3 player which l wanted to obscure the near 90 minutes of the feckin inspo bleeping.

In the picky, lans the one with the girly hat, l've got the great white hunter hat and Janos has the Brokbeck (sp) mountain hat

l'll definitely be going back to this wreck next year. iI's so big that you could easily spend a weekend or long weekend on it. We didn't manage to get to the biggest bit which is the bow. We were heading that way then pie boy changed direction.

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by DanE

Nice report. Was out at Brighton yesterday .....

Were you on the Duke?

[David Burke]

great report
good to here you had a good day out.
two boats on the duke yesterday
paul childs + steve johnson
safe diving
dave

[DanE]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

Were you on the Duke?

Yes. What a fantastic dive that is

Originally Posted by David Burke

two boats on the duke yesterday
paul childs + steve johnson

We were on Steve's boat.

dan

[Janos]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

Janos has the Brokbeck (sp) mountain hat

Ahem. I'll refer you to your profile pic.

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

l'll definitely be going back to this wreck next year. iI's so big that you could easily spend a weekend or long weekend on it. We didn't manage to get to the biggest bit which is the bow. We were heading that way then pie boy changed direction.

I'll be going back too. But I seem to remember that YOU were leading this dive?

Janos

[neilh]

Nice write up, sounds like a good day out. Here's hoping to a nice day at St Abbs tomorrow, looks like this weekend is Summer

Can't believe the only lobby you managed to catch was, technically, already caught (in line) and had one claw. Has Chasey taught you nothing?!