Wreck specialty

The decision to operate a dive boat

Depending on where you are in the world and the coastline you frequent most, owning a dive boat is sometimes optional, and there are several factors to consider. If you were in KZN, shore diving is almost non existent due to the coastline and the unsheltered beaches. If you had a dive centre there without a boat it would be virtually impossible to offer much in the way of diving or training. Here in Cape Town there are quite a number of shore entries and these sites can fulfil most of the training requirements for a range of courses.

For any of the more advanced courses the depths close to shore don’t meet the criteria set by the certification agencies, and in order to reach the deeper sites a boat is required. For example the PADI Advanced course requires you aim for a maximum depth of 30 metres. The best wrecks for a Wreck Specialty require a boat ride. The most popular wreck for wreck penetration is the Aster which lies in the middle of Hout Bay and again is only accessible by boat. Whilst Cape Town boasts well over 100 dive sites the vast majority are boat dives, and in fact only a handful of the shore dives are relatively easy entries whilst most require a scramble down a bank and back up that bank at the end of a dive. Some also require a surface swim of over 100 meters. Whilst these sites are easy for the accomplished diver, a novice diver, already intimidated by all the new info being crammed into a dive course, doesn’t always find the rocky entries and exits a blast.

In Cape Town many dive operators don’t own boats and instead use the services of other centres or dive charters. This has certain benefits in that there are none of the associated costs and time consuming tasks related to boating and the dive is over once you kit is off loaded, whereas when operating a boat the dives are only over once the boat is home, washed, fuelled and ready for the next dive.

We found that using the services of other centres and boat charters had the disadvantage of seldom being able to choose the site or the launch times and this makes student dive planning a little more difficult. Co-ordinating the change of divers, equipment and dive planning becomes difficult if the first and second launches have students at different levels.

In addition to this, I have owned sailing vessels and boats for many years and love spending time on the water. In view of the usefulness to our dive school and the enjoyment we would get from boating, we decided that the right thing was for us to buy a boat when we were able to. The result was Seahorse, acquired at the end of March 2012. Since then we have enjoyed many boat dives off our own boat, and had many happy hours exploring False Bay.

Newsletter: The patchy bay

Hi divers

The diving last weekend was a bit of a washout. The wind predicted for Saturday arrived at twice the strength and we stayed out of the sea. Sunday was not too windy, however there was not too much clean water around and we went as far as the southern end of Smitswinkel Bay without finding much better than 5 metres. Christo explored an area we have not dived before and found a low reef and nice kelp forest.We did get to see whales on the ride down to the dive site, at the dive site and again on the way back.

The week has delivered mixed conditions with 6-8 metre visibility on Tuesday and 5 metres today. There are vast patches of different shades in the bay with some having clean water and some not.

The weekend does look reasonably good for Saturday. Sunday is a bit windier than I like but we could possibly have good conditions for shore dives.

So the plan is:

Two launches on Saturday: first launch maximum depth 30 metres, and the second launch maximum depth 18 metres. Where? well I think it best we go and look for the clean patches and decide out there. If you want to boat dive send me a text and the same goes for shore diving on Sunday.

Training

Nitrox, Open Water and Advanced on the go, with some Specialties in the pipeline. The southeaster will arrive soon and send us off to the Atlantic. I will run Deep, Wreck and Nitrox specialties once we hit the Atlantic as the Aster, the Katsu Maru,the BOS 400,and the Maori all need to be dived again to see what the winter storms and swells have done.

Curious seal says, "Are you my mother?" — Curious seal says, “Are you my mother?”

I will also run a Rescue course later this month and we will use the really windy days for pool training.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Wacky wind

Hi divers

It has been close on two weeks that we have not dived. At this time of year the wind is meant to blow from the north and west, during winter yet we are having primarily southeast wind and coupled with the weekly large swells from a southerly direction they have been trashing the bay. The visibility on Wednesday was down to around two meters at Long Beach and definitely has not improved since then. Sadly, it is not ideal conditions for training dives.

