Spidge......one day I will get some!!!

[Captain Deco]

I am a member of Wet Wrecks dive club which is a private dive club run through Adventures in Diving in Chelmsford, Essex, and they dive off the Suffolk coast on largely undived wrecks.

Last Thursday I turned up at the Marina in Shotley to board the "Zeus" along with 8 other divers in order to dive an unknown WW2 casualty that sat in about 30m of water. I am still waiting for my new drysuit to come back from the LDS after having a new thigh pocket put on, so I did this dive as my last wet dive of the season. The water wasn't too cold at an accommodating 15 degs, but the SI was a bitch!!!

Zeus' normal action plan is to get out for the 1st tide and then drift about until the 2nd tide for dive 2 of the day. It makes for a long day on the boat, but the banter, grub, sleeping and fishing all make up for it. The guys who run the boat and the shop are all divers with zillions of experience hours wreck diving so I felt privileged to be buddied with the skipper. Everyone who knows me knows that I am desperate to get portholes, bells....anything really. I have lots of space and want some diving kitsch to show off. 99% of the wrecks off this coast are untouched because of the crap sea state, but, like Dover, when the sea is playing nicely with us kids it more than makes up for it.

Dive 1 - Having shotted the wreck we set off, and had a nice long mooch about in the wreckage. There was stuff everywhere - deck lights, quarter lights and god knows what else, but it was an impressive wreck. Dick and I swam happily about and explored for 45mins before we needed to head back. Viz was about 3m in green water. On the boat another buddy pair showed off their telescope which they had found!!!

Dive 2 - Dick had lost his torch on dive 1, and being magellan's twin he swam straight to it on dive 2 and recovered it. We went for another pootle about and viz had improved to about 4/5m making the wreck more impressive. I did not know where to look as the wreckage was covered in interesting nooks and crannies. Dick pointed out a really nice 3/4 ft long steam whistle which we hooked up and bagged to the surface on my untried lift bag which I had bought off Desperation on YD. What Desperation hadn't told me that this bag was allegedly the same one that had deflated due to it's shitness on a treasure dive of his own, and so it was to be for me as well. Bye bye lift bag, bolt snaps and steam whistle. Bum it. Nevertheless it was a cracking couple of dives, and I learnt lots - mainly not to buy lift bags off Dan.

I can sense it though.....I am getting closer to getting some nice dive loot!! Other divers recovered a quarter light and a very pistol!!!

I lifted a deck light, which I am going to clean up and then use as a garden ornament.

[nigel ingram]

hey scuba jay
isn,t it about time you purchased a desent lift bag,
I have a nice veriatey of sizes from 25kg right on up to 1000kg, whats it to be then!

[BJ]

There's a shop in Shepperton that sells brasswork from scrapped vessels. It doesn't need renovating and you don't need to risk your life to get it. You can fill up your house with binnacles, portholes and telegraphs and make ALL your diving friends envious. Then get yourself a camera and go diving.

[Captain Deco]

Originally Posted by BJ

There's a shop in Shepperton that sells brasswork from scrapped vessels. It doesn't need renovating and you don't need to risk your life to get it. You can fill up your house with binnacles, portholes and telegraphs and make ALL your diving friends envious. Then get yourself a camera and go diving.

Ah yes but shop bought crap isn't the same as crap I have rescued, cleaned and then displayed.
Cameras are not for me.....my eye/brain combo do the trick in that department.

Combining diving with treasure hunting are all good as far as I am concerned.

[G man]

Originally Posted by BJ

There's a shop in Shepperton that sells brasswork from scrapped vessels. It doesn't need renovating and you don't need to risk your life to get it. You can fill up your house with binnacles, portholes and telegraphs and make ALL your diving friends envious. Then get yourself a camera and go diving.

Thats not proper diving BJ, its no good unless you get it yourself.

Take everything and leave bubbles.

[big_si]

Originally Posted by BJ

There's a shop in Shepperton that sells brasswork from scrapped vessels. It doesn't need renovating and you don't need to risk your life to get it. You can fill up your house with binnacles, portholes and telegraphs and make ALL your diving friends envious. Then get yourself a camera and go diving.

Yep... Good point! Why are we schmucks all going diving when we could be looking at stuff in books and buying crap from shops??? We're such fools!



Best of luck with the quest Jay! Hopefully I'll be with you on that first dive that you're successful!

[Debs]

the ideal lifting bag? Smaller than Nigels!!

hot air balloon.jpg

[Paul Oliver]

Originally Posted by Debs

the ideal lifting bag? Smaller than Nigels!!

Attachment 4644

With his form though he will still lose it

[Woz]

I don't know. The APC sat at Stoney for ages and people ignored it. Stick it on the 20m shelf and bits go missing off it.

Can't see the attraction in portholes myself. Now some nice White Star Line china- that would look great on Sunday.

[Ricky2703]

BJ
What is the shop called? I want some tat for my office.
Ricky