The morning came for our trip to the infamous World War II wreck the Thistlegorm. But did we really need to get up at 3:30am? There were people coming back from the nightclub as we were walking out of the reception, there is something seriously wrong with this! Four silly people tried to get some sleep on the top deck, the idea was to watch the sun rise. This sounded like a fantastic idea, but instead ended up being a group hug until the sun rose, then a quick dash to get below deck and into the warmth. But Jason seemed to have a smile on his face for the rest of the day. After an extensive briefing, everyone got kitted up, and watched in fixation as our dive instructor tied our boat onto the wreck, damn he had good bum. As we jumped into the water a lot of us either got slammed into the boat or the metal ladder by the current that was running. Undetermined and holding on for dear life we descended. The first dive on the Thistlegorm included the lower holds and propeller which was exposed, intact and huge. Then starting at the bow, we penetrated into the lower holds, which held large tires, rubber boots, cases of rifles and rows of motorbikes loaded onto trunks. All too soon it was time to ascend, ready for some more excellent food from our boats chef.
After a spot of sunbathing, it was time for the second dive on the Thistlegorm. After some more, quite impressive boat slamming, we descended onto this fantastic wreck. This time we were diving the upper level, where we found some impressive artefacts. There were rows and rows of motorbikes, flat bedded trucks as far as the eye can see, jeeps and several automobiles. At the bow there were even two locomotive engines. Seeing is believing! Some of our group, o.k. just the two lovebirds, tried to recreate the titanic moment. You know the one, where Leo and Kate at the bow, flying…. Unfortunately, with a fierce current, it became more of a holding on for dear life scene. With time flying, it was time to swim down to the stern and up the bow line. I believe I can relate to clothes on a washing line now after doing a safety stop in that current. That night we had our nightly drinks at Buzz’s and Harry’s balcony. Then we headed into town for some food, drinks and maybe a boogie? Hard Rock Café was the place and after some lush cocktails, we seriously overdid it on the food, and all thoughts of staying out were quickly replaced by thoughts of sleep. A sure sign that we must be getting old?! For our day off most of us spent it sunbathing with a spot of shopping, life doesn’t get any better than this. Buzz and Jason did some snorkelling off the beach, and saw just as much as we saw on the reef two days before. After a quick change we were back in town again for some well deserved drinks back at the Hard Rock Café. On our last day we dived the Dunraven wreck, where we saw the most enormous family of Napoleon fish. The dad was very impressive. After a swim round the propeller with its missing blade and the rudder which are both turned upwards, we stopped off to pose for photos. Half of the group penetrated the wreck and got some impressive views of the ships engine room, including the boiler and a large smokestack. While the other half did a wall dive, with plenty of Stone fish and coral fish on view. The last dive of the day was a bit of a sore point; the girilies had had enough and did not dive. Of course, this would be the dive where a turtle appears, not only that but he swam around, nibbled on some coral, and has a great time round the divers. We have all seen the DVD by now, I swear it’s doctored.
That night, after we finished off the spirit bottles and some very dodgy wine we headed into town for a quick bite to eat. It’s amazing how cheap KFC is over there, and yet Harry was still scabbing food off us! We headed for some serious drinking in the famous Camel bar. After some awful Hubble Bubble [I don’t know its proper name] some of the group heeded home, while those of us who did ventured into the Bus Stop nightclub, viewed the best club they had ever seen. This place had a stage, pools, foam areas, chill out areas, it was huge. There was a group of men on the dance floor doing some fantastic dance moves, then Jason and Paul joined them and it all went down hill from there. Next morning, some of us were sleeping off our hangovers by the pool. A quick dip in the pool woke us up, but at the same time it freezes off your extremities. After some last minute shopping, it was time to jump on the bus and head back to the airport. Linda had a problem lifting all her purchases onto the x-ray conveyer belt, but we got there in the end. And all too soon we were back in Britain. After all the hugs and kisses at the airport we all went our separate way, happy from experiencing a week of great diving, some winter sunshine and fantastic company, Lessons we have learnt form this trip
