It all started with a seemingly innocent txt message one warm Tuesday afternoon” Some spaces on the Clutha at the weekend, fancy some diving?” This was the txt I got from Stevie, “yes” was my response, I can do Saturday as long as I can get back in time for the club curry night!
Friday night I went to see the excellent Mac Floyd, a Scottish Pink Floyd tribute band at Rutherglen (Ruggie) with my mate from work Lazzerbyjan (he’s actually from Kazakhstan and he is not a terrorist, in fact he is a respectable chess player & Project Manager, pause, NOT!) & Ian from the west end….
The gig was excellent, the band played like a dream, the venue brilliant although the crowd where a little on the wild side. One guy being ejected by the stewards & his girlfriend didn’t even notice, during the interval we all got put outside till the fire service could give an all clear as the fire alarm went off…..Anyway I had agreed to not drink on the Friday to make sure I was fit for some Clyde Wreck diving on the Saturday.
My Alarm went off on Saturday morning at 6.45am, I had a quick shower and headed off to Stevies. We moved my kit over to his car and he drove us down to Greenock McDonald’s for breakfast. Stevie’s hint was to get a bacon and egg McMuffin and keep it for lunch, this sounded minging but just had to be tried.
We arrive at Inverkip Marina with time to spare, grab a trolley and get our gear down to Elaine and the MV Clutha.
The sun is shining the reports of ten metre visibility keep us smiling and the joy of being the youngest on the full boat by 8-15 years makes Stevie and I have a good laugh as we get introduced to the rest of the divers.
We have a good gab with a Guy up from Lincs, solo diving (Tim), a nice lad well clued up and sorted. I start having some banter with Dave from Queensferry sub aqua who has plenty of life experience being a chiropractor, joiner and Hypnotherapist, the only career missing was Royal Marine or special forces, I am sure he probably was but would have to have killed me if he told me 
The boat had a good friendly crowd on today with everybody gabbing and having a laugh with each other.
The day is shaping up nicely with Elaine announcing our first dive was going to be on the Beagle and Stevie having dived it before agreeing to led the dive for us. We agree that I will call the dive when we get into as much deco as I am comfortable with, I suggest about 15 minutes and Stevie says this fine with him.
We headed out of Inverkip marina with all the sailing boats behind us.
28/04/2007 10:39 Dive 136: The Beagle
Buddy: Steve Hickdive Max Depth: 34.5 Metres Duration: 41 Minutes Water Temp: 8oC -11oC
Back Gas: Air In: 216 Bar Out: 119 Bar Deco Gas: EAN50 In: 150 Bar Out: 90 Bar
I had never dived the Beagle and Stevie agreed to lead the dive. Stevie and I kit up and do buddy checks on-board, Elaine tells us to start kitting up as we are on site, two divers go in before us, then we jump, check on the surface and descend down the shot line, the shot is pretty clear in front of us and the wreck starts coming into site before we get near it, around eight metres of visibility which is just great, Stevie hits the deck area first, gives me the Ok and we head down to the sea bed inside what is left of the Beagle, over the boilers at around 34 Metres crossing back to the starboard side with me trying the camera sans flash but getting lots of jittery movement icons on screen. Stevie checks my presence with torch signals, i respond and feeling comfortable we have a nice look around the wreck, find the collision damage and coming to the bow section, which is very picturesque.
We turn around at the bow and head along the port side, enjoying the lovely clear views, the deep green waters and glow from other divers torches, before dropping to the inside and fish around in the silt for any glass tumblers, Stevie finds a couple of broken ones, we find a large edible crab just in front of the boilers and we head back to the shot line, as we reach the shot line Stevie asks me if I want to head up the line, I check my computer and it says 8 minute ascent time, meaning we have accumulated around 5 minutes of decompression stops, not a lot but enough for me to call the dive, we head up the line and both pause at 18 metres for our one minute deep stops (I am diving a D9 & Stevie is diving a Vytec DS both of us running one minute deep stops) I change gas to EAN50 then make a couple of mistakes setting bookmarks on the computer before realising what I am doing wrong and get the D9 switched to 50%.
