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Decided to go and have a couple of dives next week, know it won't be that warm but they said we won't be using a drysuit

Any tips on what wrecks are best to dive there?

cheers

chop

Iwan

Viscount aircraft cockpit and "submarine" on 6m shelf. Stanegarth (ship), Wessex helecopter, bus and varous cars/vans on 21m shelf.

The Viscount is right in front of the bus stop entry point so you can't really miss it. The Stanegarth is the main attraction there and is marked with a buoy.

I always used to take a plastic bag full of shredded bread in my BCD/drysuit pocket. Rip it open on the 6m shelf and you'll instantly be surrounded by a big shoal of hungry roach and perch. If it wasn't so cold you could almost imagine you were on a reef somewhere.

Leslie

Have a great time, where is Stoney Cove by the way. Wondering why there is a Viscount wreck there.

Les

Karl 227

Sounds like the canal around the back of a factory in Birmingham

Spoon

Les, it's Leicestershire.

http://http://www.stoneycove.com/

Account deleted by request

cheers for the pointers, great tip with the bread

chop :gettingcoldalready:

Iwan

The bread tip I used to do all the time after I thought of it. I used to take a white loaf and use 1/3 of it on each of 3 dives during the day. Makes doing 5 mins at 6m safety stop (or deco practice) more interesting, even if it does look like a piranha attack movie.

Les, basically Stoney Cove is an old quarry which was left to fill up with water after they stopped working it. The company that runs it now put several wrecks in the lake so divers have something to go and swim around/inside, one of them was the cockpit section of a Viscount.

Here's a pic of it that I found on Google, it's been in there for a few years!
http://www.kiwidiver.com/Photos/UK_D.../IMG_3719a.jpg

p1mark

Crap vis at the weekends this time of year (algae and about 20000 divers in the water) so you will see more fish and stuff on the 6 M shelf.

Normally some huge perch under plane cockpit (if you jump in from the stage and descend swim straight out and you are there in a few seconds)

Can sometimes catch the few carp either under or near the pub, and plenty of pike hiding on the 6M shelf particularly in the quiter areas other side of the pub.

Iwan calling the Staingarth a ship is using a bit of artistic licence. dont get too excited - Small tug is more accurate. Easiest way to get to this is just fin out to the bouy on the surface and descend down the shot line.

I dive there in a wetsuit, its not that bad at all this time of year and i can do a full dive without getting the chills/cramps or using loads of air.

Iwan

Well I called it a ship but yeah it's pretty small - has 5 rooms inside IIRC (engine room, main hold, the bit at the front in the bow, the wheelhouse, and the little room behind the bridge).

Quite a nice little wreck, and fairly safe to go inside as you can always see an exit wherever you are. Someone tied a partially inflated blow-up doll in the wheelhouse once - which was pretty amusing.

As Mark says the easiest way to get to it is to fin out to the bouy on the surface then descend to the rear deck. If you swim directly off the bow for about 20m there's a couple of mini's which were used on a scrapheap challenge episode. If you swim directly out from the port (left) side (towards the shore) you reach the Wessex helicopter and then the cliff going up to the 6m shelf. IIRC there's also a thick chain leading from the Stanegarth over to the bottom of the slope leading back up to the Viscount.

I used to dive there loads when the weather on the coast was crap.

Leslie

Thanks for the info' Spoon and Iwan. I lived in Leics for long enough too and did not know about it! I'd have gone fishing there.

Les