Famed scuba diver, Ralph Wilbanks to explore Shreveport for submarines January 31, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : WreckDiving , 1 comment so farShreveport Times are running a story about the ‘Sea Hunters’ team who are due to visit the Red River and Cross Bayou in search for confederate submarines.
Wilbanks, who discovered the wreck of Confederate submarine Hunley in 1995 off Charleston Harbor in South Carolina, with the backing of best-selling adventure author Clive Cussler, plans a return visit to explore parts of the waterways he first visited in 1999 with fellow diver Steve Howard.
“We plan to get to y’all around the 20th of February but it could be slightly later,” Wilbanks said in an e-mail to The Times. “Now I have Harry Pecorelli working with me. He was with me when we found the Hunley.”
Wilbanks previously visited the are in 1999, using a 25ft research vessel, searching for traces of four confederate submarines,
Official Civil War records indicate five such boats were in Shreveport in 1864 and early 1865, with one apparently dismantled and sent overland to Houston. However, when Union naval officers accepted surrendered Confederate naval stores in the summer of 1865, no submarines were turned over, although a just-completed ironclad, the Missouri, was given.
“This is very important, historically and archaeologically,” said Gary Joiner, military historian, author and cartographer who worked with Wilbanks during the 1999 visit and will assist him again.
Finding the boats, Joiner said, “would prove what we know the records and the literature to be. Every indication is that those subs were here and that they never left. That Clive and Ralph are involved shows the importance of this because both are world-famous for their archaeological pursuits. I consider Ralph to be a maritime Indiana Jones.”
Friends rally around scuba diver run over by dive boat January 31, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Accidents , add a commentFriends and family of a scuba diver whose leg was sliced off by a boat propeller, have raised £6,000 to help his recovery. Mick Ward is recovering from horrific injuries he suffered when he was struck by a boat during a scuba diving trip at the Farne Islands off the Northumbria coast. The 39-year-old from Loughborough lost his left leg below the knee and suffered severe injuries to his right leg. The assistant diving instructor with Ratae Diving Club, in Shepshed, has been wheelchair- bound since the scuba diving incident in August.
A benefit night was held at Burleigh Community College, Loughborough, last weekend. Money raised will go towards buying Mick a wheelchair and converting part of his home. The event was organised by Mick’s brothers-in-law, Idolo and Felice Zollino, and supported by more than 400 people.
Mr Ward, a father-of-two who has been unable to work since the accident, said: “I’m a little bit lost for words with all the people who turned out and the incredible sum of money that was raised. “A lot of people have given up a lot of time to help me and my family. “I’ve spent a lot of time in hospital since the scuba diving incident but now I’ve been allowed home for good and it was great to be able to go out again with my friends and family and a have a really good time. It’s something I’ve missed.”
Mrs Ward thanked her brothers as well as her sister-in-law, Louise Zollino, and her friend, Susan Taylor, who helped organise the benefit night.
“A lot of people from the scuba diving club turned up and their were the parents of the lads who play on my son’s Rugby team. “Everyone has been very generous.” Mr Ward said he planned to return to diving as soon as he is able and he wanted an artificial leg to replace his lost limb. His wife, Maria, said: “People have been tremendously supportive of us since Mick’s accident.
“Mick has been brilliant in the way he has faced this. He has been determined to make the best of things.”
Source: CDNN
Mark Andrews writes about the world record deepest wreck dive on the Yolande January 31, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : general , add a commentI previously wrote about Leigh Cunningham and Mark Andrews finding the Yolande, and estimating the depth to be over 170 mtrs, and then I wrote a short piece regarding their claim that the wreck lies at a max depth of 205 mtrs and that it was the worlds deepest wreck dive. Now Mark Andrews has written a report of the trip and some more details of the dive.
Leigh was describing to me how the last two weeks prior to my arrival had seen perfect conditions for diving ‘Yolanda” reef, with very little wind and smooth seas, of course with the luck we have been having with this project it was bound to all change. I cast my mind back to May when we started the project, all went well until I received a dose of Pharaohs revenge and spent the last part of the week wrapped up in bed while Leigh discovered the bow of the wreck in 145m.
