Divers:
Dec and myself, Ray and James, Ken, Jane and Mike, Stephen, Cian and Vic
Geoff skippering
After a double booking a few weeks ago this was the alternative, the usual emails were sent whose in/out, in the end only four of us are able to go so Dec opens it on the forum. Tuesday before the trip we’re off to Killary for some depth and check the gear is in working order. Finished blending our mixes during the week and Friday afternoon we load up and start the long journey for Malin. Time to put what I’ve learned from Barry into proper practice
! I had to remind Dec at one stage we were going to Malin and not Ballina
but we arrived up there late in the evening and got our first glimpse of the sea up there, its FLAT calm and the skies are clear, its too good to be true! We meet Mike at the hostel (as Geoffs is booked that night) and start our plans for the Argo Delos. James and Ray arrive later that night, plans finished it’s off to bed as we’re on the pier for 9.30
Argo Delos:
Down to the pier for 9.30 where we meet Stephen McElhone who was doing a Mod1 with Cian (sorry didn’t catch your second name) and is being joined Vic Foster on the dives. We start putting the twins setup together and check our deco gas again. Ken and Jane arrive, Mike buddies up with them and we load up the boat.
We get out to the site and start gearing, Jane is a big help passing stages down the boat. Instructions from Geoff, if ye find my stainless steel grapple send it up if ye can. The CCR guys head in first. The four of us are ready to roll, Geoff gives myself and Dec the ok to splash and Ray egger to get in decides he’s waiting no longer and rolls in, James follows. Quick bubble check and S drill and we head down the shot behind Ray and James leading the way. We reach the bottom of the shot lying a few meters off the starboard side. Dec and myself head for the stern, see one of the large props and one of the masts with parts of the ladders still on it. Back up the ship we pass the Ken, Jane and Mike and we head into the wreck and out through a hole in the side of the hull, Ray and James are ahead of us. 14mins into the dive, Dec gives me the signal, 3mins forward then turn and head back towards the shot where we’ll bag off for the ascent. Up over the hull and we catch up with Ray and James at a section where the wreck has sheared. An inquisitive conger notices Rays gloveless fingers and decides to come out for a closer look (take note Artur
), few flashes of the torch and she backs off. We continue on and Dec’s habit of collecting fishing lead appears again, too awkward to carry the two blocks he mumbles through his reg and ditches them on the hull. 19mins into the dive, time to bag off, 20mins and we’re starting the ascent, gas switch at 21m but at 14m I look at my slate and computer deco times and realise I hadn’t changed my Vytec properly and it was still set to 21%, make the change, double check it and continue deco with a few lions main jellyfish hanging around with their tentacles out. 60mins we surface and Geoff picks us up. Brilliant dive, will definitely be going back. Back to Geoff’s to get the twins filled and plan for the William Mannell in the afternoon.
William Mannell:
Second dive of the day, we drop down the shot to the starboard side of the wreck were it lies on a coarse sand bed and head for the stern. We round the stern rail and do a figure of eight across the wreck passing Stephen and Cian doing some skills near the trawl winch. Round the bow and see the deck and hold openings, over to the trawl winch for a look and onto boiler where there’s a small conger and a lobster, then back to the holds where we enter one of the hold openings, through the wreck towards the bow and out through another, bit of a tight squeeze to get out! We stay for 25mins bag off and start our ascent, do out gas switch and surface after 35mins. Nice dive, nice amount of life around it, would I go back...maybe to get a better look around through the bow.
On the way back a few minutes off the pier we spot a fin of a basking shark breaking the surface
. Geoff turns the boat and heads towards it, Vic and Dec have the cameras out trying to get some shots. As we get closer we realise how big it is 8m+, it swims under the boat before surfacing again. We come along side it and Ray jumps in with it just before it crosses under the bow and goes under. We hang around for a few more minutes hoping it will surface but didn’t so we head for the pier and back to Geoffs. Geoff starts filling our tanks before heading off to work and Ken takes over to finish them.
That night we head for 2-3 pints with Mike, Ken and Jane join us later and the night is spent swapping diving stories, they’re stories a little more event full and interesting than some of ours. Back to Geoff’s for the night, the Laurentic awaits us in the morning!
SS Laurentic:
This one was becoming an elusive one for me, had planned to dive it twice before but got blown off with the weather both times and when the lads dived it back in March I had to head back to Galway. In the morning we analysis our gases again, do up our slates and head for the pier for 10.30. On the trip over we have our fingers crossed hoping to see another basking shark. Ray has his mask in hand ready to go in just in case but we didn’t spot any. Arrive at the site, Geoff ties off and we gear up. We roll off the side off the boat and drop to the wreck. At 30m it comes into sight, first though is it is very flattened and we reach the wreck at one of the guns, off to the left another points towards the surface. Over to the gun for a look, sort our bearings and we start to head for the bow along the outside, Ken Jane and Mike are just ahead of us. Rounding the bow the anchor comes into sight and we spend a minute looking at it. Continue on and finally come across the armoury and see the bullets. Spend a few minutes looking around and our 28mins bottom time is nearly up, we pass some of the shells from the Laurentic’s guns and head up alongside what looks like a shot line, but at 30m the line runs out and we bag off, the boilers will have to wait till the next time! The ascent to the surface goes near perfectly, 56mins planned to surface with 17mins at 6m, it flies by but again the computers keep us in for an extra 6mins. Few pictures on deco and we brake the surface at 63mins where there’s a puffin swimming a few meters off us. Geoff comes over to pick us up, back on the boat we wait for Stephen, Cian and Vic to surface before we head back for the pier. Few pictures of the group and we say our goodbyes and head for home. Dec and myself start heading south and make it to Letterkenny just in time for the Galway - Waterford match, went well for one of us
...not for the other!
All in all it was a fantastic weekend, weather couldn’t have being better and the wrecks were brilliant, will definitely going back to the Argo Delos and the Laurentic. Congrats to Cian on the Mod1. A massive thanks to Jane who as Dec said helped to kit every diver and herself, to Geoff for getting us out and on to the wrecks and to Dec for once again starting the ball rolling (and sometimes giving it a push) with the trip.
Martin
