Archive for ‘Expeditions’

Tims walkabout continued

By tim, 4 April, 2010, No Comment

A few years back I remember reading an article written about a diving area in New Zealand called Poor Knights, the image that accompanied  the article of manta rays  filling a  valley where the vis’ went on to infinity and the walls dropped off to 50 mtr burnt  into my memory.  Jacques Cousteau called it one of the worlds top 10 diversities, the top of a volcanic island on the edge of the continental shelf allowing upwellings of nutrient rich water to fuel an eco system in the shallow areas reminded me of another area Sipadan in Boreno and the topography spectacularly drops off to 1000mtr and the sea is full of life. After asking around some of my dive buddys I was given Jeroen,s phone number at divetutukaka.com who kindly hooked us up with one of his boats. Skippered by Craig  we meet up with him in the morning and headed off for the Poor Knights islands. We had a comfortable run out there with the sea state running at 1 mtr pooping us, the skipper Craig had time to tell us some of the history of the island, which was allegdly  named after a pudding topped with preserve by Captain James Cook; when the flowers bloom atop the island it resembled the dish. We entered a bay edged by huge cliffs of volcanic rock, the sonar read 50 mtr and Craig manoeuvred the boat to anchor on a small outcrop of rocks surrounded by deep water – not an easy task. The dive site, known as The Northern Arch, looks very small at the surface but opens into a huge arch under the water line. We entered the water and were greeted by 21 degrees, 30 mtr vis’ and arched swimthroughs and larva tubes, all caritureistic of Gran Canaria, which is where one of Davy Jones Locker’s previous dive centres was situated. All these things combined to make me feel right at home here.We entered the arch and dropped down to 30 mtr looked up into large schools of fish and red snapper, as we smam through the arch a large sting ray, around 1.5 mtr, swam past certainly making  the dive a memorable one.

Diving in Koh Tao you get used to warm water and I was feeling the cold at the end of the first dive; a chilly 21 degrees, but we warmed up on the boat and during the surface interval entered a very large cavern. Legend has it that during the second world war a japanese sub’ used the cavern to effect repairs away from the eyes of the NZ navy patrols. Our second dive was made just outside the cave around kelp forests and swim-throughs. Cracking couple of dives in the Poor Knights; shame we have to move on,  thanks to the Jeroen and the team at diving.co.nz for making us feel so welcome. One more stop off and its back to Tao and some more diving expeditions…

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DJL research marks for new wreck diving expedition in the straits of Mallacca

By tim, 3 December, 2009, No Comment

Getting-help-from-local-fishermen-to-locate-shipwrecks-in-Straits-of-Mellacca

Tim and the team from Ko Tao were up to old tricks in the straits of Mallacca recently, on an as yet, undisclosed island talking to fishermen for an upcoming expedition to look for a WWII Japanese shipwreck, The Maru which was lost in an action by the submarine, The Tally ho in 1943. The official War record report has the chart datum 50 metres in the area, so we’ll probably be running the expedition using a tri-mix. We were also there to secure logistical backup for Oxygen, Evac and boat transportation to the mark with another diving company in the area. When the team arrived we set off to talk to some fishermen and came across a Thai vessel which looked promising, Tim jumped on board the boat and was met by a group of irate Thais all wondering what this Farang was doing on their vessel; but soon had their tongues loosened and put their knives away when Tim pulled the chart out and offered cigarettes and whiskey. We managed to procure some very interesting new targets in the area. The trip is planned for the next neaps which is at Christmas time; watch this space…

Looking-for-shipwrecks-in-the-Straits-of-Mallacca

The team comprised of Tim, Juliet and Fri.

We incorporate this type of research into our exploration diver package which is an add-on to the divemaster internship.

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Wreck Discovery – Straits of Malacca

By Ollie the Spaniard, 24 November, 2009, No Comment

A team of divers from Davy Jones Locker recently located a shipwreck in the Penang straits of Malacca. The wreck is of a currently unknown cargo vessel of approximately 2500BRT.

After chartering a local fishing boat the team of technical divers from DJL accidentally discovered the wreck after searching for a wreck of a WW2 British submarine.

The cargo vessel sits at 60m and has a huge crane lying next to the main hold of the ship. The cargo has spilled into the sand around the crane as a result of sinking. The bridge sits upright and has nets flying from its mast as if clawing for the surface.

