I was at home preparing dinner one night just after Christmas when I switched on the news and saw a battle being bravely fought to save a ship which had run into difficulties off the coast in severe weather. The Greek-registered ship was heading for Alexandria but was stricken mid-channel 35 miles southeast of Dartmouth.

Over the next few hours the story changed from attempts to save the ship to attempts to save her crew. A joint French and English rescue mission was launched to save the twenty crew, some of whom were injured after being pounded by force seven gales off the coast and with some acts of bravery the lifeboats were brought alongside the massive ship and all were saved.

Just a quick update, some photos and video from our practise day at Vobster.

In the end 5 members of DIR-UK team turned up to run through survey techniques and generally have some fun in preperation for the summer's revisit to the unkown sailing ship.  Alastair shot some video and had some fun editing it  -you can see it here.

Practice of survey techniques comes in useful in other arenas too so was worthwhile - as well as getting together with some nice guys and going diving!

A well fitting harness should be adjusted so that it is not really tight (you need to be able to get out of it easily) but not so loose that the set rolls around on your back which would be really uncomfortable.  I’ve drafted out some instructions to help you get it right for you.

A diver's harness should be rigged from one piece of webbing and should have no quick-release buckles or other failure points. Though plastic quick-release buckles seem to simplify the process of getting into and out of one's dive gear, these “savings” are illusory, putting a diver at greater risk that s/he would be without it. In many cases this could prove fatal as the diver clings to tanks whose negative tendency stands in stark contrast to his/her own positive tendency. In cases where the loosened or dislodged quick release does not cause a diver to lose their tanks it can easily cause a dangerously significant shift in weight, throwing the diver off balance.

After a Sunday spent fixing, filling, sleeping and eating, Monday saw us head to Ressel for the dive I had been planning for some time – the deep circuit which takes us to a max depth of 70 metres for about 2.7 kilometres total travel distance. 

This dive done open circuit requires six stages, three for bottom gas and three deco/travel gases.   The stages in this picture are all to be carried by me.  The RBs take four stages and each of us had twinsets on which were intended for redundancy alone.

Working together the large amount of kit required was carted down the goat track to the river quite quickly and we ate lunch in a very civilised manner before kitting up.  The water level was way down on where it had been on Thursday.  I got in first and spent some time arranging my stages in a way that I was comfortable with for each of the drop which were to come, clipped off my scooter and rested in the 24 degree river water.

We can’t dive Ginnie tonight – it will be worse than last night with the Memorial weekend partygoers marinated even more than yesterday. We sit at dinner with Kevin and Cris who we have arranged to meet up and dive with and discuss our options….. "Well", said Kevin, "You could come and dive my cave."

That’s a conversation stopper.

"It’s not that bad" he said. "You have to descend in the flow through an almost vertical restriction, through a load of roots and branches which can get stuck in your regulator so you have to be a bit careful. Viz is quite bad as it is tannic river water and the silt is very fine particulate which floats up as you pass over it. It’s a neat cave though, it’s only tried to kill me twice."

Tuesday – can you believe it we still have the weather on our side and we get to choose again. This time it is to be the Pangani which is even further off shore and in right at the end of the shipping lanes so we can expect company on deco.

The Pangani was a very large sailing ship that sunk as the result of a collision. She rises in places fourteen metres from the seabed and is broken in two forming a dogleg. Absolutely stuffed with pottery, when the vis is good in this area, and it often is, she is a stunning dive.