False Bay has also seen a host of odd shipping events, there was a huge US navy frigate, a cat hull here a few weeks ago and currently there is the Panos Earth, an ore carrier, up for auction as the owners do not have the funds to repair it and more recently a sort of bulk oil carrier of sorts also being repaired.

Training

We are currently busy with two Advanced students and a bunch of Open Water students. We will do a night dive for the Advanced course during the next week or two once the visibility improves. You do not need to be an Advanced diver to do a night dive, so if night diving appleals to you teaxt me and I will put you on the list.

Once the real winter weather arrives we will start Deep and Wreck Specialties, but I prefer at least 10 metre visibility for those Specialties.

On the boat at Atlantis the last weekend we dived

This weekend

It’s a tough call but we will schedule boat dives for Saturday and Sunday. If the conditions are not great on Saturday we will cancel Sunday. I had a look at the water from the top of Smitswinkel Bay and the water looks cleaner further south, so we will probably dive Atlantis (4-25 metres) and Batsata Maze (4 -27 metres). Text me if you want to dive.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: The luck of the draw

Hi divers

This weekend

Saturday will be filled with Open Water training somewhere in False Bay and most likely in Simon’s Town at Long Beach.

Sunday is Advanced training and fun dives, and we will boat out of either Hout Bay or Miller’s Point depending on the conditions.

Anemone on the top of the mast of the MV Aster

Last week’s diving

The past few weeks have delivered some days of stunning dive conditions with a sprinkling of dodgy days. Last weekend we planned to do Open Water training on Saturday but the weather did not oblige, and when we arrived at the beach the conditions were less than optimal. Sunday we did Advanced training and launched out of Hout Bay, and it was a terrific day with really good conditions. That’s the luck of the draw with weather related activities.

Fortunately for me and divers free during the week we have had a lot of week day courses and there have been some really good days in the ocean. The water temperature during the week has plummeted from 21 degrees on Monday to a coolish 13 degrees last night. Seven of us braved the slightly cooler water last night and enjoyed a really good night dive with a display of tentacles from an octopus, small cuttlefish being all “scary” and a host of other sights. With all the torches, cyalumes and flashing strobes it is amazing to see just how big a pool of light seven people can make. Sitting in a circle at the start of the dive we all turned off or buried our lights briefly and it is quite unreal how much light there still is below the surface despite the late hour.

Mozambique

Clare and I are booking plane tickets to Durban tomorrow. I’ll let those of you who are coming or who have expressed interest know which flights we are on so you can get on the same flights or ones with similar departure and arrival times.

Soapbox

If you’re wondering why I sometimes cancel diving in conditions that I deem poor, you can read an explanation here!

Winter diving

The winter season has not yet arrived and I am not planning to rush it in but it does usually signify a slowing down of new divers to the sport – isn’t it too cold, they ask. During the winter months we run fewer Open Water courses but there is an increase in Specialty courses such as Deep diver, Wreck diver, Nitrox etc, and this also heralds the “boat season” as most of these specialties are boat dives. Winter diving is in fact some of the best diving the Cape has to offer as we have the best visibility in False Bay during these months.

We did a deep dive last winter on the wreck of the SAS Fleur that lies in the middle of False Bay in 42 metres of water and at 25 metres we could see the wreck clearly below as well as the boat’s hull and shiny propellers on the surface.

Boat dives – the way forward

All dive planning generally happens on a Thursday afternoon or thereabouts. Once the boat charter newsletters go out the boats sometime fill very fast and there is not always time for me to text 20-30 people and wait for responses. I want to try something a little different and it will work like this:

I will text or email you by Wednesday each week about which days we will be on the boat. The text will not have specific info on dive sites but will ask whether you’re available for the boat on the weekend, which days, and what launches. If you then respond with a text it will give me far more lead time to plan and organise a good day of diving. At this point you will only be tentatively committing to diving and once we have Grant’s newsletter I will finalise the details with you and you will then still have a chance to back out.

