BSAC EXPEDITIONARY GRANT SCHEME
- EXPEDITION REPORT
“The
Optimist Challenge”
Bedford
Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC
0089),
By Lisa Bedard
Click here for pics (no.086.4)
Thursday
Most of the divers made their way to Sea Palling during the
evening on Thursday, with Lisa and Kevin arriving last at about 10.30. We all
piled into the caravan to hear the briefing from Paul C, who was designated as
Dive Manager for the first dive on Friday.
Many
of the divers had taken the opportunity to dive the Ethel during the summer and
Kevin had produced an artist’s impression of the wreck, which proved very
useful in evaluating and modifying the planned tasks. Graham and Kevin’s
experience is that when the wreck is shotted, the shot is likely to end up in
the area of the boiler (central) on the wreck. In the end it was agreed that all
three pairs will descend that shot line: the first pair (Fiona and Rebekah) will
head for the bow; the second pair (Paul C and Linda) will head for the stern and
the third pair (Graham and Clive) will recover the grapple and send it up using
a lifting bag. The bow and stern pairs will be armed with a length of line
sufficient to use as a shot line and a DSMB. On arrival, they will attach the
lines (very firmly) to the bow and stern respectively and send them up via the
DSMB. Once pair 3 has recovered the grapple, they will head for the bow and, if
there is time, lay the measuring tape from bow to stern and measure the length
of the wreck. The bow and stern pairs should also record the depth of the sea
bed at bow and stern and record the height of the wreck from the sea bed. With
any remaining dive time they might photograph points of interest in these
locations.
Friday
The alarms went off at 6 a.m. and everyone was up, dressed and
breakfasted as soon as possible. Paul (our host) had the TV on to catch the
weather forecast and Graham and Kevin went off to look at the sea. In spite of
what the TV said, the sea looked almost flat calm and we were all set to go.
Paul W arrived just as we were leaving to go down to launch the boat and that
meant that the whole team was present for the start of the diving. The boat was
prepared, all kit stowed aboard (except for Rebekah’s weightbelt – Bekah,
you definitely owe Paul C a pint after making him run all the way back to the
truck!) and the two shot lines with DSMB attached were carefully fed into two
net bags. The boat was hooked up to the tractor and the launch commenced. By
0700 the boat was heading out to the dive site, leaving Paul W, Helen and Lisa
tasked with fuel shopping and administration.
The
journey out to the dive site was uneventful and the wreck was shotted
successfully on the second attempt. The first pair went in at 0805 and found the
grapple located between the boiler and the bow. They turned and headed for the
stern, stopping at the boiler to record the depth to the top. They looked at the
engine block and swam along the prop shaft tunnel before taking measurements at
the deck of the stern. They attached the shot line to a framework just below the
stern railing and then went down to record the depth of the sea bed. They
completed the dive by returning to inspect the area around the prop shaft tunnel
and then sent up their DSMB. Pair 2 went to the bow, where they looked for
something sturdy to attach the shot line to. They chose a suitable piece of
wreckage and attached the shot line using a series of reef knots. They then sent
the line up on the DSMB as planned. They looked around the area of the bow and
found an Admiralty pattern anchor, sitting upright on one of its flukes on the
port side of the wreck. Pair 2 returned to the grapple (pair 3 had not yet
arrived) and shortly after decided to send up their DSMB and ascend. The stern
shot was also sent up successfully. Both pairs reported that the line-in-a-bag
system worked very well. Pair 3 entered the water at 0837, descended the shot
line, put a lifting bag on the grapple and sent it up. They then went to the bow
and attached one end of the tape by means of a Prussic knot, and then started to
lay the tape, working towards the stern. By this time the current was starting
to pick up and it became increasingly difficult to lay the tape, so they decided
to secure the tape at about 21.5 metres to a post on the starboard side. From
this point, they moved across to the port side, around the boiler and on to the
stern. At the stern they measured the depth of the deck, before heading down
into the scour under the prop where they again recorded the depth. From there
they went back along the port side: however the current was beginning to get
very strong, so they sent up a DSMB and ascended.
During
the morning the wind blew up and it started to look unlikely that we would dive
in the afternoon. Nevertheless we continued as if we were diving and got the kit
and boat prepared for the second dive. The decision was made that we would
launch and would go out to “suck it and see”. We got three miles out and the
swell was considerable. Paul was driving the RIB with Kevin supervising and
coaching. Paul commented how mentally tiring it was to drive a RIB in such heavy
swell and how he felt he had learned a lot about driving the RIB in more
difficult sea conditions. The decision was made to return (very slowly) to Sea
Palling. We considered a “reccy” dive on the Fulgens, which is one of our
reserve wrecks: however the swell was no better closer to shore and the day’s
diving was abandoned.
