Simon Campbell

Posted at 2136 hours on 05/07/08 | Posted in Diving

Funny wreck the Glanmire…

I have been going regularly to St Abbs now for around five years. In my opinion it has some of the best, accessible, scenic diving in the UK. Its perfect for trainees as the visibility is great and there is plenty to see. There is also a wreck, the Glanmire, which lies around 200m off St Abbs head but every time I dive it people seem to have problems…

The 20th century merchant vessel hit Black Carrs (rock) and sank. Now lying in around 30m (depending upon the tide) it needs to be dived within the relatively narrow slack window, preferably on neap tides.

I am surprised there are not many more wrecks in the vicinity as the approaches to the harbour are quite tight, with treacherous rocks that can be ‘difficult’ in heavy weather.

It’s a good site and has loads of interesting ‘stuff’ for the wreck enthusiast. It also has the occasional Wolf Fish (my particular favourite) along with plentiful Lobsters, Conga’s and Wrass. Much of the wreckage is encrusted in the ubiquitous ‘Dead Mens Fingers’ and Plumose Anemones. Tony Gilbert sent me this hand drawn diagram of the wreck; thanks Tony!!

It appears though to take people by surprise. It is pretty ‘flat’ to the seabed and therefore the whole dive is around 30m; as a result, decompression obligations soon rack up. Even at slack, water can still be moving and the extra work against the tide causes people to use up their gas faster than they are expecting.

I have seen divers:

• caught up in their own reel line (see Enemy of the Diver #1) during the ascent as they panic because they are low on gas
• running out of gas as they didn’t plan the dive properly (ie not doing gas calculations and not sticking to dive times)
• getting flustered because they didn’t get to the buoy fast enough, not reaching it and ending up being picked up and deployed again with depleted gas supply

I could go on, but having thought about it I think the issue is the rest of the diving is so ‘easy’ and ‘relaxed’ it lulls many into a false sense of security. It is only 30m anyway?

The real question is why the hell people don’t dive it on Nitrox? It is available from the Scoutscroft Diving Centre just at the top of the road and 32% would be a perfect mix. This is a textbook example of where this can extend your bottom time enough to maximise the tidal window…

Rant over… Done.

2 comments

1. Stephen Hodgkins on 23/07/08 at 1745 hours

   I agree the Glanmire is an excellent wreck but one which needs caution. I dived it last year with my old club. It can certainly pull if not dived on slack and the window is very tight if dived on springs.

   We managed 3 incidents in 1 dive. One pair ran out of gas (not just one but both of them) - One of whom is now the DO. One of the buddy pairs came up separately without DSMB’s as they had both forgotton to take one and one diver (we shall call him Gerald to spare the blushes) took the shot down with him to the wreck as he was holding onto the shotline so tighly on the way down as his buoyancy was bad (It has 3 little white pellet boys to mark its position). The rest of us had to descend without reference and hope we had not drifted off.

   Luckily no one was hurt and the skipper recovered all the people and bits of kit into the boat.

   All in all it should have been a terrible experience however ,,,,,,

   I had probably the my second best dive of 2007 on it. I dived with a guy called Steve Hollands (DCI). He gets the nickname because he’s a policeman not because all divers suffer with the sickness after diving with him. There was loads of life and I even saw a large free swimming conga when exploring inside a stair well. We managed to tot up 2 wolf fish on the wreck and some very large lobsters.

   I think the key thing to remember in this is that if planned properly its a interesting and very pretty wreck (despite the fact that it is now mostly flattened).

   Also the life that has come back to St. Abbs head since it became a marine reserve is very impressive.

   If only there were more marine reserves. Over to you Simon !!!!

2. Simon on 24/07/08 at 0734 hours

   Thanks for your comment mate. More issues, hmmm…

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