Pirate Bear
- Pirate Bear's trip Deeper Swanage 2014
Diving with hannah for her depth progression. Ended up missing slack as the skipper had a bit of a mare. Down a very long shot line and subsequently was feeling pretty narked by the time we made it to the wreck. Not really sure I saw too much except one of the boilers, a bit of engine and a winch. Not a vast amout of life on the wreck but saw a large male cuckoo and a couple of bib but very little static life attached to the metal as I would have expected. Had about 18 mins at the bottom before sending up the dsmb as we had 10 mins of deco and the current was picking up a fair bit. Lovely weather on the surface though.
Amazed to actually see some ledges and structure underwater for the first time on this site! Not a vast amount to report apart from plenty of crabs, sponges, a pair of dogfish and a lovely white nudibranch. Having said that it was a nice dive and I really enjoyed just drifting around and spending time underwater. Was quite sad when we had to leave actually. Finished off a lovely day with pea fritter and chips in the evening sun before an early start tomorrow.
What a great dive. The viz was much better than yesterday on the high water slack. Diving with Michelle which meant we could have a decent bottom time. Down onto the wreck was much easier than yesterday as shorter line and less current. Must have been about 10m foreward of the boilers. Moved around a fair while until we reached the boilers. looked like the starboard boiler was half submerged and under a large section of plating. Behind the boilers the engine block was exposed and the large crank was out on show. Michelle pointed out a conger inside. ... Had a look and then swam away but she called me back as the eel had a fishing hook caught in its mouth. She was holding the line so I whipped out my shears and cut it free. .... good to test access and use of the shears at 40m! Moved aft a bit further following bits that looked very much like the prop shaft. A curious large cuckoo wrasse came to investigate as we moved a way down towards the steering quadrant. Stuck underneath was a brand new CQR Anchor (with stickers still attached! ) and shiny chain..... Would have been nice to have lifted that if I'd had my lifting bag with me! Think the skipper will be back for it tomorrow though. Nice 27 mins bottom time followed by a couple of deep stops and 10 mins of deco on 80%. Back on the surface we meet up with the other 6 of our divers as the skipper was struggling with shotline. So we formed something of a flotilla with our flags and blobs.... He was very impressed with how well drilled we were. Cracking dive and amazing to have been out of the water by 8:30 into beautiful sunshine.
Epic drift dive with Ali g. Pretty fast drift especially when holding the SMB..... Got quite out of breathe when trying to catch up with Ali. Saw a handful of dogfish and smooth-hound and two thorn backed rays.... First sighting of one for me. A good few gunards down there too. Had a real nightmare swimming back to get a ships union Jack- nice treasure. Saw a massive Anchor which went whizzing past. Lots of hermit crabs, edibles and velvet swimmers on the sea bed of shells. Always amazed by the fact that the floor can be covered in what is effectively dead animals. Ali and I must have had a jet steam as passed two other pairs and definitely went further than the others. Wonderful dive..... One of the drift best I've had in the UK.
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