Association Anchor.

Today I am going to show you how ridiculous the rules are that we divers operate under today as opposed to yesteryear. In 1967 the Royal Navy lifted a giant anchor from near the Gilstone rock, out among the western rocks here at Scilly. They believed the anchor to be from the wreck of Association, which sank in 1707, and they lifted it from that historic wreck without any government interference whatsoever.  They brought the anchor back to St Marys for public display but the local council refused to take it. (How short sighted of them!) The Navy then had no option but to drop the anchor back on the sea bed and they did this about 400 yards south east of Nut Rock in St Marys Roadstead, at the far side of the anchorage, in 9meters of water.  46 years later we find the anchor in the sand where they had left it and to get it up we had to jump through many hoops. First we had to pay the MMO for a licence to lift it and all the paperwork that that entailed.  We then had to consult with Natural England to show that we were not going to disturb any wildlife and provide images of the sea bed to show that this was the case and state that we were lifting the anchor directly up. We then had to consult with Historic England to make sure we were not removing it from an archaeological site. We also had to consult with the Receiver of wreck too and with our local council.  All we were hoping for was to try and achieve what the navy failed to do all those years before. We divers gave our time freely and so did the guy who owned the salvage vessel. The council provided local actin group funding from the lift to final display on the local green on St Marys. Already you can see the vast difference from the navy's time and what we had to do today.  The lift went well and we got the anchor to a local beach at high tide. Once there we dropped the anchor to the sand and disconnected it from the salvage vessel. Later- when the tide had gone out a lorry could come onto the beach and retrieve the then fully exposed anchor and remove it from the beach to wherever we wanted it to go on the island.   

Salvage vessel lifting the anchor vertically up towards the surface.

 Now the silliest thing about all this paperwork we have today- is that no one took into account that this salvage was being done in an- "Anchorage" and we were lifting an 'anchor' from within that 'anchorage'. So after we had gone the next thig to come into that same anchorage would be a cruise ship. And yes, you guessed it, the cruise ship comes in to anchor for a few days. This doesn't happen once a year here it happens many many times per year in the summer season here. Sometimes as many as 3 cruise ships will come in here to anchor at once-and all will drop at least one huge anchor each-sometimes two anchors are deployed. As the ship swivels around on the tide those anchors rip up the sea bed. Our anchor, which we had to jump through hoops to lift -came vertically up. It did not drag or move along at all-no-it was winched vertically up to the salvage vessel. When the cruise ships up anchor they first reel in the long chains to pull their anchors in. The chain is seldom straight but straightens as the winch takes up the slack. The anchor then drags along the sea bed indiscriminately destroying everything in its path and cuts huge deep swaths in the sea bed. I know, because I see the damage they do everytime I dive in the anchorage; and this is often as the cruise ships anchors expose all sorts of items that were buried before they came to anchor and we dive on the damage and pick up anything that has been uncovered. This is usually Victoriana- rubbish like old bottles etc. Whereas our anchor caused no damage whatsoever -in fact- we removed a very large and rusty contaminant from within the natural environment to put it on public display. We were trying to provide a good service. So why the hell are we charged a fee and made to do all the stupid paperwork if after we are gone a cruise ship can come along and just do what they like?. This is the utter madness we divers have to put up with in todays mad world. Its the same with putting a shot line down on a wreck. We as divers have rules to adhere to today so that we dont damage anything and dont leave any ropes or gear in the sea. Yet fishermen can tow a trawl right through an historic wrecksite. Further to this- tens of thousands of tonnes of fishing gear -ropes ,nets,trawls and cables, are lost by fishermen every year but the powers that be are more bothered with a boat load of divers and one shot line put down on a wreck, which very rarely gets left behind or lost, than they are with all those tonnes of lost fishing gear.... a lot of which goes on killing wildlife in one way or another all the time its down there.  All this is about:- is getting money from out of our pockets.

 

.Meet- 'Indie'

 Meet Indie

Last year I felt the need to buy one of these. Its a compressor for filling my diving cylinders. Since having it Im amazed I never got one before. The feeling of being independent is immense. Let me explain- I have been here hunting for shipwrecks for 23 years now and been pretty successful at it on a very small budget. But through all that time I have always used a local supplier. The trouble is here is that then that person thinks they have some kind of control over your diving. You let them live in their silly little deluded world and be nice but there is always the threat that they will cut off your supply if you upset them in some way. This happened to me once in 2001- and indeed for a short while I couldnt dive. Lesson learnt. Then another group of people took over the supply and all was well as one of the group would always fill my cylinders. There has, however, always been one among that group who, in my opinion,.had always been a bit unreasonable   As time went by all the others in the group who owned the compressor slowly drifted away for one reason or another-leaving the unreasonable one to run the air bank alone. Here is where everyone's problems started. Prices suddenly rocketed up and Tanks didnt get filled. Not a very good service at all.. Of all the independent divers out here at the time I was by far the best customer but in the end I'd had enough of the crap service that we had been left with and so bought myself one of these to get away. I call it- "Indie"  -as it gives me total independence from all the idiots out there who think they have control over your diving. Its bloody wonderful, easy to use and simple to maintain. I set up and getting it pumping then sit in the sun reading a book while my tanks are filled. I can then dive where the hell I damn well please and if it upsets anyone- then tough!. So those who think they are taking control by becoming a monopoly actually drive you into independence where they no longer have any control. You have no idea how funny that is to me.

