This is the first sight we had of the wreck of the Chrisoula K, on her starboard side. She was a Greek freighter, and was wrecked at Sha’ab Abu Nuhas in 1981, carrying a cargo of tiles.
The Chrisoula K was a German-built vessel that was wrecked at Sha’ab Abu Nuhas in 1981 while under Greek ownership. She had a cargo of Italian floor tiles on board. (We are sure that if we combined the cargoes of the Jolanda and the Chrisoula K we could do a complete bathroom makeover.) There is some controversy about whether the wreck we dived is actually the Chrisoula K (some contend that it is another tile-carrying vessel called the Markos – which Ned Middleton contends is actually the nearby Giannis D – or even that it is actually the Kimon M, while the real Chrisoula K is in very deep water), but our dive guides brushed this off as a storm in a teacup, and seemed pretty certain that the wreck we dived, which lies in about 25 metres of water, is the Chrisoula K.
Some of the cargo of tiles
We dropped in on the starboard side of the wreck, which is mostly standing upright on the sand with her bow embedded in the reef slope. There are booms and masts sticking out over the side of the wreck, and just underneath one of them we found a small school of longfin batfish, who eyed us balefully as we swam by but made little effort to avoid us. On the sand beneath were the traces of a large number of garden eels, whose presence was evidenced by the small sand piles they left as they vanished with the approach of the first group of divers from our boat.
Longfin batfish
The stern of the wreck is twisted ninety degrees from the horizontal, which looks confusing. Apparently it started leaning to starboard, and has gradually completed a full twist. The propellor is intact and present. The port side of the ship lies quite close to the reef, and one can swim down the passage between it and the reef, or explore the top of the wreck. Some of the cargo of tiles is visible in a hold, and we found a lovely porcupinefish hiding near some tiles, too.
Booms and masts overhanging the seabed
It is possible to penetrate the wreck, apparently, but I’m not into that stuff so I gave it a skip. We finished off the dive with a safety stop and then ascended to where our Zodiac was moored on top of the superstructure. When there were enough divers to fill the boat, and then a few more, we set off back to our liveaboard.
The starboard side of the Chrisoula K
Tony and Christo on the wreck
Heading towards the stern
Checking out the masts
Longfin batfish on the Chrisoula K
Leaning superstructure
Jumbled masts and booms
Winches on deck
On deck
The stern of the Chrisoula K
The stern of the Chrisoula K is rotated through ninety degrees
Kevin McMurray is the author of Deep Descent, a riveting account of diving the wreck of the Andrea Doria. Here, he turns his attention to the largely forgotten wreck of the RMS Empress of Ireland, a liner that sank in Canada’s St Lawrence River in 1914, after colliding with a Norwegian vessel in thick fog. Over 1,000 people lost their lives. The Empresslies in just over forty metres of water, but the current, cold water, low visibility and lack of ambient light make it an extremely challenging dive site on which several divers have lost their lives.
McMurray provides a detailed account of the collision, sinking, and subsequent enquiries into the accident. He also describes the history of diving endeavours on the vessel, which began in 1964, when diving equipment was considerably more rudimentary than it is today. As with the Andrea Doria, it is possible to penetrate the Empress of Irelandthrough the collision hole in her side. The wreck lies partially on her side, which makes the interior disorienting.
The author has dived the wreck several times himself, which enables him to speak authoritatively of the challenges of cold water, low visibility diving (much like what we sometimes do in Cape Town). The wreck lies some distance out in the river (the St Lawrence is wide and eminently navigable) which has its own associated challenges, too.
There has been a fair amount of political wrangling over the wreck, perpetrated by rival dive charters, self-appointed guardians of the wreck site, and others who hoped to benefit materially from the wreck, and McMurray details some of this.
I found McMurray’s account of diving the Andrea Doria to be more immediate (and to give me more nightmares) than Dark Descent, but it is nonetheless an extremely interesting book that itself serves as a monument to what is Canada’s worst peacetime disaster. Both McMurray’s books go some way to explaining the allure of challenging wreck dives that only few divers will ever have the chance to visit.
Here’s a short video I took during an amazing night dive on a mysterious, very broken up vessel called the barge wreck, just off Bluff Point at Big Gubal Island. There were a lot of divers in the water that evening and their torchlight illuminated different parts of the barge at different times.
There is a barge wreck at Bluff Point on Big Gubal Island in the Red sea, where we did an amazing, fast drift dive along the side of the lagoon. During that dive we did stop in briefly at the barge wreck (its origin and identity is unknown), but it was on a night dive the previous evening that we actually spent a significant amount of time exploring the barge.
Divers exploring the barge at night
It’s supposed to be one of the best night dive sites in the Red Sea, and we were amazed by the amount of life on and around the wreckage. We saw multiple large moray eels, huge basket stars, enormous urchins, and a crazy variety of other life. We jumped off the back of our liveaboard, swam under a neighbouring liveaboard, and found the barge wreck just off its starboard side. It was teeming with divers from our boat and the other liveaboard, but there was so much to see over such a spread out area that it didn’t matter too much.