Preparing for the big dive didn’t pass without any mishaps, the first of which was the lack of a 300 bar decanting whip for the 300 bar compressor. Mark had decided to use triple Worthington Carbon/Steel combination (Anyone else thinks that sounds like a name for a gun!) cylinders, which meant they needed a 300 bar system for the fills.
We hit a major problem within minutes of starting, although we had a 300 bar compressor we had overlooked the fact that we needed a 300bar decanting whip for the blending panel, the mood changed as we tried everything we could to mate various parts lying around the centre to make a workable whip. Just as despair was setting in Chad came to the rescue and called a local engineer who came down to the centre, we showed him a 300 bar spin tube and the high pressure decanting hose and simply stated that we needed “this bit to fit onto this bit” this was met with a little scratch of the head followed by “no problem, 2 hours” This was 8pm in the evening, can you imagine this situation in the UK!
On to the diving and after a number of buildup dives including a fully simulated dress rehearsal complete with support divers (who were all placed at a max depth of 30 mtrs), Mark and Leigh headed out to the Yolande, supported by the Sharm Search and Rescue centre.
The plan for the day was a dive to 150m to relocate the bow of the wreck and plot the position with GPS ready for the big dive. We already had a good idea where we needed to drop and Vern our GPS man was ready when we dropped off the back of the boat. Snorkelers entered the water and checked our dive rigs for leaks, this completed we descended into the blue on our 45/12 travel/intermediate decompression gas. At 10M we gave each other the gas switch signal and switched to our back gas of 9/57. We both settled into the descent and enjoyed the ride. We reached 100m and there was still no sign of the reef wall just dark water all around, I turned on my Metal Sub 200W HID and shone it in all directions but nothing, then at 120M the light picked up the funnel of the wreck lying off to one side on the steep reef wall. We had landed about 50m to the right of the main wreckage and made the swim across and down to 150m to be met by the bow of the wreck. The Metal Sub lit up the wreckage like it was in a football stadium and we could clearly see the debris scattered all around the steep reef wall.
Then came the big dive itself and using the previous dives as a guide they positioned the dive boat above the wreck. After bubble checks from one of the support divers they descended towards the Yoloande, the rest is better said by Mark,
We descended the initial 20M on our travel/lean deco mix of 52/15 before signalling each other to switch to our bottom mix of 7/66. Once switched we relaxed and descended at a steady 50m per minute until reaching 120M where we slowed to 30M, this reduction in speed helps lessen the risk of high pressure nervous syndrome (HPNS) bought on by rapid pressurisation of helium (fast descent).
This drop was perfect, the bow of the wreck came into view at 130M and we descended onto the wreck itself slowly swimming down along the length of its remains. As I reached 195M a large bang went off behind my left ear and my dry suit inflator stopped working, I came to a halt at 205M as measured on our dive computers a Suunto D9 and a Nitek 3, as we levelled we could see that we were just under the stern of the wreck and that the ship was perched on a ledge roughly 40M wide. Beyond this a vertical wall descended into the abyss. The wreck had slid down the reef walls and slammed into this small ledge stern first, the rest of the wreck crumpled under the force and there she rests today slowly filling with sand. As we swam under the stern my pressure gauge imploded on my intermediate Trimix (16/43), luckily no leaks occurred and it just filled with water, one of Leighs computers imploded squashing the LCD screen (Vytec).
We finished the bottom time by swimming up the other side of the wreck and looking at all the scattered wreckage that lay around the site. We gave each other the up signal after a bottom time on the wreck of five and a half minutes and slowly raised back into the dark blue water getting a fantastic view of the wreck as we did so.
During the initial ascent we prepared our intermediate Trimix (16/43) for the gas switch but my regulator was not responding, I tried to purge but had no response, I maintained a steady 10m per minute ascent rate as I mulled over the thought of having to miss all my deep stops and ascend to the point at which I could switch to my lean Trimix decompression gas, this was not a good option and would have almost certainly resulted in a long stint in the chamber. We had plenty of spare gas on the dive boat but this was of no help as I ascended toward the gas switch. As I approached 100m I again purged the regulator and to my amazement a little air escaped from the mouthpiece followed by a loud gushing sound and then all was operational again, I safely made my gas switch at 84M along with Leigh and a large sigh of relief.
