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Read reports of our previous trips >
Some changes this year! Weymouth: will be a back to shot dive, as we will be in the shipping lanes. To register your interest for any of the above please Contact us. To view any of our trip reports click the location of interest from the list below. South Africa Oceanos, South Africa 2009
Trip Report by PJ Prinsloo The crew and Captain Yiannis Avranas then sprang into action and fled the ailing ship, leaving all the passengers on board adrift in 10m swells and 40-knot winds. The ship was sinking just off Coffee Bay on our Wild Coast of South Africa. The South African Navy and Air Force responded to the SOS, and what followed was one of the greatest sea rescues in history. All the passengers on board were brought to safety. Thirteen Puma Helicopters and numerous vessels that where in the area assisted in the rescue. At 3:30pm on the 4 th of August 1991, the once gracious MTS Oceanos, came to rest in 95 meters of water 9.5kms from Hole in the Wall. Due to the success of the rescue team, nobody lost their lives.
Not many people have successfully dived the Oceanos, until Barry Coleman’s expedition in 2002. His team, which included Brett Hawton and Paul Heinerth, proved that with the correct equipment and experience, it is possible to dive on the Onceanos. It’s due of the extreme Agulhas current and lack of infrastructure in that part of the world that makes this wreck so difficult to dive. So how do you dive it? (Because we wanted to dive on it.) Firstly, plan your expedition when the current is said to be at its weakest. Secondly, take everything that you need with you. Although we had spoken about it many times in the past 2 years, it was only in January this year that we started firming up our plans for the trip. So many questions had to be answered, and so much had to be organized. As it is with any trip, it gets to a point where you either have it all together, or not. Regardless, it was time to go.
The moment the team arrived at the Hole in the Wall Hotel, we started preparing the two boats that we had, to go and locate the wreck. As we had assembled a list of GPS co-ordinates, this in itself became a task that required hours of patience and tolerance. Expectations were high, so it was disappointing that we didn’t find the wreck on the first day. We persevered and were on the ocean at first light the next day. We had narrowed down the list of co-ordinates, so it was just a matter of time. My heart skipped a beat when only 30 minutes after leaving the beach, I watched as the number on the depth sounder suddenly jump from 95m to 76m. Just to be sure, we went over the mark again. This time we went up over the stern of the ship and along the top of it, until we saw it drop again to 95m. As fast as the boats could go, we got back to the hotel and started getting our rebreathers together. We planned to do a fly over the wreck at 60m, to see her condition, and what possible hazards were awaiting us. There was a relatively strong surface current, but at 60m the water was barely moving. This was a problem, as we had planned to drop up current and drift in with it. Now we had to swim on to the wreck. Due to the unexpected swim we didn’t have the time to complete our objective, but at least we had splashed in.
The following day we woke before sunrise to check the weather conditions. It was all systems go. You could feel the excitement cutting through the morning sea mist. Did I mention that the launch was very exciting? Well the surf certainly did prove a bit of a challenge, especially when you have two boats carrying five divers with rebreathers – each with three bailout tanks, and several tanks of emergency oxygen. The surf launch is just as fun as the dive. The first team of two divers, Dusan Stojakovic and Cronje Grove , jumped in. It was a long wait for them to get back to the surface. Although the sea had become quite choppy, seeing their faces after the dive made the next team eager to get in. Dave Kitchen , Deon Loubser and myself descended down to the wreck, again surprised that there was zero current, which meant another swim. With 50m plus viz, swimming up to the Oceanos wasn’t much of an issue. Watching this enormous ship come into view, is something I’ll never forget.