Whilst
waiting for the tractor to come to recover the boat, Clive gave an impromptu
class on Cardinal Marks and how to measure cloud cover using the Okta system.
Once the boat was recovered and everyone fed and showered as required, Graham
took Kevin, both Pauls, Fiona and Bekah to learn partial pressure blending and
to fill the cylinders used during the morning dive. Clive, Helen, Lisa and Linda
stayed behind to start recording the morning’s data and plan for the next day.
A
brief planning session before dinner resulted in a group decision to leave the
kit where it was on the boat and stay with the same buddy pairs and tasks as we
had planned for the afternoon dive today.
Saturday
The weather on Saturday morning was overcast and slightly
breezy: however the decision was that the sea state was just about acceptable
and the RIB left Sea Palling at 0700. On arrival at the dive site we were
delighted to see that in spite of the rough seas overnight, our little red
canister was still supporting the bow shot line (well-spotted by Fi!) First in
were Kevin and Linda who were tasked with laying the rest of the centre tape and
sending the stern shot line back up. They went in just before slack and had a
bit of a fight to get down the line: however they carried out their task
successfully right up to the point where, after they had taken the final length
measurement, they discovered that the tape had subsequently broken at the stern
shot line. They re-attached it just behind the aft castle and tied it off.
Lisa
and Fi went in second, tasked with measuring the port side of the wreck.
Unfortunately, on arriving at the bottom, Lisa realised she had forgotten the
tape measure and, furthermore, forgot that she could have used her line reel
which she had marked off in metre intervals for the first 20 metres. After a
quick “discussion” they decided to hang around the bow section in case Clive
and Paul brought the second reel with them when they came down the line. Lisa
sketched and photographed while Fi sought out creatures to photograph and
record. After about 20 minutes it was obvious that Clive and Paul weren’t
coming, so they headed aft. Lisa found a very large Lobster in the boiler and Fi
found a couple of tiny white Nudibranchs. Arriving at the stern shot line, it
was clear that Kevin and Linda had been successful in sending it back up, so
Lisa and Fi started to ascend it. When they were part way up it started to feel
like the knots had come undone and seemed to go very slack for a while, so they
started to prepare a DSMB to send up. Then the line went taut again and they
completed their ascent successfully using it. It turned out that Paul C had
frantically been trying to re-attach the canister to the top whilst they were
ascending the line!
The
journey back to Sea Palling was, once again, exhausting for skipper and divers
alike, due to the heavy swell. However the forecast was that it would get no
worse, so the decision was made to go back out, but to go to one of our reserve
wrecks, the Fulgens, which is only 2 miles out. During the three-hour break,
Lisa went through the Dive management 1 module for Dive Leader with Paul and
Rebekah, who are both working towards Dive Leader and have nearly completed the
course. Rebekah was appointed as (supervised) Dive Manager for the afternoon
dive, and Clive covered all aspects of the safety briefing with her so she would
be ready to give the briefing to the troops before launch.
We
launched at 2 pm and Clive took the role of skipper for the short journey out to
the wreck. The wreck was shotted quickly: however the current was still running.
Kevin and Linda dropped in first, but missed the line and were carried away by
the wind and the tide, so Clive gave them a very gentle tow back to it. Graham
and Rebekah went in shortly afterwards. Although we had planned for them to take
in the metre-squares Paul C had made to practice a marine life survey, we failed
to pass these to them successfully and they went down without them. Their
secondary task was to carry out a “reccy” of the site and gain an impression
of its layout so we can consider how to survey it. Lisa and Fi had developed a
more ambitious plan involving Lisa’s marked-up line reel and a circular
search. She had prepared a slate with concentric circles on it, planning to use
the reel at 5, 10, 15 and 20 metre distances to search the area around the
grapple. After dropping in without the slate, it looked like they might have to
descend without it, but Lisa wasn’t having any of that and managed to hold on
at the top of the shot line until Clive was able to manoeuvre the boat close
enough for Helen to throw the slate to her. She caught it as it started to sink,
passed it to Fi and they headed down.