Giant basket star
My favourite thing was the basket stars, of which there were many. We saw some huge ones, with diameter nearly as big as my arm span, and some small, palm-sized ones. They are not the lovely blue-grey colour of the ones we see in Cape Town, but the intricate design of their many arms is the same.
Tony filming a moray eel
Small basket star
Moray eel
Huge sea cucumber
Part of the barge wreck
Very little of the barge is intact
The barge wreck is heavily encrusted
We also saw a number of moray eels. Our dive guide told us that two big ones live on the barge wreck, named George and Georgina. The ones I saw and photographed were extremely large. As with the night dive we did at the Alternatives, the water was very still and very clear, so torch light actually shone an appreciable distance. This kind of night diving is so easy and wonderful that I think it might have spoiled me for night diving in Cape Town!
Just peeking out behind the wave you can see the top of the Clan Stuartwreck. This photo was taken just after a large storm, at spring high tide. Here’s another photo of Mackerel Bay, the not very obvious bay where the Clan Stuart lies in only 12 metres of water. With a wave like this, a shore entry would be out of the question. It is possible to dive the Clan Stuart from a boat, though it’s not commonly done.
I plan to spend Saturday boat diving (in False Bay or Hout Bay) with Divemaster candidates. Low viz and lousy surface conditions will apply. On Sunday we will launch at 7.00 AM and dive the MV Aster and the SS Maori, or if the conditions on the Aster are really good and the swell at the Maori not so good, we will dive the MV Katsu Maru.
Drawings of the SS Maori & SAS Transvaal
Sodwana
So far we have nine people heading to Sodwana at the end of April. Clare is confirming the booking with Coral Divers tomorrow, and will send out further details to those joining us. It’s not to too late to come along, but you do need to think quickly in order to secure accommodation, because this is a busy time for Sodwana. Let me know as soon as possible if you want more information. Warm water, lots of colourful marine life – what’s not to love?
Blue banded snapper in Sodwana
Dive report
The wind has made itself felt for most of this month and we have had only a handful of days with really good diving conditions. Never mind, at least there is always somewhere to dive in this city. We have had a weather station on our house since the middle of last year and it shows some very interesting trends. I think the primary reason for the lack of good viz on the Atlantic may have something to do with the fact the wind has been more southerly than south easterly for the last few months. Please note: having a weather station at home does not make you a weather expert, instead it gives you more things to wonder about.
Clovelly
This weekend looks more and more like an Atlantic weekend with the wind that we have in the forecast. Both Saturday and Sunday start off with 20-odd km/h winds and then it climbs during the day. Sunrise is still really early so an early start is what we will plan. Email or text me if you want to dive.
SS Thistlegorm is a British World War II wreck lying near Ras Mohammed. We did two successive dives on her in rather currenty conditions. On the first dive, when the current was mild, the visibility was of the order of 40 metres (we could judge this based on the length of the wreck, and how much we could see when we were in the middle). By the second dive, when the current had picked up a lot, visibility was down (!) to 25 metres. Nothing to complain about for divers from Cape Town!
I particularly liked the bow of the wreck. This turned out to be quite lucky because it was hard to leave the bow owing to the current on our second dive. So I hung around and met crocodilefish, scorpionfish, glassfish, stripy fish that look like zebras, and a whole lot of other life. This is what the bow, with its huge winches, looks like:
We arrived on the wreck via a line tied from our liveaboard to a winch on the bow of the Thistlegorm. Both times we dived her the current was strong, so we hung on tight to the line all the way to the wreck. Here are some divers from another liveaboard arriving on the bow, where we were trying not to get blown away by the current.
SS Thistlegorm was a British merchant navy ship. She was torpedoed and sank by a German bomber while at anchor in the Red Sea in October 1941, quite close to Ras Mohammed National Park. She was carrying an extremely varied cargo including boots, rifles, motorcycles, trucks and two steam locomotives, and much of it can be seen by divers who are qualified to penetrate the wreck.
Arriving on SS Thistlegorm
The Thistlegorm has much mystique attached to her – much like SS Lusitanialying on Bellows Rock off Cape Point, I suppose – and it seems that no liveaboard trip to the northern Red Sea is complete without at least one dive on the wreck. Philistine that I am, I did not feel as compelled to dive the Thistlegorm as much as many of the other (British) divers on board our boat did. Perhaps it is the British connection that I am missing. As a war grave and a significant part of the British war effort, the Thistlegorm is well beloved there. She also stopped in Cape Town during her short time at sea!
Crocodilefish on deck
The wreck is known for very strong currents that can arise without warning, change direction in minutes, and can make complete exploration of the outside of the wreck something of a challenge. We did two dives on the Thistlegorm, one after the other. On our first dive the current was strong but manageable, running from the bow (our entry point) to the stern – we just had to watch our gas carefully to ensure that we had enough to swim back to the bow against the current. By the time we did our second dive the current was absolutely insane, and as a result we spent most of that dive exploring the bow and the area close to it.
