
Second day of diving!
I still have the whole week ahead of me. As the diving yesterday was great fun, it also served me to work a bit on my skills and to trim my gear for the days to come. I feel more confident now, as not only know my buddies skills but also that my gear is 100% and I am “sort of” back in shape.
This came in time, because the targets of today are the James Barrie and the F2.
The James Barrie was a 666 ton Icelandic steam trawler that ran aground while passing one of Orkney’s access channels. Se started to take on water and was abandoned by her crew. This happened on 27th March 1969.
Two days later, the tide “freed” the James Barrie and it started to float on Pentland Firth Unmanned, like a ghost ship. Not bad for a 666 ton ship, huh?
One of Kirkwall’s lifeboats, the Grace Paterson Richie, tried to tow her back to port but unfortunately (or fortunately for us divers) she sunk in Hoxa Sound, off Widewall Bay about a mile south of Hoxa Gead.

I decided to approach this dive carefully, as I didn’t have any Trimix available the 43m seabed was below the reasonable limit. The currents would also require me to make a good effort to reach the bottom, consequently raising my CO2 level and increasing narcosis. I was also feeling seasick, which didn’t help at all!
Ian, the Skipper, dropped a piece of weight that would serve us as an “anchor” for the lifeline. Unfortunately the rope attached to it broke, and we had to also conduct a small “salvage operation”.
We went down slow on the lifeline, trying not to make too much effort. As I reached 40m I felt a little narked. I went up a bit as I looked Tom, one of my buddies, tying the lift bag on the weight and Kevin, my other buddy, floating around. After the dive he confessed he was completely narked… scary.
Tom managed to lift the weight and off we went to the wreck. No penetration, just a 25 min wand around and off I went to deco.
I was using EAN 27, and here is the deco I did:
27m – 18m – very slow ascent (around 3 min)
18m – 1 min
15m – 1 min
12m – 2 min
9m – 2 min
6m – 12 min
Since I set my computer to bottom time I had no problem running that deco. My buddies, because they were using Mosquitoes, preferred to go directly to 6m, so I had to run that by my own.
Didn’t like that of course, and decided to be better prepared for next time. Deco is not something you should do alone. Even not being DIR anymore, buddy dive is something I strongly believe in.
The dive finished without problems. I was the last on in the boat, but I don’t care as long I am comfortable with the procedures I am carrying on.

When being salvaged, a Barge (the YC 21) that was holding some of the metal taken from her sank, making a very interesting dive as well. Our plan was to start the dive in the barge and end it on the F2. She lies less than 18m of water and it is indeed an interesting second dive.
I asked Ian to “top up” my mix with air and I set my dive plan to 21%. This would make it safer. We had almost 2 hours of surface interval, but I wanted to take it easy. Besides, the water was cold and I didn’t want to make a bottom time longer than 30 minutes.
Off we went to the Barge. Soon after we went down, the two 20mm anti aircraft guns appeared pointing at us, just like the ship was defending itself from us. Impressive sight and we all approached to inspect that weapon that once was a demonstration of power, and now is just a base for sea life.

The impressive part is the big 4.1 inch cannon in the front. The barrel is still intact and pointing toward the bow, defying the unknown. Impressive!
After a 34 min bottom time I began my slow ascent to the surface. No deco this time, but a 3 minute safety stop at 6m just for the record.
After this day I was feeling very tired. Maybe I pushed too hard on the deco, maybe it was the seasickness or just the cold water was hitting me. I don’t know what happened, but I decided to eat and go to bed early. Wise decision as the next day we were planning to do the Dresden and the Tabaka again. Can’t wait to get there!
1 Comments:
Interesting site. Useful information. Bookmarked.
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