We ascend the line with the D9 telling me I have 4 minutes of stops at 3 metres however we choose to scrub off the stop at 6 metres and do it based on Stevie’s back up computers requirements (which only has air set as a breathing gas and no deep stop algorithm) meaning we actually sit at 6 Metres for eight minutes and two divers that had just caught up with us on the line pass us after they complete the stops showing on their computers (VR£’s by the looks of things).
We slowly ascend from six metres to the buoy and wait on Elaine coming round to pick us up. We swim towards the large open ladder of the Clutha, conscious that the visibility is clear and we can see the prop at the back of the boat churning away at the green sea.
I really enjoyed this dive and was happy with my performance under water, gas switching could have been more smooth on the computer and my photography skills could have been better however all things considered, this was only my third decompression dive and around my tenth visit below 30 metres. I wasn’t stressed and don’t think my buoyancy was bad at all considering I was using my camera most of the time. It shows that taking the stage in on dives where its not needed and doing gas switches for practice means that when its actually needed it works becuase you’ve invested the effort into the dummy runs, although Stevie had the last laugh when I rushed to get de-kitted and get my drysuit zip undone as I was bursting for a pee, I need to look into one of these Pee valve things!
One of the other lads on the boat opens up a big tub of home-made chocolate cake his wife made and shares it with us, it was just brilliant, went very well with yet another mug of tea.
Unfortunately none of my photos from this dive are worth using, even at a push. 
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Elaine & Drew bring the Clutha back to Inverkip after making sure everybody is back on board, has had warm soup, a mug of tea and the coastguard have been informed we are all safely back on-board.
We dock at Inverkip and I eat the cold McMuffin left from this morning (don’t tell everybody but these actually taste better cold), I lay myself down on the dock and tune into my ipod, chilling in the lovely warm sun for an hour or so before Elaine calls us all back to the boat and lets us know we are heading out to dive the AKKA, having only dived the AKKA once before around mid march I was looking forward to this large wreck again.
28/04/2007 14:32 Dive 137: The AKKA
Buddy: Steve Hickdive Max Depth: 27.5 Metres Duration: 53 Minutes Water Temp: 8oC -11oC
Back Gas: Air In: 226 Bar Out: 110 Bar Deco Gas: EAN50 In: 90 Bar Out: 30 Bar
Again Stevie and I are kitted up ready to go as the second set of divers into the water, this time there is a current running and we are advised to go in negative and sort ourself’s out, if the need arises on the second buoy at 4 metres.
We enter, descend and head down the shot with the AKKA looming into view from around 20 metres, the life on this wreck is simply stunning, I had agreed with Stevie that he would guide again and that if possible we should do the bow section as when I dived it previously I had only managed the stern.
The shot is on top of the bridge area, we drop through the roof and down into the darkness, Stevie has a look around and signals for us to about turn, we then go through the companion ways along the deck before dropping inside and through the the galley area and the freezers.
We go through a hold, into the another one, we find some line that somebody has lain previosuly, the glow from the torches and the eerie green water is comforting, I focus the camera and eventually I get the odd mediocre usable photo.
We reach the bow section and come back along the port side, this side of the deck and hull is gorgeous, a living carpet of anenomes, deadmans fingers and other soft corals, This dive is fantastic, a large wreck and a lovely wall dive all rolled into one.
I am on the outside of the hull and surrealistically a mackerel swims vertically to my side, we come along the port companionways and go back into the quarters & structures on the deck, we find the line and start our ascent, again I switch gas at 15 Metres and we work off our small decompression penalty at 6 Metres.
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Elaine & Drew provide us with Tea & biscuits as all the other divers start surfacing, we head back to Inverkip and enjoy a laugh at one of the sailing boats grounded around the channel marker buoy.
All in a brilliant days diving for only £30 plus £3 for the air fill, you just cant beat that for value for money, I highly recommend the Clutha and look forward to my next trip, hopefully in the last quarter of this year when I get back from Mallorca.
I do wonder if I can handle this type of diving and more technical diving if something went wrong, am I too reliant on my buddy? Do I actually practice the skills needed enough? Would I be OK with a camera and a free flowing regulator with a jammed reel on a dsmb in a current in poor visibility & with a failed torch? All we can do is prepare, practice and take our time diving within our comfort zone, slowly pushing the envelope of our personal experience, dive safely.
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