Engine room

The engine room was an interesting dive for me. We swim out on the surface to the outer buoy which is mid ships. This buoy has a drum on it which is on a short length of rope. This is used to tell the current strength and direction. The location of the drum in relation to the buoy shows the current direction. It is a long surface swim but not too arduous. Once there and settled we drop down. The buoy is secured to the wreck. Where it is secured would be good exploring. There is quite a lot of equipment piled up here and huge schools of fish. We don't swim directly to there but diagonally down to the opening in the hull that leads straight down into the engine room. We drop down into the wreck and below us is the huge condenser. This would once have turned the steam that drove the generators back into water. We are looking at one end of it (as the ship is on it's side). It is massive. A bit further back is one of the two turbines that drove the propellers. This one is the starboard one. The port one would be much deeper. We pass access ladders and a myriad of pipes and valves. Our goal is the control room where there are many gauges and 4 telegraphs.

Our guide goes through a small opening, then Jenny goes through, then it's my turn. Some how I get stuck. I try to back out and can't. then move in but to no avail. I try again more firmly. That's when it all went pear shaped. Suddenly my reg is out of my mouth and free flowing below me. I calmly pick it up to put back in my mouth and realise there is no mouthpiece. My expensive Jax mouthpiece has gone. I stop it free flowing and grab my occy. Luckily it was easy to get at and not caught. Forgetting to clear it I suck sea water into my lungs which sets me coughing. It takes a few minutes for my breathing to settle down. At 45m depth and inside the wreck I wasted a lot of air. Finally I am in the engine room but too unsettled to really take it all in. Our guide Dave (who has been diving the Coolidge for 18 years) helps by taking some pics with Jen's camera.

In the meantime Jenny has swam upwards thinking she is following our guide. Luckily she came up to a bulkhead and could go no further, so she came back down again. The lights she saw below her she thought were us following behind. In fact our guide was with us. Narcosis is an odd diving companion indeed.

From the engine room we head forward and up. We actually pass The Lady on our way back. I don't realise this. At that point I think I had realised what a stupid situation I had put myself in by trying to force my way out of a tight spot. We have a long deco stop where I end up low in air. It would have been worth going back to visit again but that will have to wait for next time.