Pirate Bear
- Pirate Bear's trip Hayle 2014
Nice dive with Mark and Ken. Probably 4-5m of viz. The wreck was a little different from how i remember it but still about the same size. Arrived somewhere around mid ships then made our way up towards the bow on the starboard side. Plenty of fish around the place especially inside under the rafters of the deck. Nice view of the intact sharp bow but not really good enough for video. Worked our way aft past a conger near the engine and winch. Around the stern and then back up to take the shotline for our deco stop. Much nicer than being at work :-)
A shallower second dive. Not a vast amount of wreckage despite people saying that lots had been uncovered in the winter storms. Some big pollock and a large shoal of bib around the main section of wreckage. Drifted off into the distance but not a huge amount to see apart from some gullies, kelp and usual Plymouth sea life.
Nice dive with Ken and Ivan after a long morning of anticipation on Dougie's boat (bit of a squeeze for 9 fully grown boys). This wreck was supposed to be fairly intact but turned turtle. Seems that time has really changed her and it was pretty much flat apart from the two large boilers and rudder section. Had to take a leap of faith to head out into the current to find the wreck though as the shot had dragged off... think Ivan was impressed in my nav skills. After working our way around lots of plates and little sections of wreckage we spotted the prop shaft running through behind the two boilers. Following along we made it to the propellor which was still in place which i couldn't help but straddle. No sign of the second prop that mark had talked about earlier though. Saw mark and gibbo on our way back towards the main section so pointed them towards the prop.... made me feel glad that everyone had found the wreck as i had felt guilty for not lining off from the shotline when we first got down. Ascended an up line and left Ivan with ken to finish off his deco on his air computer. Yummy 70% meaning i could get onboard for a cuppa 15 min earlier than them. Nice dive but a long day on the boat for a single dive.
Very excited to get back on to this unique wreck. Visibility was at least 8m so meant diving in a 3 was not too much of a worry. Took some nice video too which hopefully shows off some of the nice features of the wreck. A lot of ground swell on the dive but could be used effectively for weaving our way across the wreckage. Dropped in around two of the forward locomotives and had fun poking around inside the boilers and under the train wheels. Stumbled upon the prop shaft that we followed sadly to a disappointing end before the prop (apparently prop and rudder lie flat on the seabed off towards the starboard side which I'll need to look for next time ). Back along towards a third locomotive with all wheels in place before finding the ship boiler. Some lovely light falling through the broken upper part of the boiler. A group of bib and a ling swimming around inside the boiler too. Took a nice video of them which should make it into the final montage. Had racked up around 15 min of accelerated deco at this point so took another 2 mins looking around before heading up. 40 min bottom time on this lovely wreck was a real treat and one i will remember for a while..... definitely made up for losing my mask and spare torch when rolling off the boat.
Another cracking dive. Big old wreck which is pretty broken up. Nice bow section still with the anchor pulled in tight on starboard side and a toilet from forecastle still sat place. Saw plenty of wreckage although very scattered. The boilers sat in front of a massive set of pistons which then led on to a thick prop shaft. Following that sternward we found a pair of dogfish cuddled up together and then a John Dory swimming along trying to evade my torch beam. Down towards the stern the prop sits half covered in the seabed but clearly pretty large. Just off from there was a big gun placement. Very very cool to see this lot on a single dive. Hope the video comes out well to show Ken what he missed because his suit zip broke.
This unknown wreck should have been named the conger wreck rather than the ling wreck as there was one under almost every section of plate or piping! Dived with Mark and it was a fair bit darker down at 45m than the shallower wrecks. Decided to make the most of our deco gas and had a lovely long bottom time exploring across the whole site. As with most of the other wrecks down on the north coast it was pretty broken up with some big boilers, a suspended prop shaft and loads of other plate to poke around under.
Had a short view around this wreck with Ken before striking off into the distance on some ill fated attempt to find magical areas of the wreckage that turned out not to exist :-( Learnt a valuable lesson from it though. Plus we still saw boilers, engine, prop shaft and some dog fish!
Epic
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