Scuba Geek

Mark Andrews writes about the world record deepest wreck dive on the Yolande January 31, 2006

Posted by Andy Carroll in : general , trackback

I 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.