Duo-Divers

The anchor chain, you can see a link here, is wrapped around the vessel and with the shot-line tied at one side it really is 'difficult to loose the line and have to do a blue water ascent.

Looking up through a hole in the bottom of the boat, the surface is about 14m away, boy it's clear!

The geology of the site is all crevices and fissures so it's very pretty even without the wreckage

Lumpsucker eggs, not normally as common as the washed up fish and once used as fake caviar

As you approach the debris field you will find little lengths of lead coated wiring sticking out of the sand or protruding from under stones.

You can see that the 'wall' is more a stepped solid stone reef, smothered in life.

Think that this is a Montagus Blenny (Coryphoblennius galerita) there were always plenty warming themselves on the steps. The fact that the seals are fed fish there and there will be 'bits' also probably attracts them!

The John L coming in for a pick up on quite a blustery day

A Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), when they are about deco stops are always interesting!

A high altitude gun, you would have needed some 'minerals' to be operating this even with the aeroplanes and airships of the period!

This is a section of hull, you can kinda see that the inside of the hull is on the bottom and comprises of a mesh of flat wooden sections, the actual hull is face up and looks like what it is....flat steel

A Lobster (Hamarus gammarus) this is a Blue Fiends view of a diver, I got my buddy to keep its attention and snook around to get this photo, he was off in a shot when the flash fired!

Starboard side and the wreck is slowly disappearing on a flooding tide...

A Northern Prawn (Padalus borealis) sitting on a Dead-mans finger (Alcyonium digitatum), when you slow down and l-o-o-k there are loads of these prawns all over the sites.

Some sort of winching arrangement, this is a large section of wreckage within a short distance of the boilers

Debris all around and most unidentifiable, in this case it's a section of hull plating.

Sitting and waiting........

Another boiler, this one has a large lump of machinery to the south and is pretty much intact

A close up of the winching arrangement showing the spoked section which is at the northern end of the 'lump'

This is the 'type' of bottom which I was talking about, formed from loads of worm tubes, it's quite soft and sandy so can feel crunchy if your buoyancy control is poor.

Snale Locks Anemone (Anemonia viridis) another species common in Southern and Scottish west coast waters but not in the North East. I always look for the spider crab that lives with these anemones but have yet to spot one, perhaps sometime in the future?

The general topography...... the rocks are not as smooth as you may expect considering the considerable tidal forces but the surfaces are smothered with various filter feeders which thrive in the oft moving flow!

A Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), when they are about deco stops are always interesting!

All of the time keep an eye open for Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata) they sting and the tentacles are a few meters long, always approach from up-tide! 

And the associated rudder post, looking at the height of this bit I don't think that the boat was especially large but stand to be corrected when I do a bit more research.