UE-77

My rose-tinted specs didn't let me down!

Out early this morning, it was sunny in Edinburgh when I left but there was a haar in Dunbar(!) when I arrived. The boat was already there, as were the other 3 divers, even though we'd arranged to meet at 9.30am - keen we are :)

Things went very well from the off. I love Carpe Diem, the rhib we were diving from, but I can NEVER get the small engine to start!. The wee engine is a back up to the main outboard, so if something goes wrong we should be able limp home under our own steam. But the wee engine doesn't like me at all, and the skipper rightly insists that the wee engine be tested at the start of every trip . . . but today it started for me after the 5th pull - hurrah, I was flushed with success before we even left the harbour!

It started to rain as we headed out to the wreck, but the sea was flat calm so we made good progress. The UE-77 lies just off Dunbar, she sits upright with her stern in the mud and her bow several metres above the seabed. She is a WWI mine-laying sub, thought to have perished after hitting one of her own mines. She sits in a depression in the seabed which makes her quite hard to find, she doesn't show up on the sounder like some other wrecks. We had 2 GPS marks to go on and saw a whisper of a shadow on the sounder by the most promising mark. Once we'd put in a shotline, Sarah and I kitted up and dropped down, with fingers crossed that there would be a wreck at the end of the rope. 40m down and we could see her taking shape through the plankton bloom. The shot was less than a metre from the bow! We swam round the bow, past the aileron (in the dive position) then on to the conning tower, behind the tower is a deck mounted gun, the wooden decking is still apparent, then the wreck disappears into the mud.

Sarah and I headed back to the shotline, said hello to a Yarrell's Blenny, who makes his home in a hole at the bow, and started our ascent. We both had 80% oxygen in stage cylinders, which accelerates decompression considerably. Despite the depth and a good time on the wreck we only had 8 minutes of deco at 6m. By the time we got to the surface the sun was blazing down and the North Berwick Airforce (the gannets) were out doing displays to keep us entertained while the other two went diving. All in all a grand day out!

This the first time I've taken the S90 diving with all it's paraphernalia - I think it did quite well. This is Sarah by the bow of the UE-77, the blenny lives in that bump to the left of Sarah.