A chilly start saw Ernie and me leaving Shoreham harbour aboard Chris Wests Buccaneer on Sunday.With bright autumn sunshine skipper Chris decided to head east to the wreck of the Mira. With flat seas all week and no rain plus good vis reports during the week hopes were high for a good dive, but the further east we got the more our hopes were falling as the colour of the water was changing. After an hours motor out to the wreck our hopes were well and truly dashed, no video today was the consensus amongst the divers on the boat and Chris was kicking himself for heading east and not west like his name.
Still we were there now and we were soon kitting up and crewman Roger was in tying the shot to the wreck. It has been about 16 years since I last dived the Mira and as I remember that dive was pretty awful, going down the shot it looked like this one wasn't going to be much better.
Once on the wreck Ernie and I contented ourselves to stay midships around once was the engine room. The Mira is a big wreck but the conditions on this dive were not going to allow us to appreciate just how big she is.
Ernie busied himself worrying the blennies whilst I dropped down the side of the hull to investigate a ventilation grill.
The vis was a very grainy 2m at the most and very dark, but a dive is a dive so we made the best of it for around 3o minutes before heading back up to the surface.
Back on board Chris took a bit of ribbing but everyone had made the best of the dive and with crewman Dave playing mum we all enjoyed coffee and cupa soups on the journey back.
I really like the atmosphere on Buccaneer and look forward to the next trip out with Chris sometime in the near future.
Tad
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4 comments:
As they say ....you have go to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince! Or so I'm told!
I dived the Mira on my first deep dive episode, the vis was clear and the size of the ship quite amazing.
I was only allowed to sit on the hull and not go any further at the time but the whole experience was great (about 2000 or 2001) Lee was my buddy I think, I remember he bollocked me on the surface for not keeping a hold of the line on the ascent, bloody right he was as well.
Robbo
Good stuff. Viz wasn't much better on the Oceana.
G'Day Robbo! No problems with viz in your neck of the woods these days eh? Just keep an eye out for the box jelly fish!
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