The Bend at Spanish Ledge

One of my many on going projects has been looking for the reason why Spanish Ledge has gained its name. I found 3 areas of new wreckage around it and one was interesting as it seemed to date from the late 1500's. All that I've found so far there, over the ten or so years since I discovered it, was the large early anchor pictured below, along with 4 boat shape lead ingots and a broken iron swivel gun nearby.. Theres an awful lot of sand down there so there could easily be more to this site. However, the sand is far too deep to work without serious pumping equipment- and so its a waiting game for natural forces that placed the sand there to take it away again. Every year I look but no changes have been seen there yet- yes nearby changes have been noted but on the site it seems to remain as I found it. As a result I decided to search around the area to see if there was anything more of this wreck to be found but nothing so far.. This site is in 25meters fairly close to the Spanish ledge buoy but I was searching in deeper water off to the south when the incident below occurred. 

Anchor on the site

 I did a 24m dive the day previously between the ledges and the buoy then, the next day, decided to check out a magnetometer hit to the south east in 38m.  I dropped in alone leaving my wife to look after the boat. This was lucky as she is not often with me when I go diving and this day I was glad to have someone around up top.  I searched the sea bed for the anomaly picked up by the magnetometer survey but saw nothing but very deep sand for the whole dive. After about 20 mins searching I made up towards the surface to perform my compression stops.  Back then I was always working on BSAC 88 tables. Call me a dinosaur but I was old school and didnt yet fully trust electronics/technology. To me- these and sea water didn't mix well. Whereas my brain along with the 88 tables had seen me ok for  over 30 years previous and thousands of dives without incident. 

 I did my stops and surfaced. All seemed ok. I upped anchor and Carmen drove our boat back towards St Marys Harbour as I de-kitted.  When we were passing around the Steval rock I noticed a tight feeling in my midriff.  This I began to fear was a thing called 'girdling' in the diving world- its a possible symptom of a bend- the possible onset of decompression sickness.  By the time we reached the Newman rock I began to loose the use of my legs. We were now both extremely worried. When we reached St Marys quay my legs had gone to jelly and I couldnt even stand up. Carmen had to get me to a decompression chamber quickly and get oxygen to help to flush  the nitrogen out of my bloodstream- one of those nitrogen bubbles had lodged itself in my spine causing the loss of my lower body. It has to be said-I was really f******** scared at this point.  Before long a friend (Peter Carrs) came to help me off the boat and up the quay steps. Then an ambulance turned up and I received the desperately needed oxygen. From there I was taken to St Marys airport to wait the arrival of an RAF Culdrose emergency helicopter that would rush me to  a hypobaric decompression chamber in Plymouth.  The good news was that the oxygen was doing its magic- as on the helicopter ride I could again feel my toes. My legs were still useless but my toes having feeling gave me hope of recovery.  I spent all night in the recompression chamber and next morning was able to walk again. -Unsteady though that was, I clearly stll wasn't fully recovered so back into the chamber for another lengthy session. When I came out this second time I was pretty much ok and hugely relieved to not be spending my life on crutches or in a wheel chair.  I was then sent home where it took time for my brain to fully reconnect with all parts of the body again.  Well thats how it felt to me .

Luckily,  it being the end of summer,  refraining from diving until the next spring to give everything lots of time to get over the damage done was not too much of a loss. Needless to say, I was back at it and in the water by spring the next year. The Doctors at Derriford recompression unit said that I was simply too old to still be using the old 88 tables- which they considered to be far too aggressive for a man of my age. I had been getting away with it in my younger years but had to do more decompression as I got older. I tried using computers for a while but after two of those failed on me I went back to using the tables again- only now I just double up on the decompression the tables give me to do.  I also rarely go any deeper than 40 meters any more- most of my diving being in under 40m. I accept that as i get older I have to go shallower and do more stops.  Most of my searching now is done in under 30m of  but I still look for wrecks in deeper water because I can still hand the finds to others to look at. However, if I find a wreck in 50m or over- I will probably drop down for a quick look to see what I have found- I just wont stay there long in oder to keep the decompression stops down to a minimum.  You see its always good to be the first man down on a new wreck then leave the wreck to others-the find will always remain my own.. I see this as my legacy to other divers that follow me.  Even when I cannot dive any longer- I will still go out looking for wrecks with magnetometer and sonar etc. I can also skipper for others too. But that day has not come yet and I will keep diving as long as my health will allow....even if it means only diving in 10m of water or less. The buzz is still there-for me its always been the thrill of the hunt.