Silt and Champage - the Wreck of the Seine
Finally, after the usual early season blow-outs we got into the sea! We tagged on to the end of the traditional YD Easter Gig at Dover, Kent, and took up a couple of spaces that were free for the Monday dive. It was billed as a 35m maximum dive, so in the week running up to the Easter weekend we got our twinsets filled with 30%. Given it was the first sea dive for a while we decided to leave the stages at home and to limit bottom time to only a little over no deco limits. We would then pad out the stops on the ascent to give ourselves a margin of safety. Besides which it was going to be cold and I didn’t want to be stuck at 6m regretting the extra 10 minutes on the bottom!
The night before the trip we phoned Fiona, who is already down there and find out that a) the viz has been good for Dover (this means you could see your hand in front of you face, and even at arm’s length!), b) people had been throwing up (a reminder to me to take my seasickness tablets – extra strong type) and c) the wreck we were to dive tomorrow was the Champagne wreck, real name the Seine – the only problem here was that it was 40m max, not 35m. A few quick calculations later and we are glad we had 30% and no richer…it will just do. Oh, and the boat is going half and hour earlier than planned!So, car packed, alarm set for 5 o’clock and the usual pre-dive restless night follows. I don’t know what it is about going diving, but I never sleep well on the first night before a dive. I am ok for subsequent nights on a multi-day trip, but never on the first one. I don’t know if it is nerves, excitement or the thought that I may sleep in and miss the boat that does it…
…I awake with a start and the clock reads 5.52am! Damn, I had set it to 5pm instead of 5 am and we should have left already for the 2 ½ hour drive down to the depths of Kent. It took us no more than 20 minutes to get up, dressed, washed and out the door. Who says women take forever to get ready?
The sunrise turns the sky a glorious duck-egg blue as we headed round the M25 and off onto the M20. The journey didn’t take as long as we had feared and we were the first in the car park. After a small altercation between Caroline and the Harbour Master regarding the toilets being locked we got into undersuits and got the kit out ready. Howie appeared first, and Fiona was not far behind. We started loading the kit onto the boat, Neptune, which required a trek down onto the pontoons which were low on a still ebbing tide. About 5 or 6m low from the high water mark judging by the weed up the harbour wall!
This was the first time on Neptune and my first impression were positive. Nice deep benches with webbing to secure sets to the centre and lots of room underneath for gear gulper-style crates. Kit crates were also supplied on board for those who didn’t take their own. There was a diver lift at the rear, a gate through the gunwale straight onto deck level (no awkward clambering over rails) and a toilet off the rear deck. Inside the wheelhouse was plenty of dry room to get out of the wind and rain if you needed to. As we had some early spring sun I opted instead for a small snooze say up on the benches outside instead.
Soon the boat was full, except for Nick. It was finally decided to leave without him as if he wasn’t there by that time he was unlikely to show, and he had suffered a problem with his Inspiration rebreather earlier in the weekend so that may have caused him to want to sit it out. The engines started and we slowly moved out through Dover harbour.
As we reached the exit from the harbour the shout came to hold on and the engines were opened up and Neptune lifted slightly before bouncing out through the small swell that existed outside the shelter of the harbour walls. On the way to the site there was a little chop, but nothing spectacular, and the cool breeze was tempered by a spring sun finally starting to gain some warmth. I stuck my hands inside my drysuit, put on a hat and then shut my eyes for a little “me” time before the dive. That translates as a snooze in the sun!
Skipper Dave gave the call about 10 minutes out from our destination and we began to kit up. Even after a while out of the habit of kitting up on boats everything fell into place and we were ready comfortably in time to follow the others in as about the fourth pair. Because of the site’s proximity to the very big ships in the shipping lanes of the Channel Neptune has a procedure that is a little unusual for UK diving. The boat is anchored in next to the wreck and instead of a separate shot, with the boat moving freely around the area, you follow a line along the side of the boat to the anchor line and use that as a shot. Another little quirk is to enter the water holding a line to prevent you drifting away from the boat whilst it is anchored in.
