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.