Swanage
Friday 19th July to Sunday 21st July 2013
The Carantan (Jacqui Mudie)
The Carantan is 120ft long and lies on her port side in 30m, she was sunk in 1943 and is quite broken up but with 10 to 15m visibility there was plenty to see.
We dived as a three, Simon, Steve and me, we have done so before and felt quite comfortable doing so again. Simon was using his twin set for the first time in the sea, having practiced at Vobster, Steve and I were both diving with our usual kit although I was using a 15l rather than my 12l and no ankle weights.
We descended the shot straight to the wreck and the visibility was fantastic. There wasn’t an abundance of life but enough to make me smile. The wreck was fascinating with lots of shapes to look for I think I spotted the depth charge launcher, the anti-aircraft gun and a toilet at various points on it. I definitely had a look around an engine and a generator, although I wasn’t sure at the time.
There are some very wide tubes on the wreck, I think these are amidship and there were some large conger eels at this point one of them under the tubes near the seabed, the other inside and completely filling a tube which, I think, was about 60cm in diameter!
The rest of the dive was uneventful unless you enjoy identifying bits of metal and the odd crab, lobster, fish and flora. All of which, luckily, I do enjoy.
We sent up a dsmb and ascended to the surface after a very satisfying and comfortable 45min dive.
The Aeolian Sky (Jacqui Mudie)
The Aeolian Sky is a relatively modern wreck. She sank to 30m in November 1979 and is more intact than many wrecks we dive on. She was full of cargo both above and below deck when she sank. Although the decks have been cleared her holds are still quite full so there is plenty to see.
She is lying on her port side and has collapsed in places but is still reachable between 18m and 20m.
I dived with Simon and his twin set for this dive. We descended the shot and approached the wreck, we had been told that penetration was possible with care but decided we would have enough to see from the outside.
We took our time looking at the wreck as a whole, or as much of it as we could see with the 15m visibility we had! I could see into the hull and am sure there were some wheels and an axle.
We moved out a bit from the hull and looked at the wreck, it towered above us and was quite clearly outlined against the surface. An experience I’ve only previously had in warm water diving.
We took our time exploring as much as possible and later agreed we would need a week on just this wreck to begin to feel we had done it justice.
We again ascended using a dsmb after a 45min dive, feeling very happy with the experience.