The team also located and identified a Japanese submarine and a large boiler from a steamship believed to have fallen foul to a British submarine.

The team comprised of Fri, Jeremy, Tim 2 and was led by Tim Lawrence from Davy Jones’ Locker, all of whom plan to resume the search to identify the vessel as soon as possible

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Sink, Search… Salvage!

By djl team, 17 November, 2009, No Comment

_LWC4082

I led a team of technical divers from Davy Jones’ Locker to dive a shipwreck 54 nautical miles north east of Koh Tao called the Pangan. We chartered a boat from another dive centre, which was a converted fishing vessel and decided to tow the DJL rib to use as a safety boat.

Travelling out over night we arrived on the mark, dropped a lazy shot and ran some 56 meter profiles on the ship. After completing a successful days diving we began our journey back, the north east trade winds were evident and we had one metre swells coming across the starboard bow. After relaxing on the top deck for three hours the ship stopped dead in the water and the captain appeared a little flustered. He started pointing to the engine room so I went to investigate only to find the room full of water. At this point we got all our bilges together in an effort to pump the water out. The water level was still rising. One of the bilges was an independent engine; this started to flutter then conked out after trying to restart the Honda engine for several minutes.

I made the decision to abandon ship as the water was coming in too quickly then pulled the rib along side and starter to get her ready. I shouted to Gary to strip the twin sets, regs and wings and grab the extra gas we had taken along for our compressor. With the help of the team we tied the compressor and the twin sets down to the chartered boat. The captain dropped the anchor in an effort to stop the windward drift. I finally took the bags, the 4 tech divers and the thai crew away on the DJL rib. As the fishing boat left the surface we took one last look as she took her last breath, screaming with air intake. The GPS showed us to be 28 nautical miles from Koh Tao with an overloaded rib that was taking on water half an hour before sunset; we were not having a good day! We were unable to contact anyone on our VHF. After 2 hours of bailing water we crept into Hin Wong Bay, secured the rib and headed for the bar!

With a compressor and 5 twin sets on the sunken vessel I started thinking about salvaging it. We had a mark for the ship but they rarely sink in a straight line so we had to pick a good weather window as I expected the search to take some time. After 3 weeks we got our break and with a team of eight (four bottom and four support divers) we set off, this time using our big boat and rib. Again travelling overnight to the mark, we arrived on station at 06:00 and started to search using the rib. After around 20 minutes I picked up a return and after running over the anomaly a few times found that it was a bigger return than the expected target. This was around 70 meters long with a 5-metre beam rising from the bottom. As this wasn’t our target I continued to sweep, searching with the trusty trade winds. Four hours passed and I decided to return to the first finding. I dropped a shot on the mark and our first team entered the water for a look. An hour later they surfaced and reported a large sand mound with holes dropping through 3-4 metres, indicating an old sub bottom shipwreck. Excited by our find we continued to search for the compressor and after another 4 hours we located her just less than 1 nautical mile away from our original mark.

We got straight to work and I descended the shot line carrying another line to secure the compressor. This would allow us to relocate the compressor if the lift failed. I tied the shot to the bow and noticed a large hole, evidence of a collision. Luckily she was sitting upright so I quickly located the compressor at 62m and secured the second line. As I returned to the shot I came across the twin sets, cutting the rope that was tying them down we lifted them across the bottom of the shot. Whilst tying them off I clipped a bag on the line and started my ascent. After running the decompression I got onto the boat and briefed the team on the upcoming lift and carried out a dry run. We prepared the bags and lines on the boat then Gary entered the water. After 10 minutes the bags were on the surface. We lifted the compressor onto the boat, followed by the twin sets. The team then completed a second dive to free up the shot and on the way recovering the boats compass to return to the ships owner.

By Tim Lawrence, Davy Jones’ Locker

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Video of wreck dives on the HIJMS Hatsutaka

By djl team, 30 April, 2008, No Comment

Following up on our dive expedition, diving the HIJMS Hatsutaka wreck last month, here are some short video clips of the wreck, to give you a better idea of the dive site.

hijms hatsutaka wreck dive

Enjoy:

Hatsutaka wreck dive video 1: Above the top of the bow section

Hatsutaka wreck dive video 2: Debris field beneath the bridge

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