Thistlegorm Virgins. By Alyson Bayley Thursday 16th December 2004, bleary eyed and full of excitement, sat on the top rear deck of the Sodfa, we settled down into the cool starry-skied morning at Old Sharm harbour. Wrapped in blankets (borrowed from the hotel and neatly hidden in our dive bags) we huddled together and prepared for the long 3-hour chug to the Thistlegorm wreck. The old lady was only a year old when she was lost in 1941 to German bombers flown from Crete. At 5am we settled down and tried to get some well longed for rest and drifted off to the melodic sound of the purring diesel engine and the waves splashing around the stern. Unable to settle, we pondered the wonders ahead, trying to imagine the history, which awaited us at 30 meters, 27 degrees north, 33 degrees east at the Sha’ab Ali reef in the magical Red Sea, Egypt. I had read with wonder, the tale of how Jacques Cousteau, assisted by local fishermen, made the discovery nearly 50 years ago. How he had kept the location secret for two decades. Would the wreck live up to the stories told by friends and fellows divers? At 7.30 am, we all settled to a hearty breakfast, but my stomach was too churned up with knots of fear, anticipation and excitement to eat. Outside the cabin fluffy white clouds drifted slowly through the sky, with beautiful fringes of orangey gold trim from the waking sun. The aquamarine blues of the shallow reef and the dark foreboding darkness of the deeper water beckoned us. The swell was quite something and we held onto our plastic cups of hot sweet tea as though they were treasures from the wreck itself. 8 am we sat for the briefing in the warmth of the inside cabin and we listened to what our first dive would hold. 8.44 am we took a leap of faith and entered the warm waters and begun the journey on our descent line, being whipped up and down like socks on a clothes line on a windy day. Down and down we went looking eagerly into the bubbly water trying to catch our first glimpse of our prize. Through the dusky water huge metal ribs rose into view. I was unable to see where they started and where they ended, and I was hungry to see more. We descended further and made our entry to the Thistlegorm, still filled with nerves and anxious to get my buoyancy right as we swam inside. Closely following behind each other we moved through the wreck. We saw the BSA motorcycles and Bedford trucks, the seats and instruments long lost to the thick icing of orangey red rust. Trying to consume all the fantastic sights lit in the milky beams from our torches, trying not to throw up and panic, we moved through the dark cold metal compartments into the hold area that contained more motorcycles and rifles. I then began to focus on some more familiar shapes, black Wellington boots and tyres being watched over by many moon grouper. Who needs wellies in the desert? No good down here I thought! About 20 minutes into the dive we moved up and out of the broken body of the wreck and floated around in the open deck area adjacent to the bridge. We saw the freight car and gun tower. The beautiful corals softly flowed back and forth in the warm current like wheat blowing on a soft summer breeze. Then from my peripheral vision I caught the shape of a turtle moving slowly underneath me. My one big ask and hope for this trip was to see a turtle and less then 3 feet below me, there he was, a beautiful hawksbill. Waving my hands furiously to get the attention of my buddy and the rest of the group, we observed this glorious animal for 3 or 4 minutes as he swam effortlessly through the water and then leave us, off towards the bow of the boat. At that point our dive was over, 70-bar left, we had managed to stay down for 25 minutes. The excitement and anxiety had taken its toll on our air and it was time to make our way up on the twisted and tangled maze of ropes. Looking furiously for the red t-shirt on our line, we observed our safety beacon 10 meters away but no obvious way we could get to it from the line we had ascended on. Having no means of communicating my fears to Jase my trusted buddy, my fear subsided as I realised the solution was reached by both of us. We had to ascend on the line we were on. There was no way we were going to let go of our lifeline to swim; the current would surely have taken us.
