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Weather was a bit intermittent but we felt the seas were OK for
another attempt at 50m. We had been to the boiler and the anchor
but to the south was the prop which we wanted to visit. We dropped
the anchor and once the boat has stopped drifting we thought we were a
bit far off the mark at 40m. Pulling the anchor in we got about
10m of rope and then it would not come up. Feeling it was secure
on the bottom we set up the deco and headed down. There was a bit
of current near the surface but not too bad. At the bottom the
anchor was very secure, caught in a piece of rope and the wreck.
Boiler to the right, propeller to the left, just off to the East.
We headed left to check out the prop which is far smaller than the Tug.
A result I guess of over 100 years of wear in the ocean. We
followed the drive shaft back towards the boiler, swimming over the
flattened out sides of the ship. There is still a lot of wreckage
here. Our time soon ran out and we unhooked the anchor, put a bit
of air in the loft bag to hold the anchor off the bottom and headed up.
While we were down the wind has strengthened and the sea had become
quite choppy. The anchor chain had caught on something (not the
wreck as we were drifting away from it), and our safety stop became
quite uncomfortable as the boat jumped up and down in the sloppy seas.
I attached my self to the deco with my short rope, and to a D ring on my
BCD. This usually allows me to have a very comfortable safety stop
without having to hang on. I found it difficult to stay down as
the seas tried to lift us up. The drag was so fierce that it broke the
stitching on the D ring, leaving me to grab for the cross over line to
stay with the boat. We were very pleased when the safety stop was
over but the sea was not finished with me yet. As I climbed up
over the back of the boat and was ready to step in the boat lurched to
one side, throwing me back into the water. Thankfully I didn't hit
anything was uninjured. In all quite an adventure but another
great dive on the Kelloe. |