The team stuck together as we popped our heads over the side and looked down at the sand some 20m below us, debris scattered all over the ocean floor. The wreck is lying on her starboard side so it was almost like doing a wall dive in the Red Sea. We stared in awe at the massive decks and thick ropes. There was so much to see. It was time up, and no matter how much you want to stay down there, you have to stick to your plan. I couldn’t wait to download the video and photos that we had taken. The wreck has so many rooms and halls that you can’t help but think back to when it was full of passengers, gambling in the casino or enjoying a cocktail on the pool deck. Needless to say, that night everyone at dinner was discussing the wreck, the size, the condition, and the fact that we were lucky enough to have no current and visibility, so good you could almost see it end to end. Could the Oceanos be South Africa’s best wreck dive? I think I’m going again next year, just to make sure. Thanks to our skippers Paul and Mark. Paul’s wife Wendy and Amanda who sat on the beach with phones and radios in hand, ready to activate the emergency plan if needed. A special thanks to DAN S.A. for their support during the expedition. Sponsors: Calypso Dive & Adventures Johannesburg, OMS Dive gear and TDI SDI Southern Africa. Dive Team: Dave Kitchen , PJ Prinsloo, Dusan Stojakovic , Deon Loubser and Cronje Grove. Words and pictures: PJ Prinsloo
Northern IrelandA Vision among Giants – Malin Head, Ireland – 28 August 2005Trip Report by Phil Griffiths
Malin Head is renowned for having some of the best UK diving going so when Matt said he was organising a trip for 2005 and having turned down the opportunity in 2004 I thought I'd better get my name down! What was going to make this trip even more interesting for me was that the week before I had taken delivery of a replacement Inspiration with the new “Vision” electronics! I'd managed to get a couple of solid hours in the water with the unit and so I felt confident in taking it to Ireland – plus I would of course be carrying a couple of 7l side slungs for the duration :o)) The trip was based aboard the well known Loyal Watcher which had recently received new owners, Darren and Linda of Inga Charters and a refit. Darren and Linda had done a good job on the refit giving 2 x 4 man cabins, 2 x 2 man cabins and two showers/toilets along with a refurbished Galley and Dining/Lounging area. A great collection of DVDs and a surround sound DVD player/TV set this off nicely for evening entertainment! A mention must also be given to Richard who looked after our gas needs during the trip and was the one generally stood there shot in hand waiting for the shout to release :o) He even got to bring it back on board :o) Pickup was on a Saturday afternoon in Ayre from where we began the overnight sailing to Portsalon, Lough Swilley in Ireland. There were 12 of us on this trip –Matt, Stu, Justin, Mark, Rob, Bas, Tom, Jeff, Pete, Chris, Steve and me.
Having a fairly steady sea crossing to Ireland the first dive was planned for around 3pm on the Audacious, the venerable battleship from the First World War. The shot line was put in followed by the first pairs taking the lazy shot and the deco station. Hitting the water it was noticeable that there was a little bit of a current running but once one got down to about 30m this reduced greatly. On the way past 18m I watched the Vision Electronic’s Green Hudlights flash as the automatic change of setpoint to 1.3 kicked in and the unit reported that the difference between the actual and set setpoints was more than .2 apart –this soon settled back to steady green as the increasing depth plus a little squirt of O2 injected by the controller brought the set point to 1.3. Matt was my buddy on this dive and after we had both transferred our tags to the loop by the lazy shot connecting clip at 30m we set off down to the wreck. What we then saw was amazing for those that haven’t experienced Malin Head before –from 30m we could see the upturned shape of the Audacious below us with the previous pairs swimming around with their torches creating beams within the water!! Arriving on the upturned hull at around 50m we could see the huge props at the stern bending slightly toward the bottom at around 70m where one of the earlier pairs gave us a friendly wave. Being the first dive I was happy to spend my time around 58 m where we spent our planned 20 minutes swimming around a hull breach where we could see bits and piece of dinner plates and other tangled bit and pieces of wreckage. What was most impressive about the dive though was the sheer sense of size that one got from having 20m+ visibility allowing you to great a real grasp of the size of this Giant! All too soon the 20 minutes were up and we had made our way back to the shot line for a steady assent. Along with the Trimix computer built into the Vision electronics I was using a VR3. Given the relatively easy dives, nicely controlled ascents on a shot line and a relatively good level of fitness my personal preference is to set the VR3 to zero conservatism and do a couple of extra minutes at 6m. This setting gave pretty much the same deco profiles as the Vision Trimix computer set to GF 85/15 on the mixes I was using for the week although the VR3’s micro bubble stops added a slightly deeper initial deco ceiling. After a total in water time of 55 minutes it was back on board for the welcome cup of tea and the typical “did you see!!!” diver chatter :o)