So we clung like floppy rag dolls to the line, trying our best to do our safety stop, but in rhythmical warning, the beeps from our computers told us that we were being whipped up and down by at least 2 meters on the swell. After 3 minutes we headed for the surface and I pondered the next chapter of our initiation ceremony, how do we get back to the boat? Still gripping hard to the rope, we saw that we had come up on the bow rope of a rather large vessel, thankfully moored just 8 meters from the stern of Sodfa. Sanctuary was mercifully a short swim away. The Sodfa rose and fell on the choppy water (nearly onto my head) but I was expertly saved from being crushed by the boat by our wonderful crew and climbed my way back onto the safety of the dive deck. We had survived, but no way were we going to have another dive today! WRONG! After much cajoling and encouragement from our guides and the guys from the club, we nervously agreed to get wet again! At 10.56 am we were in the water again making a more confident descent back to the old girl. The brief for this dive was to explore the outside of the Thistlegorm, and I was so glad that we went back for a second time. We swam close to the sides to counter the blasting current. When we had reached a spot where we could rest a little on the south side of the wreck I looked down to the sandy bottom and saw a massive shoal of barracuda drifting effortlessly back and forth on the current. They must have been at least 10 meters below us, and I tried to guess how big they really were. We moved along to the bow of the wreck and the current here was getting very fierce. I got a good glimpse of one of the mighty anchors and at that point I was growing in confidence and getting better orientated to the size of the wreck. Moving up from the sides of the Thistlegorm to the deck area we had to hold onto a metal cable near the captain quarters to avoid being carried away by the current. This was a great opportunity to conserve some air and have a good look at the fish and corals. We saw beautiful parrot fish and as we moved along the centre of the wreck to the bridge area, 3 lion fish lurked around and we found a tiny four coloured chromodoris on the inside metal wall of the bridge. We had managed to dive a little longer this time, but at 28 minutes and at 50-bar it was time to make our last ascent. The swell was still inflicting it’s evil spell on the tangled ropes, and trying to time my release and re-grip on the line, my hand was caught between two viciously rubbing ropes. Thankfully I managed to release my hand from it’s vice like grip and continue safely up the rope. We had survived our second dive, a little bruised and quite sad we wouldn’t be doing another. As we packed our kit away and began our chug back to Sharm we talked about our experiences and decided.
What better place and better way to loose your virginity. (I hope she's still talking diving - ed.) Everbody in Da Club - Christmas Club Dive. By Fireman Sam Oooh yeah people, just for you hers and sirs, I have arisen from hibernation early! You people couldn't wait for it, yes? And just to keep in the sprit of things, I'm still wearing me red fluffy thong! And boy, it don't half itch in all the wrong places!
Right, lets do it. Eight'ish, and my ride had arrived. A good burst of speed and we were at our destination, Stoney Cove, the place we all know and love! After the customary photo shot, talkie bit and turf out, it was gear up for a deep and dirty one, (the dive that is!). Entry was affected at the bus stop, (that sounded posh didn't it!), and we were away to "the box" at 35m. Water temperature was chilly but vis was good at depth, being around 3-4m. While the "twinsetters" made there way to the Stangrath, the "singles" moved off the box and up over onto the 20m ledge for a little scurry around in the mud. Time was a ticking so moving up onto the roadway, we made our way up to the viscount cockpit for a little bit of 3min at 5m. Halfway through the stop, and the others had joined us from their tour of the Stanegarth. After surfacing and a nice exit this time, it was game over for me good self. Feeling the cold and with my head just about to come apart at the seams, I called it, the prospect of chilling out in the pub more appealing than freezing my 'arris off in the drink!
Note from the editor: Hmm... the Fireman seems to have been a bit narc'd on this one - for the full story see me at the club, but the new AOW divers in wetsuits and single 12s were the ones at the Stanegarth with me - no other 'twinsetters' to be seen. A bit too cold in their drysuits me thinks ! For those of you who have been on courses with the Dive Centre, you will remember how slick and well organised they are (most of the time). Clive and Amanda thought you might like to know what goes on behind the scenes and how students don't always realise the trouble that sometimes besets their poor instructors over a weekend. Teachng trip to wales . By Clive and Amanda Our weekend teaching trip to Wales started off very well. By lunchtime we had packed the dive kit, clothes etc. had loaded up the car and where on our way to the lovely campsite at Beddgelert. We should have realised that this was a bad omen. When we reached the A14 at Cambridge everything came to a halt. We crawled along very slowly until we had gone past the Cambridge Services! Eventually we reached Huntingdon and the traffic was flowing again (going our way at least). Since we were towing the caravan we decided that it would be better to go up the M1 and across the A50 to avoid the nasty twisty bit of the A5. Unfortunately before we got to the M1 the radio announced that the M1 was slow moving over