Fecamp Trip Diving Lanfranc/Warilda Hospital Ships

[jptaylor9]

Just a quick trip report for my trip over to Fecamp, before the Dud gets back & does his Cherbourg report! The trip was organised by my buddy, Charlie (charliet on YD).

Monday (12th May) 10 of us embarked on Channel Diver (Steve Johnson's boat) from Brighton marina. Most of use where there in plenty of time to load, however, their's always one that's late and this year it wasn't me for a change

On board we had 7 divers on Inspirations, a Meg diver & the final two on OC.

It was sunny & the sea state was good as we headed out to dive the Lanfranc at noon. The Lanfranc was a liner that used as a hospital ship during WW1, it was torpedoed in 1917 by a U-boat, it now lies in 50m in the mid channel. The viz was 3 - 4m, but a bit dark. The shot was near the bows, the two anchors still in place. From there I made my way back to the stern before returning to the midships. I bagged off after 52 mins & allowed myself to drift just above the wreck as the current was taking me back to the bows. Having seen the bows again, I stated reeling up to my deco ceiling, my total runtime was 115 mins.

We arrived in Fecamp on a nice sunny afternoon, after a quick shower at the hotel, it was time for a couple of beers & a steak in the sun overlooking the harbour.

On the Tuesday we dived an unkown wreck in 45m from Fecamp, the viz wasn't that good & it was quite dark. The wreck was quite large, collapsed in & I'm guessing laying on it's starboard side. Did a bottom time of 46 mins, with 86mins total runtime. All my dives were done on a 16/34 diluent. There was a big swell rolling down the channel, but everyone got to dive.

On the last day we returned to Brighton, diving the other hospital ship the "Warilda" on the way, we still had a rolling swell & expected lumpy conditions after the dive. But as it turned out, it wasn't to bad & we returned to Brighton without any drama.

The Warilda was the best dive of the 3 days, there was quite a lot of ambient light with good visibility on the wreck. I find this a very scenic wreck, with lots of nice swim thru's. The view of the stern with it's large promenade deck laying on its port side with the gun that was fitted there standing upright on the sea bed is a great view. Wreck lies in 50m, diving with Charlie & John we spent 55mins on the wreck with a total runtime of 2 hours.

A good 3 days diving, my thanks to Charlie for organising and to Steve/Caroline.

JT

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report, i'm due to do the big 2 in October with the Dud

I've not dived the Lanfranc yet but did the Warilda in about 20m of viz absolutely stunning

[charliet]

Thanks, Jon, for taking the time to do the trip report.

Marcellus had agreed to give me a lift to Brighton and I suspected he might turn up early last Monday morning. Sure enough, he rolls up at 5.20am, 10 mins early but I managed to intercept him BEFORE he rang the bell!

It was a beautiful morning which kinda made up for the early start and we were all so relieved to be diving at all. Hasn't the weather been so unco-operative?

Marcellus is a very, very, very careful driver so I wasn't surprised that we were overtaken by an electric milk float on the A3. He hasn't yet worked out how his new sat nav/speed camera device worked so the default settings meant that we had LOTS of warnings before each speed camera.

Beep, beep, ding, ding, bong bong but he was so pleased with his new gadget, would he turn it off?

Eventually we got to Brighton............

We were still very early (7am for a 8am depart) but others in the group were even earlier. Perhaps they slept on the boat?

As Jon says the weather was sunny and warm with calm seas (Monday anyway) and we motored out with Captn. Johnson at the wheel with Mrs J offering cups of tea and coffee.

Everyone was ready early for the Lanfranc but the vis wasn't great but it's always a top dive. Big enough to accommodate 10 divers and with enough swim thrus and internal areas if you want to have a good rummage internally.

I've always found the fish life less than on the Warilda and it was true on this occasion. Water temp approx 10C on the wreck, 11C at 5m.

Everyone had a good dive and having recovered the last divers we headed onto Fecamp arriving at about 5pm. Some fiddled (endlessly) with their kit whilst others like Serena and Caroline on twinsets made for le Grand Pavois Hotel where we were staying for two nights.

For some reason, I tend to end up being the interpreter as my frog is moderately better than Caroline's (skipper's wife) even though she's been going to classes for years

Amazingly, everyone got what they thought they had ordered at the restaurant so my frog was good enough so it seems.

The next morning found half of the group being very macho and sitting outside for a breakfast of cafe au lait and croissants where it was sunny but cold with a stronger breeze than the day before with the other half of us glad to be inside the cafe!

I enjoyed the dive on the 45m unknown about 25 miles out of Fecamp but the vis was 2 - 3m with monofilament around. I managed to get a little snagged in some but my buddy, John, whipped out his knife and freed me.

I thought the wreck was interesting with plenty of large lobsters, edible crabs and congers around. We managed an enjoyable 54 minute bottom time.

The bad news was the return to Fecamp as the "breeze" had continued to increase and Channeldiver crashed its way back to port with our kit moving around the benches. Several green faces during the return journey and great relief when we got back to Fecamp.

More endless fiddling with kit, another excellent meal and a very civilised depart time of 10.30am on Wednesday morning for a 2pm dive on the Warilda after another breakfast of cafe au lait and croissants

This was my 3rd dive on the Warilda and it's one of my favourite dives. It's not deep (50m), it's big and interesting and always has an enormous amount of pollock and bib on it. It really is a fab dive and always has better vis than the Lanfranc with 15m this time.

The pollock were in a good sized shoal and swooped in and out rather similar to the tarpon I saw`off Speyside in Tobago.

The Warilda is very atomospheric with a number of swim thrus and areas to explore. To me, it's even better than the Moldavia which is saying something.

I dived with Jon and John (we were all on Visions) and the good vis meant that we could see the other divers and each other well without having to be absolutely on top of each other.

At 52 mins BT, John signalled thumbs up which I studiously ignored and led the three of us up to the top of the wreck where we launched our DSMB's at 57 mins BT. Water temp 11C on the wreck, 12C at 5m. Felt bloody warm compared to 9C in February

Again, it all becomes so easy when you have good vis and we could easily ascend as a threesome to our shallowest deco level of 5m without losing each other. Compare this to my last dive on the Bessel in less than 1m when I lost contact with my buddy on the ascent as the vis was so poor all the way up the water column.

Everyone had superb dives on the Warilda and the return journey was roughish but not too bad.

Thank you Steve and Caroline for another wonderful trip on Channeldiver. Really looking forward to our 4 day trip to Cherbourg in July when we are diving the Empire Javelin, the Leopoldsville x 2 and the British Commerce.