The
grapple was located in an area where there were large plates, and it was obvious
that it would be easy to recover it, so Lisa attached the line to it and reeled
out to 5 metres. The first circle was quite easy to perform and Fi marked items
of interest onto the circle as Lisa controlled the reel and photographed marine
life and points of interest. The second circle was slightly harder, with the 10
metre line, which snagged a little. Because of the height of the plates and
other wreckage, the 15 metre circle proved very difficult, and it became very
confusing for poor Fi who was trying to work out how far around the circle they
had got, only to discover that the line had snagged and doubled back. At the
limit of the 15m circle, when they were almost three quarters of the way around,
they spotted a large area of wreckage that was high off the bottom, so they gave
up on the circle and went out past the 20m mark where they found an engine and a
large boiler, all covered in Plumose anemones and other life, and teeming with
Bib and Poor Cod. After a brief examination of this area it was time to go back
to the grapple, to ensure there was time to move it clear, attach the lifting
bag and send it up. This was done successfully and, after comparing dive time
and air remaining, they realised that there was time to go back for a better
look at the engine and boiler, which they duly did. Their ascent was carried out
from the top of the boiler at 15.5 metres, having deployed the DSMB.
While
the afternoon dive was being carried out the two Pauls worked on a new plan for
placing a centre line on the Ethel. The measuring tape had proved too weak for
the task and had snapped due to the current across the wreck being too strong.
In addition, it was easy to misread or misunderstand the measurements on it.
Paul C came up with the idea of using a rope with knots tied at 3 metre
intervals. Paul W came up with the idea of marking it with insulation tape
instead of knots.
The
post-diving activities in the evening included a detailed survey of what gas
supplies remained and what the plan for filling would be. Due to the large
number of cylinders we had managed to beg and borrow between us, the gas filling
has not been as frequent as we had expected. Paul W, who is to be tomorrow’s
(supervised) Dive Manager, was tasked with working out what full cylinders were
available and what filling would need to be done to ensure we only had to go and
fill one more time. Having done that, we then looked at how this would be
accomplished and by who, and who would dive and who would cox the boat for the
first dive tomorrow. It was finally decided that the filling would be done by
Kevin and Paul W, both of whom have to return home after the first dive
tomorrow, so they were keen to be divers for that dive. Graham would cox the
boat and the divers would be Kevin, Paul C, Clive, Paul W, Rebekah and Fi;
leaving Lisa and Helen to work on logs, lunch and finances! Linda was then able
to take up an invitation she had received from another club to go out for a
day’s diving with them.
Rebekah
carried out a debrief on the afternoon dive during dinner, and afterwards the
team returned to the caravan to log the rest of the data from the day’s dives.
Sunday
The weather on Sunday morning was much better than it had been
so far, with fairly calm seas and a bit of sunshine. The clouds rolled in just
as the boat left Sea Palling at about 8 a.m. There was some concern regarding
being to locate the Ethel in the event that the canisters had become detached
from the shot lines, as the Fishfinder had developed a fault after the last dive
and was now unusable. The back-up plan was, therefore, to redirect to the
Fulgens if this happened, as the Fulgens is much easier to shot, being scattered
over a large area. The journey out to the wreck site was accomplished quickly as
it was a flat calm. On arrival the team found that the bow shot canisters had
gone, but the stern shot was still in place. On arrival at the site, Rebekah and
the Pauls used the water quality sampler that Rebekah had brought with her.
Clive
and Paul W were the first pair in on the stern shot. They laid out the marked
rope, keeping it as low to the deck as possible, passing it under the stern
winch and across the top of the engine and boiler, and tying it off where needed
to prevent it from floating in the water and causing a hazard. Kevin and Rebekah
were the second pair in (measuring the port side of the wreck), followed quickly
by Paul C and Fi (starboard side). The measurement proceeded with both teams
working quickly, efficiently and in tandem! The visibility was excellent, and
the teams could see each other at work during the process. Rope signals were
mostly not necessary and the pairs used torch flashing and visual/hand signals
instead. The measurements were completed successfully, including a measurement
of the height of the boiler and the depth of the sea bed inside the wreck. The
teams finished at the bow with plenty of time and air to spare, so they went on
a “bimble” to see what else they could see. All ascended using DSMBs at the
end of their dives and the bow shot was re-established.
The
weather had worsened during the dive, and the journey back from the wreck site
was a little “lumpier” than on the way out. There was some question as to
whether it would be possible to get back out on the Ethel in the afternoon. As
it turned out, the wind blew up, and only the hardiest of divers were launching
and heading out from Sea Palling for the afternoon’s diving. Lisa, Graham and
Paul C stood at the sea wall and watched the sea and decided on the prudent
course of action. The waves were crashing onto the beach and the launch and
recovery would have been potentially quite hazardous, therefore even the idea of
a dive on the Fulgens was abandoned.
