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Diving

Beagle Dives

I've dived the "Beagle" 8 times:

Dive number	Date	Site	Location	Area	Country	Wreck	Freshwater	Depth (m)	Bottom time (min)	Total time (min)	Divers	Quality	Summary	Equipment
250	12 Sep 1985	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			34	16	20	Iain Hosking, John Llambias		250th dive! Memorable because of weird weather conditions which made good at last. Grappled wreck on first pass. Second pair down - covered the whole length of the wreck including the prop. Very dark, pretty murky, covered in line and nets. Saw phosphorescence. No significant current. Good fun.	own + Fenzy X3
251	13 Sep 1985	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			34	16	20	Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide		Conditions rougher than yesterday - 4-5 - but sunny and light on the wreck. Vis not so good: 2m. Noted masses of monofilament line and rope, and someone's grapple and chain. Spent some time around the bow section - masses of plumose anemones. Guided to the site by a dolphin.	own
256	22 Sep 1985	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			34	16	18	Iain Hosking, John Parkinson		John Llambias' exercise. Conditions marginal. Wind easterly 5-6. Sea state 4. Despite this hooked into the wreck on the first pass. John and Eileen Kelly (National Coach for Northern Ireland) laid a distance line. We measured the depth of the ship's side and the distance from the foredeck and recovered all lines. Vis good - had some time to swim up and look at the bows. Conditions very rough on the journey back - boat swamped.	own. Boat: 4m Avon Searider. Out of its depth in the conditions.
300	18 Sep 1986	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			33	16	18	Iain Hosking, Crawford Foster		Still perfect conditions. Several buoys on the Beagle so we added ours. Down onto the bows, swam round forward hold, then aft along starboard side, past a locked-in conger. Very impressive rudder and prop. Vis not too brilliant.	Kevin's Rowi suit, 24lbs.
303	19 Sep 1986	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			32	13	15	Iain Hosking, Geoff Hide		Practice for First Class. Grappling for the wreck made very tricky by the presence of two other buoys, both tied onto the wreck. Swam right round the wreck - saw anchor, emergency steering gear and conger. Masses of monofilament.	Rowi suit, 20lbs, club 78
304	20 Sep 1986	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			34	21	23	Iain Hosking, Gordon Fyfe		First Class practical. Down grapple line, no wreck, so dived again down existing buoy. Carried out survey of monofilament and debris.	Rowi suit, 24lbs
305	21 Sep 1986	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			35	14	16	Iain Hosking, Jeff Cooke		Followed line to stern and had a good look at the prop and rudder. Saw conger, prawn (or shrimp), tiny squatties and sink etc aft. Good dive. [It's worth recording that the day's task was, as I wrote in the white logbook, 'to lift an earthenware jar for the instructors - a task just as slimy as giving the teacher an apple, maybe worse'. The second pair recovered the jar so Jeff and I didn't have to demean ourselves. I helmed the boat from the Wallachia to the Beagle, downwind in a force 4: 'Only had it airborne once - probably the last nail in the coffin of my exam, but by then I was past caring.']	Rowi suit, 24lbs
307	28 Sep 1986	Beagle	North of Great Cumbrae	Clyde	Scotland			34	16	20	Iain Hosking, Malcolm Gauld		What a fantastic dive! Down line expecting it to get dark, and it didn't. Could see the whole wreck laid out below us from well above it. No torch necessary. Apart from the good vis and interesting artefacts we were also the subject of examination by a shoal of fish. Didn't want to come up.	Twin 55s, 24lbs