most of the bit we wanted to travel along. It was still only about 2:30 pm, so we decided that we could go via the M6 and pick up the A50 further up by Stoke. As we approached Birmingham the radio announced that the M6 was slow where the M5 joins because of the roadworks, but only for a short stretch. Oh well never mind a delay is inevitable somewhere around Birmingham on every trip. Thankfully as the radio had reported it was only a brief slow down where the motorways joined and no actually stopping. Just as we thought that we had the green light for easy driving for the rest of the route the radio announced that there was an accident on the M6 between junction 15 and 16 with tail backs to junction 14. By the time the next announcement was made the queue was back to junction 13 and growing. We now had no choice but to head towards the A5, but luckily we realised that we could carry on past Wrexham and get back to our original route avoiding the bad bit of the A5. Eventually we reached the campsite, found a spot and quickly set up the caravan. Our thoughts (and stomachs) we thinking of food and the lovely pizza place that is open till 9:00 pm. Unfortunately we found that we were now in the ‘off’ season and that most things had stopped serving food at 8:30 (it was only 8:35 but still too late!). Luckily we found a bistro still serving and had a lovely meal. Back at the campsite we found that the van had arrived and that there three tents pitched by the caravan. Unfortunately Graham had managed to half bury the van in some mud, but was adamant that he would be able to drive it out in the morning. Eventually we all went to bed with 2 people still on their way. At just past midnight they arrived safely having been caught in the queue for the accident for a couple of hours all for the sake of one junction on the M6. At about 5:00 am we were woken up by the sound of heavy rain (good old Wales). When we looked out of the window the ruts by the van were now filled with water and the mud looked a lot softer. We then noticed that Graham was sitting in the van. It turns out his tent had decided that it wanted to prepare Graham for his diving by becoming a swimming pool! Fairly soon we had the kettle on and the bacon under the grill and all 7 of us happy campers sitting inside the caravan hiding out of the rain.
Graham still said that he would drive the van out of the mud, but after trying for a few minutes and only achieving sideways motion he accepted our offer of a tow and before Graham realised the van was sitting on the hard ground away from the mud ready for us to drive over the Llanberis and find the rest of the students. Time for a nice and easy day of diving and with the sun coming out for most of the day, everyone enjoyed themselves. Later that evening after a meal at Llanberis with the open water students (all in B & B’s or hostels) it was back to the campsite where the girls decided that they were feeling a bit cold and again into the caravan they went with the heater going until everyone went looking for their tents and some sleep. Graham said that his sleeping bag had dried out but we were not convinced about this. Sunday morning and again every piled into the caravan for tea and sausage buttys for breakfast before going diving again. The sun was out again and the weather gods seemed happy with us. Everyone completed the diving and passed either their open water or rescue diver course. Soon it was time to go home and we decided that we would have a slight detour to Bangor as we need fuel and the Tescos is right by the A55. Nearly an hour after filling up we managed to get the one mile down the A55 to the first junction where we could turn off again (more roadworks and very slow moving traffic). The only choice for us now was to take the dreaded A5 out of Wales. Just as we got going the traffic stopped again and we had not even got to Capel Curig which is only about 15 minutes away from where we started. Eventually we reached the roadworks that had caused the queue in Betys Y Coed which had taken us over 2:30 to travel a mere 20 miles. The last trip took us 5 hours to get home. At least we were now moving and eventually got home at just after 1:00am Monday morning. Planned Club Trips for 2004There is a club trip planned for Portland in June and a trip to somewhere in the Mediterranean in August. Further details of these trips will be at the next club meeting. Oban is now full and there are only a couple of Egypt places left. And finally ....So You Want to Own a Dive Centre ? Due to the phenomenal success of the online store and the rapidly expanding dive market in the UK, CDWC have decided to float themselves on the stock market. From 1.4.2005 you will be able to buy shares in the Cambridge Dive and Watersports Centre on the London Stock Exchange. Better still, dive club members have the chance to buy stock at an initial price of 20p per share, a discount of 50% over the initial floatation price of 40p per share. Cliff and Richard will retain a 51% holding in the company but 49% will be available for anyone to buy. 490,000 shares (49% of the 1,000,000 total stock) will be available, netting an income of between £98,000 and just under £200,000 depending on stock sales. New CEO Richard Allway is quoted as saying "This boost in funds will ensure the long term future of the business and allow us to expand to become the largest dive and watersports centre in East Anglia". New Financial Director Cliff Chalkley is quoted as saying "Can I get a new Jeep ?" Full details of this offer and the current share price can be found at the London Stock Exchange here. Pictures Please. |
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