Cant be bothered with Colossus

 I recently did a radio interview about my diving exploits- and this wreck, as always, seems to pop up. Little wonder as Colossus is such a famous shipwreck and  formed such a huge part of my life for quite a while too. You see-I found a very substantial part of it and had a lot of fun down there when I had it all to myself. Then, after a couple of years, for various reasons, archaeologists got involved and that destroyed everything. The last straw for me was this photograph. I went from doing what I liked on the wreck-when I liked -to dropping it completely. Why? Well there are numerous reasons but the main reason was the over-bearing authorities and their draconian ways and the paperwork they like to give you that I could well do without in my life. You see, the thing is this- the moment a wreck gets protected the authorities suddenly become very anal about it.  They even think its a sort of privilege to have a site protected. "Hey" they say, cheerily, "you can get a licence to dive it- wont that be great?"  Err, well no, not really.  Its not like they give the finder of a site a licence for life for finding it- no, you have to apply for it every year just like everyone else- and have to tick all their unreasonable boxes to get it as well.. Then you have to report on every visit you make -and on every diver that goes in the water and what was seen. And its not like you can dive it alone any more- like you used to either -no- now you have to have a buddy diver to go in with you and a boatman aboard up top at all times for "safety". Then at the end of a season you have to write a report about all your activities, providing information on everyone involved and their qualifications and details etc etc etc. Its endless unnecessary tick box drivel. Why would anyone want this?-  And god forbid you transgress in anyway shape or form because they are eagerly waiting to pounce. Not only can  I not be bothered with all the above bureaucracy- but when they got all uppity at things like me staging this photograph on the wreck, I'd had enough. All I did was to take off my mask and demand valve to have this picture taken behind one of the cannons. No harm was done at all. The wreck is only 12meters down at low water- so if anything was to go wrong the surface is just a few fin strokes away- moreover-someone like me can just snorkel to it- or duck dive down to it while merely swimming. So why on earth would a photo like this be so upsetting to anyone?  Well after being chastised for having my picture taken- I just dropped the wreck entirely. I also dropped another wreck I found that also had a protected order placed upon it too for the same reasons. I have found that you cannot reason with university type know-it-all's who sit behind desks thinking they are doing you a favour by placing pointless rules upon you -and that look for problems where none exist. Thus nowadays I dive all my other discoveries and try to steer well clear of the people in grey suits... This picture was taken years ago and the only times I have gone anywhere near the wreck in recent years is only if a licence holder approaches me to take them out to it. Im happy to spend time with, and talk to, fellow divers about the wreck- but I will not go into the water now as a matter of principal.  I dont want the bods in my life any more unless its absolutely necessary. Far too much water has gone under the bridge with them. And dont even get me started on archaeologists. They are Holier than thou and anyone who's job is built on recognition cannot be entirely above board.....in my opinion.

 Storm Eunace  worst for 30 years??

Well it got a bit windier than normal but the media kept calling storm Eunace the biggest storm for 30 years. Totally over hyped it in my view. We had one in recent years that was much worse. I judge it by how much the sea comes into our town. Storms over the 23 years I have lived at Scilly have often topped our sea defences and ventured into the streets of Hugh town & Old Town but none of that happened with Eunace. Not long back we saw huge rollers hit our quay and curl over its whole length-so much so that if one had a mind to surf the wall one could try. The sea hardly splashed over it this time let alone come into the streets. The sea was dramatic under the strong winds but not really what we at Scilly would call a storm to beat all others. The media nowadays are such drama queens in everything they report on.  We had the strongest winds recorded out here than the whole of Cornwall.

Took Daisy my dog out in it and she wasn't that bothered by it at all. She disappeared down a rat hole pulled the whole nest out. By the time I got to her she had tore them all to pieces and was looking black as soot with all the earth on her fur and face..  I took her home and  gave her a shower and blow dry. Here she is looking all fluffy and cute again-like butter wouldnt melt!  She is standing there thinking she deserves a treat!! A very good dog on the whole but does she deserve one for the above? hmmm Im not so sure.

 

At my age I should know better!