One thing that must be mentioned about Loyal Watcher in Darren and Linda’s hand is the great hospitality and food that was on offer!!! And if what was on the menu didn’t suit Linda made no fuss at all about offering individuals another option! Doing one dive a day left plenty of time for sleeping, tea drinking, eating, DVD watching and of course the recounting of diving tales!!!! The next day our dive was going to be on the famous Empire Heritage and it’s Sherman Tanks. Diving with Stu and Mark we immediately came off the shot line at 65m and found ourselves in a large section of hold that was fairly complete. What was impressive about this hold was that it was stacked full with Sherman tanks like Tonka trucks in a toy shop!!! Shining our torches along the length of the hold displayed more tanks than I could count! Swimming out of this section we were presented with a mass of wreckage in huge chunks that ordinarily one would have been happy to spend an entire dive just going into one part. Stu elected to go on a tour so we swam in and around the wreckage until it was time to head back to the shot. It was then that we had a moment where we were getting ready to have a vote on where the shot was before, fortunately, we caught the dive light of an ascending diver in the distance :o) so off we went to spend an hour with the rest of guys doing our deco stops. The next day it was decided to revisit the Justicia. I for one wanted to get on the bow to see for myself the view that has been famously captured by Leigh Bishop looking up at the bow from the seabed with the huge anchor on the side. Credit should go to Darren for getting the shot within 30m of the bow!! Diving with Rob we made a beeline for the bow and I got exactly what I was after and I can say it is more impressive in real life than in a picture ;o). The bow section is actually broken off and we swam around it and then explored the other areas of wreckage adjacent taking care not to disturb to much a huge conga underneath one of the plates! This was probably my favourite dive of the trip and turning around as we ascended the shot line the feeling awe was present again as we saw the wreck stretch out into the distance! As we ascended I paid more attention to my VR3 than the Vision electronics so it was nice when I got the red flashing hud and beeping of the unit to remind me to look at my handset –for once the ceiling on the Vision Trimix deco profile was slightly below that of the VR3 –by just less than a metre! a quick drop brought silence and steady green lights :o) I’ve inserted the dive profile for you to have a look at below. You can also see where I had followed the VR3’s microbubble stops (old habits die hard):
What you can also see nicely is the scrubber monitor display of only one segment being used up which was typical for each dive for the entire week. The next day was a dive to revisit the Audacious which, even though it was only Thursday, was to be our last dive off Malin Head. The weather was turning bad and after what had now become a routine dive on a Goliath of the Deep :o) we found ourselves surfacing into what must have been getting close to a force 5 :o) I’ve included the dive profile so that you can see how this affected my depth whilst on the deco station:
So with the weather chasing our heels it was decided to tie the kit down and head off back toward Scotland early with a plan to try and have a dive off of Scotland the next morning! Did we dive the next morning?? Well four of us did a dive down and up a shot line! Bas was my buddy for this one and we went down the shot first. We had been spoilt – coming from the excellent visibility off of Malin Head we found ourselves at the end of shot line at 50m in 1m of visibility somewhere close to a German submarine. We made a quick effort to put our hand on the sub but then gave up and went back up the line in search of a cup of tea :o) Passing Stu and Mark on the way up they elected to continue down but thankfully they didn’t find the sub either –now that would have been a bummer if they had! :o)) So all in all an excellent week with excellent company looked after by an excellent crew! I would recommend it to anyone diving the 60-75m range. It is a week of single dives per day with relatively short bottom times but what you get to see makes this more than worth while!! – I intend to go back again in a year or two! Any regrets? Wish I’d had a camera for some underwater shots!!! Oh and my new Inspiration with the Vision electronics? Absolutely Brill! Cheers MaldivesBando's Island, Maldives
Matt and I have recently been to Bandos island, Maldives to revisit our good friends Axel & Annie. Axel is the manager of the dive resort and also an Inspiration instructor; he has 4 units on the island together with sorb, O2 and helium. Axel gave us the V.I.P treatment arranging a separate boat for just the 3 Inspirations and a crewman each. He also took time out to dive with us every day taking us to virgin sites not dived before. Our typical dive was on the outside walls to 60m taking around 2+ hours to work our way back to the surface.
One highlight was at Embudu Canyon as we hovered at 60m on top of the canyon looking down to the floor a further 80m below!!! We also attempted to circumnavigate the island after being dropped onto Bandos rock, a huge piece of reef resting on the seabed at around 50m and are home to a dozen white tip sharks. 2 and half-hours later we finally arrived back at the dive shop. This sort of diving is what the Inspiration was made for, affording you close encounters with what ever comes your way and in the Maldives it could be tiger shark, great hammerheads, countless reef sharks, huge manta rays, eagle rays and turtles as well as the thousands of exotic reef fish which abound in these waters. We had a great time and plan to go back soon, it is a true divers paradise and the dive shop set up is perfect for taking the Inspiration. Many thanks to Axel & Annie for their hospitality, hope to see you soon.
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