This way we stand a far better chance of all getting on the boat on the days we wish and if we fill a boat we will hopefully be able to choose the site we dive from the options Grant gives us, dependent on where he launches from. Last winter we had many, many stunning days out on the water – one highlight was a detour we made after a dive to view a pod of a few hundred dolphins off Kalk Bay harbour one sunny winter Sunday.

There are more divers than boats in Cape Town so something to remember for this coming season is that if you book to dive and don’t arrive you are still liable for payment as it is not possible to fill that spot at the last minute.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Mozambique!

Hi all

I am sure most of you are happy that Christmas and New Year parties, expenses and rushing around are now behind you. Often this period is so taxing that a vacation early in the year is required for the purpose of recovery.

Mozambique

Nice visibility on the safety stop in Ponta do Ouro

We are going to Ponta do Ouro in southern Mozambique for a five night/eight dive trip leaving on the morning of Tuesday 1 May, diving twice a day from 2 May to 5 May, and returning on Sunday 6 May.

The primary reason for avoiding the school holidays and long weekends in April is the high costs of car rentals, accommodation, flights and diving over these “peak periods”. Another bonus (hopefully) is avoiding the mad rush of divers from Gauteng who flood southern Mozambique and Sodwana on long weekends (since their other diving options are quarries)!

If you joined one of our trips last year you will know how it works. For this trip, it’ll be similar to a Sodwana trip but with some extra considerations:

We leave Cape Town real early on day one and try to all arrive at Durban airport early enough to pick up our rental cars and drive to the border.
The border to Mozambique is around 100 kilometres further than Sodwana Bay (about 5 hours drive) but the border post closes at 5pm so there is time pressure.
There is a safe lockup place for the rental cars and the dive camp send a vehicle to collect us at the border. The trip from the border to the beach (approximately 15 km) is very sandy and requires a 4×4 or hi rider style vehicle (even 4x4s get stuck sometimes).
You will obviously need a valid passport!

Like Sodwana, it’s warm water diving on beautiful coral reefs. The launches are also surf launches, meaning that you help push the rubber duck off the beach into the sea, hop on board, and hold tight as the skipper punches some waves to get you out into the open ocean!

We will do the accommodation and dives booking for the group, but flights and car rental bookings are up to you. If you’re traveling alone, we’ll hook you up with someone(s) to share a car with. We will have different options of accommodation but will aim for small self-catering cabins as opposed to tents (it can be very hot and there are mosquitoes). If you want to keep your costs down or if you have less leave you can join us for part of the time there – Clare and I will do the full trip, but you are welcome to do a four night/six dive or otherwise reduced version.

Mozambique is more expensive than Sodwana due partly to the remoteness of the coastal sites in the south. For example, dives on our last trip to Sodwana were R220 including tanks and weights, but in Mozambique it will cost about R380 per dive for the same deal. The other extra costs are more petrol, and border transfers. Accommodation costs are about the same as we had at Coral Divers.

We will limit the group to maximum 12 people as this is the maximum number of divers per group. This will mean we have a boat to ourselves and get to choose the dive sites. I worked and lived there so I have photos and videos of the sites and can assure you the diving is amazing. As before we will meet sometime before the trip to see some photos and videos and make plans.

If such a trip interests you please mail me as it will be on a first come first served basis. I’ll then let you have an idea of costs and more details! If you want to see more of what Mozambique diving is about, check out this playlist of videos on YouTube, as well as the photos in this newsletter.

What have we been up to?

During the few free days Clare had during the festive season I had her running me in and out of hospital (3 times) and despite this Clare managed to successfully completely redo the website as well as move both the website and the blog to a self hosted site that makes it far more user friendly.

Clare and I have spent many hours driving and diving but on the 1st of January instead of having her talk to me in the car she was in my speakers. Clare was interviewed by Cape Talk and 702 on a nature program (in her capacity as a blogger) on talk radio. Made me very proud.

What are we planning

Well, since the 3 January I have been unable to dive due to the untimely demise of some random body part that it appears we have no use for. I have mostly recovered now and am chomping at the bit to get in the water. Doctor’s orders mean that I have to sit out this weekend, however.

