When a ship sinks, whether due to natural disasters, human error, or even if it is sunk on purpose, the sea soon starts to take over. Within days fish will start hiding amongst the twisted metal, and even in just a few weeks coral starts to grow on the outside of the ships hull. As the metal starts to rust, and the shipwreck becomes part of the marine environment, the opportunities for great diving open up for this elf us that might be interested.
Diving on the outside of a shipwreck can be a great way to see new marine life which is living nearby. Small and big creatures will always find a wreck and attractive place to hide, hunt or just meet other like-minded fish. But for the more adventurous diver, the inside of the wreck always beckons, and the darkness and passageways inside hold numerous treasures to be sought out and explored.
However, the insides of a sunken ship hold many dangers as well as many treasures. An unsuspecting diver can easily become disorientated in the passageways which are now darkened below the surface of the water. The many twisting and turning corridors provide ample opportunity to lose your way, and suddenly realize that you don’t know who to find you way back to the entrance. Dangling cables, floating debris and jagged sharp metal all create hazards that can lead to disaster if the diver is not aware of them and fully prepared.
So before penetrating inside of a sunken ship, it’s a good idea to get fully trained in the equipment, techniques and dive planning tools used to safely conduct wreck penetration dives. After completing a basic wreck class, which is an introduction to wreck, divers undertake and Advanced Wreck class, or Technical Wreck class. This is in ways similar to a cave diving class, but with a number of differences; in both cases the diver cannot ascend directly to the surface in the case of an emergency, so equipment and planning must take care to ensure they are able to exit the wreck if something goes wrong. This means paying close attention to the amount of gas you carry and how much you breath on the way in – or the “rules of thirds” as it is commonly known. In addition to this divers need lights to see in the darkness of the sunken ship, and in case the light fails, they need a back up, or maybe 2. The divers also religiously train to lay a guideline inside the wreck, carefully placing this around obstacles and obstructions to ensure that even in the dark they are able to find their way to the exit by following this line like Hansel and Gretel’s trail of bread crumbs.
In September Daria Boruta and Angel Arellanos(one of our instructors here at Evolution) decided it was time to expand their knowledge, and signed up of rate class with Matt. Over the course of 5 days the team worked on land practicing all the drills including line laying, exiting the wreck blind, and communicating by touch, they also did drills for what to do in the case of losing your buddy, or losing your guideline. Once in the shallow water wearing double tanks and using various stage bottles as practise for the decompression phase the team practiced how to handle gas and equipment failure, and in Matt’s favorite drill the students were purposefully entangled and had to free themselves at the same time as not being able to see.
During 6 full penetration dives on our great wreck the Dona Marilyn, the team put all the practice and training to good use and explored into the depths of the wreck. With Matt sneaking around behind Daria and Angel there were constant failures, of lights, masks and gas supplies and the team dealt with these in a calm and relaxed way, and managed to exit the wreck safely without too many cuts on their fingers, or bumps on their heads.
If you don’t like confined spaces then this class is not for you…but if you are interested to learn more about your diving skills and more about wrecks and wreck diving then you will no doubt find it very appealing.
Congratulations to Daria and Angel for being a great team and surviving through all the challenges of a very tough class – here’s to more wreck diving!
