Alaunia - Out of Eastbourne with Dive 125 April 23, 2006
Posted by Mark Gilmour in : Dive Reports, UK diving , trackbackThis is great, in the sea, twice in a week. After a very nice weekend at Easter Janos from YD had organised a trip out of Eastbourne with Dive 125. The plan was to dive the Alaunia, a 520 foot Cunard liner that struck a mine returning to London from New York in 1916. Today she lies sitting 8-12m proud of the 36m sand and shingle seabed.
Our boat for the day was the Our W, formally of Weymouth but now of Eastbourne and under the command of Dave & Sylvie Ronnan. We were to meet the boat at Sovereign North Harbour which sits protected and secluded behind locks affording a nice level platform when loading and unloading kit from the boat. The downside is that you have to wait for the locks to open/close which happen half hourly during off peak times. We were informed to be ready for loading at 10.15am and ropes off at 10.30am
Looking at the journey time from home and calculating that I would hit a bit of traffic maybe at Worthing or Brighton I headed off just before 7am. I hit no traffic and so arrived about 8.45am. Howard was already there and so we made our way over to Asda for some brekkie where we met Paul and one of the Toms. A little while later Janos joined us, we finished our breakfast and made our way back to the cars to load up the rest of the gear.
All had arrived by this point and we chatted and waited for Dave to bring the boat round to the loading point. All of our kit was ready as Dave arrived and we piled the kit on board. There were 11 divers in total all with Twinset/stages or rebreathers and the boat just swallowed the kit. There was plenty of space. Our W really is a big boat. We slowly made our way to the locks and then headed out. The sea was calm and rather pleasant and also a very inviting looking green, promising a decent amount of vis. We weren’t disappointed.
Dive 1 Alaunia Just before midday we arrived onsite and placed the shot. Within a few minutes we were on slack so we sorted out final kit up when Paul’s backup 2nd stage started whistling a little, a bit of fine tuning seemed to cure it but by this time, every one else was in and Colin had experienced a suit failure at the shot, so Sylvie needed to pick him up before letting Paul and I in. As a result we lost maybe 10-12minutes of slack so that after 15minutes of our dive we were faced with a bit of current, not a real concern just meant we didn’t quite make the whole of the wreck.
On our descent Paul led the way, we reached the wreck at 27m meaning that the 
shot was just down from the bow, which sits some 3 or 4m more proud, instead of turning back on ourselves to have a look at the bow, we headed off towards the stern. Paul found a lobby but he had retreated to the safety of the wreck and wasn’t reachable. I found a decent sized conger hiding underneath a plate of wreckage but he wasn’t in the mood for coming out from his hiding place either. After about 15 minutes the current started to run from Stern to Bow, against us, which slowed our already quite lazy pace down somewhat, not that I minded, there was a lot of wreck to see and plenty of nooks and crannies to go off exploring in. I was mindful of Pauls 2nd stage that had played up on the surface so was conscious to keep fairly close by but sometimes found myself engrossed in having a good look in the extremites of the wreck. As we made our way to the stern we passed the exposed prop shaft that seemed to punch it’s way through the boat towards the stern underneath all the plating, with more time and a bit more warmth, (both of us were suffering a little with the cold after waiting a bit on deck) it could have been worth a little node around the prop shaft underneath the decking and towards the stern to see if there were any ways in or around. By this point the current was picking up and I was feeling that I had enough, it was then that Paul turned to me signalled he was getting cold and offered another 5 minutes to which I agreed. To be honest the next five minutes flew by as we investigated the wreck yet further. We saw that that the wreck was tailing of yet deeper than the 29m we had aready reached and seeing as though we were towards the end of our dive we both didn’t want to journey any deeper, so called the dive.
Dave had asked us both to send up blobs which we did. I again had major trouble unclipping my reel, which I am going to have to resolve. Cold fingers played a part but in the end I had to ask Paul to unclip, gotta get that sorted. The crack bottle SMB worked flawlessly, nice and easy and we made our steady ascent. As I was on 50% on my stage I switched at 18m, Paul was on 70% so switched shallower. After letting the computers clear at 6m we surfaced, I was a bit quick from 3m to the surface but that was due to me shutting my dump valve on my suit a little too early to keep some of that warm air in my suit.
Back on board, Sylvie passed out some hot drinks and we all recounted the decent dive we had had. Vis was a very respectable 5-8m in most places with very good ambient light.
SI Our surface interval was fairly uneventful except for the cursing and swearing coming from Dave as he toiled with the compressor that didn’t want to play ball. The lack of dive shops in the area had led Dave to install a compressor on board but today she was not playing ball. Kinda got the impression that Dave is a bit highly strung from this and this was in evidence again later in the day when we all heard him “conversing” down the phone to a fellow diver who couldn’t make the trip that day. Shame as it made most on board a little apprehensive.
Dive 2 Drift under the Sovereign Tower For our second dive of the day we were given a choice of drifts. A better drift at 15m but much more inland and therefore much worse vis or 25m under the tower, better vis but not as much to see. We opted for the 25m drift and wow it was dark and little vis. At about 5-8m it went pretty much black out. Paul descended much quicker than I did and I lost sight of him in a few seconds. I just looked for his exhaust bubbles as I descended. I reached the bottom maybe 3m away from him but couldn’t see him at all, it wasn’t until his torch light met mine that I found him. We met up, the plan was one SMB per pair but considering the vis it seemed much more sensible to shoot one each. For this dive I used my ratchet reel which had a lock on it, much easier for drift diving. With it being pitch black there was nothing to see outside the immediate glow of the torchlight, but in the light vis was about 2m, enough to see a couple of dogfish, starfish and the occasional rock. After about 15minutes we thumbed the dive, although that was only when Paul grabbed hold of my torch pointed it down to the seabed and made the signal to ascend underneath my torch so I could see it. I gave him the big OK and we ascended.
Even though it was dark and eery, the dive itself felt very comfortable, all my kit was good, with the exception of my Apeks Quantum that had gone into a childish paddy, trying to resolve what happened there as it is all fine now. Going to talk with Apeks and find out.
A thoroughly enjoyable two dives in the midweek which always feel better!!! A top day out again within 7 days of diving.
Excellent, thanks to Janos for organising and Paul for diving with me. A really good day out.
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