Fortunately… this weekend features a howling southeaster on Saturday which will eliminate diving on both sides of the peninsula for all but the most hardy and desperate. Grant is launching in the Atlantic on Sunday – if you want to be on the boat, let me know if you want assistance with arrangements, otherwise speak to the man directly. I will be back to a full diving schedule next weekend – I am sorry to those regular divers who’ve been sorely neglected the last couple of weeks!

Over the next few weeks we have a number of Open Water and a few Advanced students to dive with so hopefully we will be doing a day of shore entries and a day of boat dives every weekend coming up. The water temperature has been as high as 23 degrees in False Bay over the last few weeks and the current 30+ degree day time temperatures around will most likely keep it high. It is also southeaster winds that prevail this time of year so more often than not the Atlantic is the ocean dived.

We are having a theory evening on Wednesday (25 January) for Open Water students – if you haven’t written your exam or learned how to use the dive tables yet, this is for you. Please let me know if you’re attending so Clare can stock up on snacks in preparation.

Training

Rescue training courses are my plan for February. I am going to try and get a group of six for this as it then brings the cost down dramatically, If you are a regular diver then this is a course that has a lot of value, more so to improve your own level of safety and ability to save yourself from a diving incident as well as assisting other divers. It is a lot of fun and includes the Emergency First Response course (you get to practice CPR by pounding the chest of my dummy, who is called Annie) as well as use of oxygen delivery equipment.

Once we have done Rescue we will focus on Wreck, Deep and Nitrox specialties as I am a firm believer that a regular diver should be comfortable with depth, Nitrox use and wreck diving as Cape Town has some stunning wrecks that lie between 30 and 40 metres.

Be good, have fun and get wet –

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog/

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Malta, wrecks, clear water & Cape weather

Hi everyone

Clare and I have just returned from an epic trip where we visited Denmark, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Malta. In total we took close to 10 000 photos above and below the surface, and close to 10 hours of underwater video. We were fortunate with the weather and only had a few hours of rain whilst driving from Germany to Denmark.

Whilst in Malta, we had 30+ degrees celcius sunny weather with slight breeze every day and of the 10 dives we did, 9 were to between 30 and 40 metres with water temperatures around 23-25 degrees celcius, apart from a deeper dive where the temperature dropped to 18 degrees inside one of the wrecks. The visibility was on average 30 metres. We tried some cave diving and I now understand the allure of cave diving far better than before I had tried it. We saw amongst other things free swimming bluefin tuna, possibly escaped from the many tuna farms in the ocean just off the islands, and on the wrecks we saw barracuda.

Back to Cape Town diving… The weather for the weekend does not look at all good. There is a cold front coming tomorrow bringing with it a 7 metre swell that will ruin the weekend’s diving prospects. This drops off on Sunday and every day next week looks good at this point. I am busy with a few courses so I will dive most of the days next week.

The summer season is fast approaching and things get a lot busier so August is possibly the last chance this year for some ”special offers”.

As an Open Water diver you can take this option. Advanced, Deep and Nitrox special: you pay for the Advanced and the Deep Specialty and get the Nitrox free, you save R1050. Otherwise, as an Advanced diver, you can do Deep Specialty and get Nitrox for R450. You save R550.

Ship's captain, aka Clare — Ship’s captain, aka Clare

To have the right qualifications to dive on most of the best wrecks in Cape Town a Nitrox and Deep Specialty are good qualifications to have. A wreck specialty is required to penetrate wrecks and the best wreck in Cape town for this is the MV Aster in Hout Bay. If wreck penetration is on your bucket list mail me and we can get started. Don’t get me wrong here, Cape Town has many many stunning dives for the Open Water diver and a list can be found here, but if deep or wreck diving are your thing then make sure you have the right qualifications, they do improve your diving skills, make you a safe diver a safer buddy and give you a rush.

On board a traditional Maltese (dive) boat

Mail me for more info if you are interested.

