The glorious Sound of Mull, the Rondo, SS Hispania, SS Thesis & SS Shuna
16 August 2010
Awesome weekend's diving just been had in the Sound of Mull - the greatest air diving location in Scotland outside of Scapa Flow. After a long period diving trimix only it was faintly nostalgic to be back diving on air on the fantastic wrecks there.
Saturday opened with a moody dive on the SS Shuna, wrecked with a cargo of coal from Wales in the early part of the last century. She was rediscovered in the early 1990's lying intact and untouched in about 35msw. My buddy Paul Haynes and myself dived her on rebreathers and took down our trusty Aquazepp underwater scooters so were able to circumnavigate the wreck at different levels three times. We even got our good friends Greg & Pauline Booth to hitch a ride on our units and took them for the grand tour two up.
After lunch at Tobermory on Mull we dived the SS Hispania in the PM - widely regarded as the most beautiful wreck in Scotland. Again Paul and I took our scooters in and were able to pass through the innards of the whole wreck, from the cargo of sheet rubber still in Hold No 1 through the bridge superstructure, through the Engine Room and all the way to the stern where we dropped over to the rudder and the seabed. The wreck sits on a shelf very close to a steep drop off and we had a look down the drop off for a wee bit before retracing our steps back up - to see the whole stern of the wreck silhouetted against the lighter water above. Saturday evening found us in the local bar where Paul & Gary Petrie had an impromptu jam session on guitars as we stocked up on our iron stores with a few pints of Guinness. Snow Patrol rock...
Sunday found us diving the 1889 wreck of the SS Thesis and finishing the weekend with the classic Scottish wreck dive, the Rondo. She sits vertically on her bows in 50msw lying back against a sheer underwater cliff with her rudder in only 3msw - she is an amazing sight. Paul and I scooted around her remains and then circumnavigated the small rocky island she ran aground on. Along the way we found the Rondo's spare ferrous prop dumped on the reef about 100-200m from the wreck. The current running over the reef was fierce and it took a combination of our scooters, finning hard and pulling ourselves over the rocky seabed until we broke through the standing waves and into clear water. Once the current was behind us we flew at some speed around the island. An alternative Rondo dive to end the weekend.
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