The
afternoon was spent arranging for kit that was no longer required (mostly empty
cylinders) to go home with Kevin and Paul; working out trip costs and reviewing
the diving that had been done and the data that had been collected. Lisa used
the measurements that had been taken on the morning’s dive and plotted them on
graph paper to produce a plan view of the Ethel. The result was definitely
ship-shaped. She then started work on a side elevation and managed to draw the
two ends and the engine and boiler in the middle, but not much else. Potentially
more measurements to be gathered tomorrow! Then Clive provided a lesson on
chartwork which took us to 6 p.m. and almost time for dinner.
Monday
We awoke to an almost flat calm and the best weather forecast
we’d had all weekend. The diving plan was finalised and we launched shortly
after 9 a.m. On arrival at the wreck site, we were pleased to see that both
markers were still firmly attached to our shot lines, so when slack arrived, we
kitted up and went in. Paul C and Linda were the first pair in, tasked with
measuring the dimensions of and distances between the key points of interest on
the wreck, and also with recovering the lines and tapes we had put on it. They
went down the bow shot line and started work at that end, leaving the stern shot
line for last and thus allowing the other two pairs to use it for descent.
Rebekah and Graham went in next, armed with one of the metre squares Paul C had
made. They were to carry out a marine life survey on the Port side of the wreck.
Lisa and Fi were carrying out a marine life survey on the starboard side, but
first Lisa went down to the bottom to check out the underside of the stern and
the propeller, as she had not yet seen these. She noted that the two top blades
of the propeller were snapped off; one half way across the blade and one
completely. She then ascended to the deck where Fi had assembled the metre
square and was ready to start the count. The vis was superb, but even so,
counting marine life on a wreck which is so completely covered in it is
certainly not an easy task. Lisa and Fi’s count become less quantity and more
variety as the dive progressed, as both of them were keen on marine life
identification and had a fair idea of what they were looking at. They managed to
get about three quarters of the way along the wreck before time and air were
getting short and it was time to ascend. Whilst working on top of the boiler,
they looked up and saw Graham and Rebekah preparing to ascend from their dive.
Graham gave the double “OK” signal – what a fantastic dive!
Graham
and Rebekah’s marine life survey also went well. Paul and Linda were
successful in recovering the lines, and developed a system that worked quickly
and well. This left them with enough time to take most of the measurements that
were required as well. All pairs ascended safely and the diving was complete.
The trip back was uneventful and it was then time to wash down the boat and
equipment, eat lunch, pack up and head home.
We
all felt that the expedition had been a great success, even at this point:
however we were also keen to come back and finish the work we had begin on the
Fulgens. The Fulgens will be a challenge to measure and map out, because it is
spread out over quite a large area and you have no idea exactly where on the
wreck your initial shot will land. We have decided to use our reserve weekend,
for those of us who are able to make it, to do three more dives on the Fulgens
in order to collect more data and hopefully produce some kind of a wreck tour
for this wreck as well. Between now and then we will all be racking our brains
to come up with the best techniques for surveying the Fulgens!
20-21
September 2008
Friday
Most of the re-formed BEGS expedition team assembled at Sea
Palling from 7 p.m. on Friday night. Lisa and Paul were first to arrive and Paul
immediately started work on fitting the new Fishfinder (we had discovered that
the old one was broken after the last dive of the 5-8 weekend and it had not
been possible to repair it). It was not an easy task because it was already
almost dark and Paul was working by torchlight. In addition, the bolts on the
old mounting were very difficult to undo and one proved impossible. Paul ended
up slotting the new Fishfinder into the old mounting and fixing it temporarily
with tie wraps. A proper job would be done in the daylight. When Ian, Rebekah
and Graham had arrived, Paul went through his plan for the next day’s diving.
The
idea would be to try to shot the wreck as close to the boiler as possible and
then pair one would go down the shot line, clip a reel onto the shot and head
off in search of the boiler. If the vis was as good as the last time we dived
the Fulgens this ought to be relatively easy. Pairs two and three would follow
pair one’s line from the reel to the boiler. Pair one would lay one of the new
marked-up 30-metre lines from the boiler past the engine in as straight a line
as possible (ie hopefully in the direction of what would be the bow of the
wreck). This line has marks (tie wraps) every 3 metres and karabiners at 0, 15
and 30 metres. Pairs two and three would clip the tape measures onto the
karabiners at 0 and 15 metres initially, and survey the port and starboard sides
respectively, using triangulation. If the initial survey did not take too long
they would then survey between 15 and 30 metres. Once the “bow” line was
laid, pair one would go to the back of the boiler and lay a shorter line in the
direction of the stern (shorter because this wreck was an aft-engine collier,
therefore the boiler and engine should be closer to the stern than the bow).