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

Newsletter: Biomimicry and floods

Hello everyone

This newsletter is late because we have just attended an extremely interesting talk at the Two Oceans Aquarium on biomimicry… Bio what? Google it, but it is a fascinating look at how man can mimic nature in order to solve problems. For example, cars designed to look like a boxfish have aerodynamics of note, and wind generator blades shaped as whale pectoral fins are up to 75% more efficient and so it goes on.

Cecil doing his first deep dive in a drysuit

Last weekend we managed only one deep dive to the Good Hope wreck (around 35 metres on the sand) and had good visibility and warmish 14 degree water.

The last few days have been wet and dry days as the ”summer winds” southeaster has blown all week… Let’s not go down the weather forecasting route!! Spoiling the dive conditions, but a wet week anyway as we had a catastrophic water pipe failure at home last week, flooding the entire house with enough water to snorkel around in… The water had run for around 8-10 hours so there was plenty of time for it to dam up…

This weekend we are attending the OMSAC Treasure Hunt on Saturday, and on Sunday will do an early boat dive out of Hout Bay to dive the wreck of the Aster, a wreck sunk by divers for divers which has wreck penetration possibilities. This is an ideal dive to start an Advanced course or a Wreck Specialty. The wreck also lies within swimming distance of another wreck called the Katsu Maru.

After Hout Bay we will move to Long Beach and continue with Open Water dives. Please let me know, if you haven’t already, if you’d like to come along on Sunday morning to the Aster. There are only two places left and please remember that boat dives cost R200. If you’re heavy on air, order a 15 litre cylinder in good time for R80, and if you’re Nitrox certified let me know if you require it.

Divers at the safety stop, ascending on the shot line

Also, please don’t forget to bring your MPA permits if you come diving with us. They’re available at the Post Office, and if you’re caught without one your kit (or mine, if you’re using it) can be confiscated. That’ll keep me on your Christmas list for a loooooong time…

regards

Tony Lindeque
076 817 1099
www.learntodivetoday.co.za
www.learntodivetoday.co.za/blog

Diving is addictive!

You’re a qualified Open Water diver… What next?

So, you have just qualified as an Open Water diver. Congratulations, the world’s oceans are there for you to explore. An often asked question is:

What’s next?

Advanced. One word, and that is often what you will get from anyone, including your instructor.

However, a good instructor will sit you down and try and find out a little more about where you think you might go with your diving. At this point it is unlikely you will know: will wrecks be your thing? Underwater photography? Exploring little-known dive sites?

Many an instructor will tell you that whilst doing your Advanced course you will come to realise what you will like best. This is hardly likely. Will one dive on a wreck be convincing enough? Will one dive with a camera have you rushing out to buy R20,000 worth of underwater photography equipment?

What if you decide photography is your thing… Do you choose to do three photography dives as part of your Advanced course? Can you? Do you even need to do an Advanced course if you love underwater photography? Or perhaps deep diving is what your heart desires. Will your Instructor take you on four deep dives for your Advanced course?

There are a multitude of questions and the answers are not always clear until you have done some diving. The whole idea with the Advanced course is to do the two core dives – navigation and deep – and three adventure dives, in the hope one of the three will entice you to do the corresponding Specialty.

It often does, and sadly this is likely to be where a diver stops exploring the opportunities available. A diver does a photography dive, rushes off to buy a camera, and this becomes his main focus. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with this – but what you do is limit yourself if you choose this path.

Often a new diver will decide Divemaster is the goal, so they do Advanced, Rescue and Divemaster. In as little as two months you have achieved this status, have done 60 dives and are now ready to go and work and earn an income for doing what you love. Sounds great, and it is, but are you ready for everything?

You land the dream Divemaster job in a tropical location – awesome! The first day you get to take a group of 12 on a night dive. Hmm, oh yes, you did do one during your Divemaster training, or perhaps two, or maybe not… Can you safely say you are ready to take 12 strangers on an underwater exploration at night when you have no experience?