A little before last christmas a friend (Simon) and I went out to the Crim reef. I chose to search the sea bed between a particular rock and a wreck I'd found a few years back in the hopes of finding more of it, or maybe even find something else entirely. This was the the wreck of the Bassenthwaite. I never felt the need for a compass as, after evaluation, it seemed that the wind and tide should have taken me away from the Crim and out into deep water and towards the nearby wreck. To be honest, it was a bit too rough to be out there but I got kitted and Simon, who was boatman, dropped me off south east end of the Crim reef in about 15m depth. Im normally very good on underwater navigation, using the sun and the seabed and depth, etc, to go where needed to go. However, on the bottom the viz wasn't good and the waves up top buffeted me about- even on the sea bed. Also on the sea bed there was no tide to speak of to aid me along as expected. Down among the rocks the tide dont do what it does on the surface and this I should have known. Ok, I thought, I'll just head into deeper water and that alone should send me away from the reef. This I did. Then after being in 20m depth for about 15 minutes I thought I was well on my way heading east and away from the dangers of the Crim- but with little sunlight penetrating down, it was hard to tell in which direction I was actually going. The increasing depth gave me confidence and so I carried on. Then in 27m I hit a sheer wall where no sheer wall should be! Now came the realisation I could be in trouble. Even though it was deep I had moved over to the foot of the reef and not away from it. This meant that above there awaited the top of the reef with rollers breaking over it. I moved at 90 degrees away from the sheer wall hoping to get further away but found I was trapped and had inadvertently run into a cul de sac with the only way out being to reverse- or go up.. I tried going back but was soon running out of time & air so was left with no option but to surface before I ran into decompression penalties to do-and that turned out to be my only good decision thus far! I went up, hoping and praying, that I would surface outside of the reef and not in amongst it all. The worst was confirmed when I surfaced amidst the rocks and breakers and found the swells were pushing me directly towards a rock; which showed between the breakers. I couldn't swim into the oncoming rollers and I didn't want to get trashed over the rock by the waves either- so tried to pick a way out of danger. After a good while of hard finning (in full kit) I was breathing heavily through the reg and getting nowhere fast and found the nearby rock was drawing me slowly on to it. Being nearly 60 years old, I was already growing tired and for the first time in 42 years of diving I felt it necessary to ditch a weight belt to become more buoyant. That done, with the breakers rearing up and continually going over, I finally felt able to make headway- and managed to pass the rock to one side. I'm sure my relief would have been audible but I wasn't out of all danger yet. After a while Simon was able to get near enough to be able to throw me a line to try and tow me out of danger. I was so tired I just couldn't hold on to it. Simon then came in as close as he dare and with that I swam for the boat. I scrambled aboard tired, scared and shaken but very grateful to be out of there at last. Why I never took a compass is a mystery and to be honest, we shouldn't really have been out there at all.

 Hollandia. (North site)

Over the last few years myself and a few friends have been visiting the wreck of the treasure ship Hollandia. I dived this wreck quite a bit with the salvage men in the 1990's but it was long after all the treasure had been salvaged. Whilst diving it more recently it struck me how interesting and well spread out the wreck was. So to understand it more, over many dives I slowly produced this plan while everyone else just enjoyed themselves. What I get out of it is this- I am the only one of our group who can be dropped onto any part of this vast site and know exactly where I am at any position. i can swim around to any part without a safety reel line and return to the shot. Its useful for when another diver says he wants to go to any particular area I can take him there or give directions. This Is why I have produced such plans of many of the wrecks I find of interest here- or that I have found. There is another part of this wreck  about 60 meters off to the south of this area called the- 'south site' but its a bit dull and not worth the effort as theres not much to see other than barrels of iron nails and some iron bars. There were numerous large cigar shaped lead ingots on both sites but they have all but been lifted and sold by the salvors. I found a nice sherd of the Hollandia's bell on this north site, it is very ornate with animals and floral patterning and also the letters  GLOR....... which I can only assume was -Glorious Hollandia?  The salvors found fragments of this same bell which are currently held in the Rijks museum in Amsterdam. It is all the same bell  but none of their fragments  has any lettering on.  There is clearly still more of it down there to be found. I will keep looking every time I visit this wonderful wreck in future.  At 30meters depth its a good build up dive for  the deeper stuff and not to far to go to get to it, so we tend to pop out there quite a bit in the evenings when the seas are calm enough.

Here's my bell fragment. & a few images I took of bits of the wreck still on the sea bed.

Here's a lovely old image of the guys who lifted the Hollandia's treasure back in the day with some pillar dollars on show. Wonderful stuff!