Donegal 2006
Donegal Ireland DIR UK 2006Fraser and I managed to set off for Ayr very early so a quick interrogation of the Sat Nav suggested that I could go south round Birmingham and wave my husband Nigel off on his first dive of his PADI OW at Stoney Cove.
Fraser and I managed to set off for Ayr very early so a quick interrogation of the Sat Nav suggested that I could go south round Birmingham and wave my husband Nigel off on his first dive of his PADI OW at Stoney Cove. We reached Loyal Watcher to find Darren (skipper) Linda (housekeeper) and Richard (deckhand) there to greet us and had a tour of the boat which was suitably impressive. Darren told us that the last week’s group had not made it to Malin at all – the weather had been too rough all week to make the crossing over the Irish Sea but he was hopeful that it would change.
Loyal Watcher
Day 1 (Sunday) was a wash out. Darren believed that the weather would be with us and so we made the crossing to Malin Head overnight but the wind was whipping in from the sea and the swell was huge. Even in the safety of Lough Swilly the boat was rocking quite alarmingly and diving was out….well nearly out – Fraser, JK and I decided to jump in and dive under the boat in 8 metres of water to weight our scooters.
Fraser and Andy
Day 2 (Monday) HMS Audacious
It was a rough ride out but waiting until late in the day meant that we could get the nod to dive.
I jumped in with Andy Kerslake and Fraser. Audacious is a battleship (Dreadnought) which lies upside down (as most do) in 66 metres. Viz was reasonable but poor for Donegal – about 15 metres and the wreck was dark due to the poor surface conditions. Numerous explosives were scattered everywhere as we swam down following Fraser on his mission to see the propellers of the wreck – which were impressive but given that they took our entire dive to get to he was not too popular!
Bob
We saw John Grogan and Bob Cooper scootering past (they covered the entire wreck) and far too soon we returned to the shot which we had to use for the initial part of the ascent to ensure that all teams were in the same body of water. Darren had agreed that we did not need to use a lazy shot so this was a compromise.
I ran deco and my long standing wish was granted to do a deco stop below the recreational diving limit (a long way under actually – our first stop was 48 metres) The ascent was uneventful bar a few small complications with AK’s stage. A good, comfortable dive which was a nice introduction to Malin Head and a bonus given the weather.
Kitting up
Day 3 (Tuesday) SS Empire Heritage
Jumped in with Andy and Fraser again, after being warned that worsening weather was on the cards and the planned scooter dive was off.
The SS Empire Heritage sank in 70 metres of water 27 miles off Malin Head in World War II complete with her cargo of Sherman tanks, military trucks and machinery. The cargo has made many describe the Empire Heritage as the Thistlegorm of northern waters and I have to say that seeing the tanks stacked up like dominos, lying where they fell 60 years ago was impressive to say the least.
The shot was by a huge Derrick which towers way above the central section of the wreck just by a large open hold. Scale is everything here – this ship was absolutely vast – bourn out by the size of her propeller and her boilers which are each as large as a house – and the stunning viz at around 20 metres helps appreciate just what a monster she was weighing in a 15,702 tins and 512 feet in length.
Deco was again uneventful and we all had plenty to reflect upon from such a stunning dive. Celebrating the fact that I had actually managed to return to the surface with the same amount of cylinders that I entered with Andy told me that my Tech 2 could be considered complete which was nice….and just in time for the Justicia – our intended dive the next day and the reason that I first approached Loyal Watcher about making the trip to Donegal.
John Grogan and Andy Kerslake
Day 4 (Wednesday) RMS Justicia
The trip out to RMS Justicia is long and was quite rough. Fraser took the brunt of this and ended up sitting out the dive at the last minute – leaving me to dive with Bob and John Kendall who would, hopefully, dive today having sat out the first two dives. Getting in with scooter, twinset and three stages was tricky – especially for John who had a large video mount rigged to his scooter.
We jumped in eventually (well sort of fell in my case) and made our way to the shot. I could already feel the effect of breathing hypoxic gas and signalled to John to drop down to 6 metres a.s.a.p. where life became more comfortable. With Bob’s arrival we made our way down to the wreck.
RMS Justicia (Royal Mail Ship) is absolutely massive at 33,000 tons and 225 metres long. She was a White Star Liner built by Harland and Wolff in Belfast and was sunk by a torpedo from the UB-64 on 19 July 1918. She lies in 70 metres and is considered an advanced trimix dive which, due to her size, requires either an extended bottom time with CCR or a scooter to see the whole wreck in one dive. She is also the reason I wanted to come to Donegal and the main reason I have done all my training this year since seeing a video of a diver hanging off her bow last year.
Oh boy was this fun 
We first saw her when we got to 50 metres – still a long way below us – the viz was amazing. Bob led off with me number two and John on video bringing up the rear. I had a mission to get to the bow like the diver in the video but we set off first for the props, navigating through the boilers on the way. Awesome – just awesome!
The ride to the props from amidships took a stunning 7 minutes – at around 120 feet a minute. We skirted round them, and back off up the wreck – switching off stages on the way – on and on and on – Jesus this is a big wreck. Suddenly we started seeing anchor chains and bollards, the bow must be up ahead. And then it was there – and John got a shot of me hanging off it – just like the diver in the video last year which I had found so inspiring. At this moment the quarry dives in 4 degrees in the winter getting used to multiple bottles and scooters were all worth it.
Do I look happy?
We set off back to the midsection where the shot was tied in – but John, having not dived this week, had forgotten that we are required to return to the shotline and has reached minimum gas. Bugger. We thumb the dive from the wreck and start our ascent 30 minutes after leaving the surface. Short – but oh so sweet
First stop 51 metres today – another first – and we settle in to a nice steady ascent which John runs. It is worth pointing out that I have never dived with John and have only dived with Bob once yet our training means that we can dive as a team without any issues, communication is straight forward, planning is easy, all is as comfortable as it would be with my normal team.
Suddenly at 36 metres Bob waves at me and gestures me to look behind me…..
I turn round and am face to face with a seal which has clearly come in to have a look at what all the noise is about…. John reaches for his video but too late, our visitor has left us in no doubt that he is much more suited to the environment than we will ever be and has danced away with the grace of a ballerina.
We surface 50 odd minutes later – my longest, deepest and most enjoyable dive to date.
Day 5 (Thursday) We were to return to the Audacious but the weather is against us and we got underway to Ballycastle where we would spend the night. All caught up with sleeping, eating and various logs and journals on route.
Day 6…. well more of that later 