Day two the group want to explore a deep reef, so off you go with twelve strangers to a depth of 30 metres. You did one deep dive for Advanced, possibly a few during Divemaster – are you ready? The next day you take 12 strangers to a site with a raging current. Have you done drift diving? It is an amazing experience when everyone drifts along with you but have a few stragglers, a few who swim against the current and suddenly your group of 12 are scattered all over the ocean.

Yes, you are a qualified Divemaster, but it could be you have little or no experience in drift diving, night diving, wreck diving and everyone’s favourite, deep diving. Sure there are Divemasters with all of this experience, but they are few and far between. Some Divemasters have never dived with a camera, and they get frustrated when the have a group of photographers to lead who are content to move no more than 20 metres from the entry point because there is so much to photograph.

So the question again, “Whats next?”

You should dive, as much as you can. If you want to combine this with furthering your diving qualifications, that’s great, but you don’t have to. I dived as an Open Water diver for 18 years, and didn’t feel as though I was missing out on anything. Plus, after all that time in the water, I was a capable and confident diver already when I started to do more dive courses.

Local diving varies from city to city and country to country. Depending on where you plan on doing the majority of your dives, have your instructor advise you on the best, but many different, options. In any event, to build on your capabilities underwater try and choose a path that will cover a wide range of diving environments and give you some solid experience.

My opinion is do more than one of your Advanced dives using a compass, so you are comfortable with how they work. Many of Cape Town’s dive sites are shore entries and being a good navigator eliminates long surface swims.

Also, do more than one dive to a depth greater than 18 metres. You are going to be qualified to dive to 30 metres after the Advanced course, so be sure you are comfortable being at 30 metres.

If you decide to do Specialties but are unsure of which, consider where you will dive. For example in Cape Town I would suggest you do a Deep Specialty and have your instructor conduct some of the dives on wrecks. This will get you to a point where you are comfortable with greater depths (Deep Specialty will qualify you to 40 metres). If wreck diving is your passion a Wreck Specialty is a must, as is Enriched Air diving as this extends your bottom time, a valuable commodity at most of the wrecks in and around Cape Town.

These are just a few of the options, so dust off the Open Water manual and see just how many different routes there are. Choose wisely! And remember to dive as much as possible.

Sea life: Cuttlefish

I love cuttlefish – they are cephalopods like octopus, and endlessly beautiful and entertaining to watch. Cephalopod means head-foot in Greek, and refers to their structure: large head, plus lots of tentacles.

We’ve spotted cuttlefish on a night dive before, vibrating its orange mantle underneath one of the Long Beach wrecks. Tony put up a video clip here.

The cutest thing I have EVER seen in the ocean was a toenail-sized cuttlefish I met while photographing Tony and Kate assembling the artificial reef at Long Beach. I was meant to be taking pictures of their work, but my eye was caught by this little dude moving across the sand. I first thought he was a warty pleurobranch, but he put on a burst of speed beyond the capabilities of any flavour of sea slug.

I followed him around for some time, watching as he changed colour to try and intimidate me, and then as he gave up and went about his business.

If I could have taken him home as a pet, I would have. Here’s a picture of him next to my finger (in my new gloves) for scale.

Clare's finger next to a tiny cuttlefish

On the Atlantic side, Oscar located a large specimen for me on the wreck of the SS Maori near Hout Bay. He was quite happily nestled against a rock, and was undisturbed by me coming quite close to check him out. He was a beautiful, large fellow.

Watching a cuttlefish on the move is wonderful – their mantles (the frilly bit around their bodies) make hypnotic waves as they undulate through the water. They can be quite relaxed, and will allow divers to come close to them as they hover in the water column.

Bookshelf: Deep Descent

Deep Descent: Adventure and Death Diving the Andrea Doria – Kevin F. McMurray

I really don’t know if I can recommend this book in good conscience. I devoured it over the space of a day and a half, but it gave me nightmares for several nights running, and when I started thinking about it during the two dives I did just after I finished it, I almost panicked – twice – even though I was in four metres of water at Long Beach.