Winch on board the Thistlegorm
Kate next to one of the water carriers
Christo and Tony near the superstructure
Site of the blast
Tony on the Thistlegorm
Glassfish teeming on the wreck
Crushed water carrier
Toppled masts on the superstructure
Looking off the bow at one of the anchors
Crocodilefish on the wreck
Hawse hole on the Thistlegorm
Chains and winches on the bow
Kate greets a scorpionfish
Scorpionfish on the bow
The bow area is very striking, with huge winches and chains that house many interesting creatures in their bends and folds. The strong current was making the fish very happy, and the wreck was swarming with glassfish and other piscine life, all feeding in the current. The dive briefing for a wreck like this is extremely thorough, and as a result we were able to identify each of the features as we swam over them. Close to the bow are two huge water tanks, both crushed by the water pressure. Lying next to the wreck on the sand is one of the locomotives that was on board as deck cargo. The blast area where the torpedo hit (the ammunition hold, number four) is very obvious, as is the fact that there was additional explosive power provided by the ammunition in that hold.
Tony over the wreck
I’m not particularly keen on going inside shipwrecks, particularly with a group of twenty people I don’t know from Adam, so I didn’t take up the opportunity to explore the cargo holds of the Thistlegorm. I know that for many on board our boat, however, this was the highlight of their trip. An advantage of going inside the wreck was that they escaped the force of the current, but it did necessitate careful planning to emerge far enough forward on the wreck to be able to exit at the right place.
On the day we dived the Thistlegorm I counted twelve liveaboards tied up to her. Efforts to preserve the wreck from the damage that can be done by a carelessly placed anchor or a mooring line tied to a sensitive location have met with mixed success. There was a brief ban on liveaboards tying up to the wreck a few years ago, but that isn’t in place any more. In any case, it requires care and smarts to note and remember which anchor line is yours for the ascent. All divers look pretty much the same – I reckon you’d be on the dive deck of the wrong boat before anyone realised you didn’t belong!
On Friday we are shore diving A Frame as the Divemaster candidates are working on a mapping project. On Saturday the boat will be in False Bay but is already full as we have a bunch of Open Water students to qualify. That leaves Sunday open for two launches to somewhere that we can dive without a white stick. If you want to be notified on Sunday morning as to whether conditions will permit us to dive, reply to this mail or send me a text message.
Last week’s diving
This weekend signals the end of most of the up country visitors’ vacation time, and life slowly goes back to normal. You can once again find parking at most of the beaches and and go back to swearing quietly at the idiots on the road because they could be your neighbour.
It’s been a week of really poor diving with swell, surge and low visibility. The Atlantic is not very clean, and nor is False Bay. The storm that hit the Cape2Rio Fleet did its best to fill the bay with kelp, silt and garbage. Today we have had some westerly winds which has helped to clean this up a little, and the forecast for the weekend is a southerly wind. That’s good in some places in the bay, and not so good in others. Today I was in the pool doing skills and equipment exchange with two Divemaster candidates. At least the visibility there was excellent…
Nick may have trouble equalising
Most of you will be aware that last weekend there was a serious diving accident on the wreck of the MV Rockeater in Smitswinkel Bay. The dive community is a small one, and even though we did not know the diver concerned, we have felt the loss keenly and Clare and I have spent a lot of time discussing it. The full details of what happened have not been released, but there is always something to learn when things go wrong, even from partial information.
When incidents like this occur there is a tendency for them to be swept under the carpet, as people tend to believe that it will cause harm to the dive industry. I don’t share this view. Finding someone to point a finger at has no value (and often there isn’t anyone who can be blamed), but a lesson learned has huge value to a diver who is still on the learning curve. Hopefully we are all still on that curve. Not everyone has a person in their life who understands scuba diving and with whom they can work through an incident like this. If you’d like to discuss it at all, please give me a call or drop me an email.
Remains of a large swell on Fish Hoek beach this evening
Sodwana trip in April
On a much happier note, we are planning a dive trip to Sodwana from 26 April to 30 April. We will stay at Coral Divers and do six dives (at least) over three days, with one day for travel on each side (fly to Durban, drive approximately 400km to Sodwana). This will be a busy time at Sodwana because of the public holidays and the fact that schools will be mostly closed that week, so we need to get into gear quickly on this one.
We’ve done this trip a couple of times before – read about one of those occasions here, and see what kind of diving you can expect here. A hint: it’s warm and colourful! You will need to be a confident boat diver, but an Open Water qualification is sufficient. If you’re interested let me know and I’ll send you more details – you only need to pay a 10% deposit to secure your booking, with full payment due 14 days before our arrival. The Coral Divers price list for 2014 can be found here.
Everyone needs something to look forward to at the start of the year… Think about it!