Its certainly a massive dive and congratulations to Mark and Leigh for finding the Yolande and breaking the world record.
British scuba divers claim deepest wreck dive record on the Yolande January 31, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Uncategorized , add a commentDeep dive into a life exploring the sea January 30, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farThomas Urquhart reviews the memoirs and essays of Stan Waterman in his new book, Sea Salt: Memories and essays. “Sea Salt” is a memoir plus collected magazine pieces that reflect on Waterman’s 50 years of diving. While recognizably Benchley’s man, the character that emerges is endearingly tempered by shy self-mockery and an inextinguishable delight in the submarine world.
Peter Benchley of “Jaws” fame introduces Stan Waterman as “one of the most extraordinary gentlemen of this or any recent age.”
He is, writes Benchley, “a filmmaker, an adventurer, an explorer, a daredevil, a gallant, a poet, and - this above all - a true pioneer in the discovery of our last frontier, the sea.”
Sea Salt follows the life of Stan and hes love of the sea and scuba diving, through the destruction of his home on the coast of Maine by fire in 1994, through his discoveries of treasures and artifacts from beneath the sea and travels around the world, to his encounters on the Aegean Sea, the Amazon, Polynesia, the Solomon Islands, Aldabra, Cocos Keeling and the Turks. That’s just the first half of his memoirs. The second half is a collection of his writings primarily drawn from his contribution to “Ocean Realm” magazine in the 1990s where he encountered whale sharks in Australia, sea creatures in the Caribbean, and stories from his various expeditions around the globe. Part travelogue, part autobiography, Sea Salt: memories And Essays is especially welcome reading for the armchair traveler during those long cold winter nights at home.
This looks like a fabulous read and is now on my wish list.
Thomas says’
“A magic, alien presence imbued the old, sad wreck with dancing light and the sense of fairies, elves, extraterrestrial beings invading an old castle for a witches night of revel, Walpurgisnacht, Shakespeare’s Titania and her fairy maidens, Coleridge’s ‘Kublai Khan,’ or perhaps a sailor’s vision of Fiddler’s Green. A metaphor to describe the scene may stretch your imagination to its farthest reach.”
“Sea Salt” has its flaws - repetitive anecdotes could have been edited more firmly.
But my greatest disappointment is its reluctance to convert the wisdom born of extraordinary experience into a more powerful statement about our relationship with the deep and its creatures for the future.
It’s an unfortunate omission, but it doesn’t diminish the wonder of Waterman’s encounters with animals ranging from enormous manta rays to tiny, brilliant shrimp. We should be grateful that he is sharing them so enjoyably.
Artificial Reef plans to mimic the `lost city’. A scuba divers playground. January 30, 2006
Posted by Andy Carroll in : OceanDiving , add a commentI had heard of this project nearly a year ago. It seems that Gary has been successful in getting this off the ground, or underneath the ocean as it where. It sometimes an emotive subject, the issue of scuba diving on wrecks on which people have lost their lives, and many people are against the idea of scuba diving on ‘war graves’. It now seems that this project will be funded by donars who wish for their remains to be incorporated into the Atlantis columns and balustrades, in which case many scuba divers will be diving on one large graveyard.
Gary Levine’s Atlantis Reef Project received final approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Miami-Dade’s Department of Environmental Resources Management earlier this month to construct the sprawling network of cement and bronze statues in 50 feet of water. Levine says construction should begin in March, with the first phase ready to receive scuba divers at the end of April. Levine said the reef will take three to five years to complete at a cost of between $3 million and $5 million.
”It will be five concentric circles, 900 feet in diameter, as big as three football fields,” Levine said. “You can see it from the air as a compass pointing due north. There will be 40 specific themed sculptures incorporating the elements you’d have in any city — arts, government, the military, theater.”
