Back from a fantastic Easter weekends diving off Malin Head. Motored up from Limerick on Thursday evening and after a pit stop in Divin' Decs in LetterKenny I arrived zombie-like in Geoffs at around midnight. I never cease to be disappointed by the inconvenient locations the Kriegsmarine chose to sink enemy shipping, but i hoped the diving would make it worth while. The weekend was to be quite the technicaldiving.ie get-together with myself, Chris Byrne, David Melon, Matthieu (Emmbee), Cathal (Turbo), Ken Hawk and Jane.
The late start on Friday was a welcome change for a Malin trip. Myself and Chris's last venture up in March involved analysing deco mixes and writing out run times slates whilst driving through Derry at 70mph, steering with my knee. First dive would be Laurentic and with a few Malin virgins on board - what better way to kick off proceedings? We landed beside the boilers next to the 5 huge heat exchangers. 15- 20m vis was a welcome site. Our last dive on her earlier in the year was on Spring tides and the wreck was a gloomy place place by comparison.
Next morning was even flatter out at sea. We turned eastwards and headed for the Argo Delos. The Argo hit Tor Rocks in 1960 where the Bow section still remains in 12m of water. The remaining stern section now lies south off Inishtrahull Island in 49m. Vis was a disappointing 5-8m despite the shining sun and reduced swell. The wreck lies upside down and fairly broken up with a few cranes and winches poking through the debris. Good fun reeling off and making line ties narked off your chops and overall a fairly enjoyable dive.
Sunday showed the first sprinklings of rain and the wind seemed to have picked up over night, but it seemed that the gods were on our sides as Geoff started driving out towards U-861. This dive was high on the to-do list for most of us and was my first Deadlight sub dive. Waiting for slack in 3m swells for 20 mins had even the best of us regretting the previous nights pints. The wreck lies close to Inishtrahull but is still very exposed to the swell. Thanks to some pin point shot placement from Geoff we were in the water just before Slack and dragged ourselves down the line. Still flagpoling on the line at 30m i was delighted to be able to clearly see the shot weight a full 15m below us, i was not so delighted to see it bouncing along the sea bed towards me at high speed. The shot had evidently lost grip on the small hull as we made our descent and we were left sub-less and alone at 43m. Taking a rough bearing and following the shot weight divots in the gravel sea-bed we made it into the shadow of something big - a conning tower was coming into view. Lying on its side and in three sections the 861 was a type IX-D-2 "Milk Cow" so a fairly hefty machine. With our arrival at the coning tower coinciding with the synchronised arrival of slack (nice one Geoff) we slowly finned around the wreck. Had to go for the swim through under the wreck and might have ventured further into the conning tower for a better look if not for the Hulk of a lobster manning the periscope. I reckon he was alive when the sub sank. Time to go after a fairly ambitious 30mins. With the shot line nowhere to be seen Matthieu and I swam back from the wreck and bagged up. Text book SMB deployment if i do say so myself, I'd have made it onto the cover of DIR-monthly if not for my reel line coming floating down to meet me at 30m. Turns out my granny knotted line repair wasn't going to cut it in Malins swells. Thankfully Matthieu had a fresh bag and spool out and up before i could come up with an excuse. We found out afterwards that Chris and Dave had an identical mis-hap on their own ascent. Poor Geoff was getting quite a work out up above collecting lost bags.
Planned on hitting the U861 again first thing Monday morning but the sea had other ideas with a big westerly swell coming in. Taking a chance on the easterly wrecks we headed out for a look. Full boat today with Stephen McElhone, Chris and Peter joining us for a dive. As we rounded the head-lands to the east the swell died down and the sun came out. We were to be diving the Castle Eden, which at 33m would give us a nice long easy dive to round the weekend off. Myself and Chris were first down and secured the shot to the boilers. Amazed by the level of light and amount of life on the wreck. Easily 15m+ vis ( i know this is feeble compared to the vis on the deeper stuff - but we were happy out). Nice easy swim up to the bow now lying on a sea-shell sea bed. Plenty of nooks and crannies for lobsters and congors along the way. While the main hull of the ship had long since fallen away a ice amount of the larger engine components and shell remained. Nice short deco and shining sun on the surface...what more could you want?
Thanks to Geoff for the Stealth Bomber style shot placement and excellent accommodation, Chris Byrne for organising, DivinDec and Ken Hawk for gas and Stephen McElhone for giving myself and Chris a shot of the Sentinal. I'm considering selling the car and all other worldly possessions to get my hands on one now!
Cathal