The Andrea Doria was a magnificent Italian cruise liner that sank in 1956 after a collision with another ship in the north Atlantic. The ship itself was enormous, a work of art, and outfitted with great attention to detail. It lies at over 70 metres depth, an 18 hour boat ride from the North American coast (and thus hours from the nearest decompression chamber). The wreck is subject to howling currents, and as you can guess, the water is freezing. All that said, it’s become a sort of Mount Everest to a particular breed of deep wreck diver, even though the factors listed all place it squarely outside the domain of recreational scuba diving.

McMurray describes the sinking of the ship, but his main focus in the book is the diving that has gone on in the decades since the ship sank. The Andrea Doria attracts a particular kind of diver that I am reluctant to characterise (because I will be rude – but I will probably give in after a few more paragraphs), and there have been fifteen diver fatalities on the wreck. McMurray (a diver himself who has dived the Doria several times) describes the circumstances of several of the deaths, and the other characters involved, in some detail.

As the ship lies in international waters, many of the divers – if not all – who visit her are keen to loot the ship of its china, crockery, fittings, and whatever else they can find. This activity was a contributing factor in the deaths of many of them. I was astounded at the chutzpah with which many of the divers penetrated the wreck – all the guidelines we learned in our Wreck Specialty course were flouted with aplomb. Owing to the depth, it’s very dark down there. The interior of the wreck is collapsing, and as it is a modern ship there is a maze of cables and numerous other hazards to entangle the unwary. In general those who died penetrating the wreck got lost (none of them used reels) or trapped in cables inside.

The depth of the wreck necessitates incredibly complex gear configurations, and in more than one case the diver’s gear arrangement meant that he died inside the wreck. A multitude of clips, pony bottles (two different gas mixes for decompression, plus double tanks on one’s back) and a bewildering array of hoses put all but the most experienced divers under pressure. During a moment of stress, accidentally breathing at depth from your cylinder of pure oxygen (for use at the final, shallow decompression stop) will most likely be fatal owing to oxygen toxicity.

Another danger of a dive like the Doria is decompression sickness – because of the depth, but also because the cold water increases the risk of DCS. The actual bottom time in most cases was half an hour or less, and the depth necessitated extensive decompression on the way up. Divers clipped themselves to the anchor line – the currents and remote location of the dive site meant that getting lost at sea carried with it a significant chance of a lonely death. Inexperienced or unprepared divers who shoot to the surface in such circumstances – whether through a failure to control buoyancy, or (more commonly) either a malfunction in their gas setup, an out of air situation, or panic, are likely to suffer an air embolism and die as their lungs explode. Paralysis is the other option.

I was thoroughly freaked out by this book, but peversely enjoyed it a lot – literally could not put it down. If I’d read it before I started diving, I don’t know if I’d have taken up the sport. The point is, though (and I wouldn’t have known two years ago that this isn’t “normal” diving), that the divers who do dives like the Doria – whether on air (can you imagine the nitrogen narcosis at 70 metres?) or on trimix (where a proportion of the nitrogen in ordinary air is replaced by helium) – are fringe operators, lunatics looking for something that recreational scuba cannot and should not provide. There are individuals who are careful, methodical and motivated by things other than proving a point – whether to themselves or their communities – but they seem to be few and far between. This branch of diving is rightly spurned by mainstream scuba diving magazines and operators.

The sport I do is safe, fun, and non-competitive, characterised by a spirit of co-operation. The diving these wreck cowboys engage in is dangerous, motivated by the wrong things (collecting china so that you can one-up the other divers? I think not!) and characterised in many cases by a competitive spirit, aggression, and a LOT of machismo. There is no place for that kind of carelessness or for any element of competition in recreational scuba diving.

You can get the book here if you’re in South Africa, and here on Amazon.com. If you want to read it on your Kindle, go here. There’s tons more information on the subject on this website, including some pictures that show just how dark and murky it is down there.

(As an aside, there’s a Seinfeld episode called “The Andrea Doria”. The script can be read here.)