They would then return to the boiler and send up a fixed shot line from the top
of the boiler, to be used for subsequent dives. The last part of the plan was
that pair three would, assuming the bow line had been laid, unclip the initial
line from the grapple, clip it to the nearest suitable piece of wreckage and
then send up the grapple using a lifting bag. Pair one would need to reel back
and unclip before ascending on their DSMB. A fairly ambitious plan for a
40-minute slack: however the stern line could always be done on a subsequent
dive if time was running short.
Saturday
We had calculated that slack water on the Fulgens would be at
approximately 8.30 a.m. so we launched at 7.45 and arrived at the wreck site at
8. The sea was almost a flat calm and the sky was blue. Cloud cover, using the
Okta scale of course, was probably a zero! On arrival we quickly realised that
slack water had fooled us again and come half an hour early. We shotted the
wreck in double-quick time, threw our kit on, buddy checked and hit the water.
Pairs one and two (the Pauls, and Lisa and Daniela) went in within minutes of
each other. Pair three would kit up afterwards and go in last.
Heading
down the line the water was dark and full of sediment. Things were not looking
promising. Arriving at the bottom of the shot line the Pauls discovered that the
grapple had landed right beside the boiler (impressive shotting from Graham R)
and that the visibility was about six inches! Paul C assessed the situation: the
tide was already beginning to run, the visibility was awful and there was no way
it would be safe to start laying lines in those conditions. He made the decision
to abort. Lisa and Daniela were hanging on the line just above the Pauls. They
received the signal to abort the dive and headed back up the line. Once both
pairs had arrived back on the surface, they explained the situation and Ian and
Rebekah agreed to go down and recover the grapple. It was obvious at this time
that there would be no point trying to dive the Fulgens again this weekend. We
later discovered that during the past week, work had started on the sea defences
being constructed at Wroxham, involving a large quantity of sand being dumped in
the sea there. We believe that this could explain the poor visibility at this
time.
After
speaking to some local experts and consulting another group who had gone diving
to the South of Sea Palling that morning, we decided that our best chance of
good visibility was further out to the North. We settled on a wreck called the
Camilla Weston which was reported to be approximately 25 metres deep and as
such, is another wreck that might be suitable for new Sports divers to progress
depth and experience. It took us a few attempts to get the shot on the wreck and
then we had a fairly long wait before slack water arrived (we had learned our
lesson from this morning and gone early!) In the end, only one pair (Ian and
Rebekah) carried out a dive on the wreck. Paul and Lisa got as far as 26m and
had not actually reached the bottom of the shot. They were put off by the
darkness and apparent poor visibility and decided to abort. Ian and Rebekah
reported that the shot had actually landed in the shadow of the wreck, on the
sea bed close to the stern. They also reported that this wreck was upright and
apparently intact, with an intact superstructure that rises up to about 15
metres proud of the sea bed. In good visibility and assuming we could shot it
actually on the wreck, this would definitely be suitable to depth progress
Sports Divers. Unfortunately, we failed to retrieve our grapple, so the plan for
tomorrow will be to return to the wreck (weather permitting) and recover it.
On
the way back we decided to check out the lagoon next to the Sea Palling launch
area where we had been advised you can find suitable conditions for training,
for example navigation etc. We dropped in on the seaward side of the rocky
groins (check spelling) that protect the beach around Sea Palling. We found a
silty, sandy bottom covered in worms, crabs and sand gobies. Once we reached the
rocks we found them covered in mussels, all open and frilly; and feeding on the
mussels were large numbers of common starfish. Paul and Rebekah saw a couple of
Lobsters and there were also a number of Dahlia Anemones, although less
colourful than those on the Ethel and Fulgens. It was only a short dive, as the
last tractor collection is at 5 p.m. however it was a very pleasant dive and
resulted in quite a few good photographs. We often find that our new Ocean
Divers come to the end of their training without having dived in the sea. We are
now confident that we can consider taking them to Sea Paling, walking out across
the sand bar at low tide and introducing them to sea diving and currents in
comparatively safe and controlled conditions.
Sunday
Sunday’s
weather was blue sky and almost flat calm. A successful dive on the Camilla
Weston in better visibility than the previous day resulted in the grapple being
recovered and all divers reporting it as an excellent wreck. We are definitely
keen to return next year to gather more information about this wreck and its
inhabitants.