This is a report on the UKRS trip to Weymouth on 14th and 15th July 2001. Details about other trips being run can be found here.
The week before this trip, the weather had been appalling so there were many frantic checks on the Met Office web site to see what was in store for the weekend. As with most of this year so far and despite all fears, it turned out to be a glorious weekend with Westerly 2s backing North Westerly. Ideal for what we planned to do.
This
trip was organised by Megan Clarke who had managed to secure a top neaps weekend
aboard Divetime out of Weymouth.
This boat is an Offshore 125. Skippered by Paul Pike, she is fitted out with
an excellent lift which proved, as usual, to be approved of by all concerned.
Skipper Paul, assisted very ably by Jan, provided an excellent service as usual. The shots were spot on, the soup (made by Paul himself) and rolls very popular. The skipper even baked us a cake for the Sunday - now where else can you get this kind of service?
Those of us staying in Weymouth for the weekend met in the Old Rooms for a recreational half on Friday night. Craig turned up to announce proudly that he had found the boat. This was odd as he was gesturing way down the harbour and we, sitting outside the Old Rooms, could see Divetime moored right next to us! Digs turned up after an epic journey from somewhere up North and we had met up with Zak on a totty hunt around the back streets of Weymouth.
Everyone
was there Sat morning (excluding those who dropped out - ie Al and KeithS)
and we departed for the Iolanthe which had been the plan all along. With 10
on board Divetime, we luxuriated in the space and the sun. Everyone was diving
a twin-set and most, if not all, had stage bottles of some description.
The Iolanthe is a large, virtually undived wreck; sunk in 1918 by UB-75. At 325 feet long, this steam driven, armed merchantman lies in about 43m, 9 miles offshore. Little did we realise the treat we were in for...
Descending the shot, I thought I could make out a bit of wreckage at about 30m and thought the wreck must be much shallower than predicted. In fact it soon became apparent that I had the perspective all wrong as the vista opened up to reveal huge amounts of wreckage. I had not anticipated the 20m vis we were treated to. The Iolanthe has collapsed flat on herself in an upright position so all the decking etc. is lying pretty much on the sea bed. That said, we did find some swim-throughs and the usual winch gear which seems to stand up to any amount of abuse by the sea. It was a little difficult at first to orient ourselves but after a while we did find the engine and boilers which gave us something to go on. I had a poke around for the prop shaft but couldn't find it but we set of in what I thought was a stern-wards direction. This proved to be correct and eventually, after much rummaging, we came to the stern standing up some 8m. There are railway trucks here which would have been carrying the cargo of hay. They lie upright on the sea bed to the port side of the wreck.
The
stern is really impressive - there is a deep scour to the starboard side where
the rudder was clearly visible. I'd like to take a look down here but this
will have to wait for another dive as we were well into the dive and it looks
to be about 48m, but with this kind of vis it was all very clear. I'd also
like to go up to the bows next
time.
We got 42m on the Iolanthe with a bottom time of 25 min. We dived a 27% mix and deco'd out on 50%. Total time 58min.
Over lunch in Lulworth Cove we congratulated ourselves on an excellent dive and consumed Paul's soup and rolls. We also had a chat with Len Hurdiss on Autumn Dream who was also moored there and seemed to have a bunch of BSAC beards on board (no offence if you're reading this - I'm BSAC too!).
In
the afternoon we dived the Black Hawk. Craig and Greg sat this one out as
they'd chosen to max the first dive. Since there was already a RIB on the
site, Paul dropped us up-tide to allow us to drift on to the wreck. Unfortunately,
not many actually drifted on to the wreck (we did!). We spent a reasonable
half hour finding congers and swim-throughs. About 5m vis here and a reasonable
dive to boot. The stern of this wreck lies miles away in 40-odd metres and
I'd like to do it some time just to see the difference from this rather mangled
wreckage. Got 17m on this one on 27% again for about 35min.
In the evening, it rained...hard. We managed to get food (eventually) in the Brewer's Quay and met up with Keith Lawrence who was on White Horse heading out to Normandy for a week's expedition. A very enjoyable evening but easy on the beers due to the plan for Sunday....
Sunday dawned even better that Saturday so we loaded up (somewhat arduous as we had to lug the kit over two other boats). However, we set out in high spirits to the Buccaneer. She is an 840 ton British armed tug. She's only 165 feet long but lies in 44m so quite a challenging dive. Zak had departed to attend the Grand Prix and Digs wasn't diving. We were joined by Paul "Charley" Farley who seems to be bumming around Weymouth cadging spare places on dive boats. It was a real pleasure to have him on board. He always seemed to be there to remove your fins at the end of a dive which seems to be his second favorite pastime (after lifting old shot weights and grapples for skippers).
Anyway,
the Buccaneer is another seldom dived wreck - probably because she lies within
spitting distance of the Salsette. She lies on her port side and is completely
intact including a 3" gun on the bows, intact superstructure, awesome
engine room and massive winches on the stern. Only the starboard prop has
been salvaged (apparently the port prop is still there but I missed it). Greg
found some George VI crockery and there are portholes with glass intact and
the lettering is still on the bows. I really want to go back here and get
into the engine room through the ventilation hatches. It looks intriguing
down there. 27% again with 50% deco mix. Again about 25mins bottom time.
Soup and rolls plus Paul's cake consumed in Balaclava bay as we off-gassed before a bimble on The Hood to round off the weekend's diving. I don't propose to document our dive on The Hood except to say that we went into the engine room which is looking decidedly unstable now!
Megan Clarke
Steve Chaplin
Rich Meese
Debbie Randall
Mike Smith
Zak Sherlock (Sat)
Digs
Pete Steggle
Craig Ballingall
Greg Roach
Paul "Charley" Farley (Sun)
Many thanks to Megan for organising, Paul and Jan for being outstanding hosts and to everyone on board for making it one of the best weekends diving I've had so far this year.
Steve Chaplin (18.07.2001)