On the line I waited a short while for Caroline to join me, then a quick ok and headed down. Juz was waiting for Blanaid at 6m, so we went around him, had a quick pause to check all was ok and then descended. At about 15m it got very dark and visibility was limited to about 3m at the most. As we approached the bottom of the shot there was some activity with two or three divers milling around the point where the chain meet the edge of the wreck at about 35m. We later learned that this was Keith and others moving the shot back to the wreck where the anchor had dragged. Once they had tied it in I unclipped my spool and made a primary tie-off to the chain itself. As we had to come up the anchor line I didn’t want to risk the anchor moving again and us not being able to find it.As this was our first dive where reeling off from the shot was a necessity we had already decided to stay close to the shot, and so we dropped over the inboard edge of the wreck to explore some of the more open areas of the holds. A large shoal of pale bib kept on drifting in and out of the torchlight, looking quite ghostly in the dark and gloom. The wreck was covered in large spider crabs – the first one I only noticed as I went to tie off to him, he was so well camouflaged against the rusting metal!
After a little directional confusion – otherwise know as going in circles, we made it to the far side of the wreck (I think!) and dropped a little lower. In front of us was a vertical sheet of metal and it was covered in some fairly large and impressive plumose. These, unlike others further over were fully out and feeding, and showed in three colours, cream, a pale green and peach. It was a really beautiful sight and thoroughly unexpected in the murky channel water off Dover.
Conscious of the bottom time we turned the dive and worked our way back along the line we had laid, reeling in as we went. Suddenly we hit a wall of silt that wiped the viz entirely. It was caused by someone digging in the deep layer of silt inside the hold we were crossing and although we were able to rise over it we were glad of the line we had laid at that point. It wasn’t until back on the boat that we saw what had been recovered.
When we reached the shot a quick check of the computers showed that we still had a few minutes remaining on the dive plan so we took the opportunity to reel off along the outside of the wreck for a while. At this point we saw the seabed for the first time in the dive, and we spent the remaining time examining the exterior of the hull looking at the anemones, tompots and hoping to spot a nudibranch or two! The latter quest was unsuccessful and we had a nudi-less dive, never a good thing in Caroline’s book!
Back at the shot and untying the line proved slightly more difficult than hoped as someone had tied off directly over ours. This meant I first had to loosen and move their line before unlooping mine – all in 5mm gloves. This took a little longer than expected but we still left the bottom within our planned runtime and began out ascent up the shot. On a dive where we haven’t run into deco I like to make a 10m/min ascent to where off gassing begins and then slow the ascent there, usually with a 1 min stop at 12m, 2 mins at 9m and 3 minutes a 6m , then taking at least another 3 mins to reach the surface from 6m. This meant that we were overtaken twice on the shot line by those willing to ascend more quickly, but that doesn’t worry me. I am in no rush to get out and it is all good practise for those dives where stops are required.
Back on the surface and a pull long the line took us to the lift – always a welcome addition to any boat, and after dekitting a hot cup of coffee was proffered – another good call!
We were almost the last up due to out long ascent sot he boat was quickly on its way back. A special treat on the return leg was the sharing of the “booty” from the wreck. Brian, the local diver, had managed to pull off an intact bottle of champagne. After a long period of gingerly wiggling the cork it broke off anyway, leaving maybe the last centimetre in the neck. So, pushing it in the champagne was freed and we all got a taste. It was right at the end of its fizz, and very dark in colour – almost like a pale apple juice. The taste was strong and sweeter than champagne, with no real hint of dryness. It was, in the expert opinion of the group, more like cider than champagne. It was also mighty strong! After a couple of tastes the majority of the bottle was left to Keith Henson who polished it off – the fool!
All too soon we were back in Diver and time to unload the boat. It had been a good day, the viz wasn’t great, but the wreck looked interesting and I would like to visit it again. Neptune is a good dive platform and the skipper and crew were very friendly and helpful – so a recommendation there if you fancy a dive in the shipping lanes.
Not a bad way to send an Easter Monday – beats stuffing your face with cheap chocolate anyway.
