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| Casquets |
Les Casquets or The Casquets are a group of rocks 13 km northwest of Alderney and are part of an underwater sandstone ridge. Other parts which emerge above the water are the islets of Burhou and Ortac.
The weather of late has been a mixed bag, as predicted in earlier posts. Despite some record breaking high pressures reaching us from the Atlantic there have still been clouds and winds keeping the temperatures down and the sea state up. The long range forecast promises some settling, with less cloud giving us only an occasional scattered shower for the end of June. Though the start of June looks likely to be influenced more by the North Sea than the Atlantic and so brisk north easterly winds that are notorious for staying put, seem possible. Though with the longest days the chances of some fine weather must surely be in our favour.
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| Burhou |
We met up on the fisherman's quayside at 8.30am for loading and full run down of the days activities. The plan was to dive the Erdine and then pull into Alderney for a few beers and a bite to eat. We left the port at about 9am in a F3 wind with sunny skies. The skipper navigated us out of the St Peter Port harbour before hitting the throttle and had us punching out towards the Channel at 10 knots with tide on the nose all the way. Everyone had settled into their seats in the wheelhouse and within minutes the banters had already started. After about 90mins of steaming, we reached the infamous Swinge and a few nasty overfalls. This narrow and also dangerous channel, between Alderney and the uninhabited islets of Burhou and Ortach, is confined by numerous rocks and reefs off either coast, it is rendered very dangerous in stormy weather by conflicting currents. Through this difficult channel the scattered remnants of past ship wrecks can be seen in the form of twisted steel and the odd ships boiler high and dry on the rocks.
Our destination was a spot half mile east of Burhou, the resting spot of the Turkish steamer Edirne, another victim of fog. In 1950, she was equipped with much more modern navigation equipment than past wrecks I've dived on. The vessel relatively new at the time, was on route from Tekirdag in Turkey to Elsinore in Denmark with a cargo of 4,500 tons of cattle feed. It was a foggy January day that Edirne went aground on a reef near Burhou. About 50 people on board, including the 27 year old skipper and a dog, were rescued by the St Peter Port lifeboat, Queen Victoria
Later the Trinity House Lighthouse tender Burhou made an attempt to tow the badly damaged vessel off the reef. Not surprisingly the Edirne was too large and heavy for the little tender and a French tug was called to assist. However, just as they started the operation, the Edirne turned over and sank, some two miles north west off Alderney lighthouse.
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| Cottage and hut on Burhou. The cottage was built by General Le Messurier ( The Governor ) as a shelter for fishermen and shipwrecked mariners and this would have been about the year 1820. It fell into decay but was later repaired and in 1900 a French couple lived there for a year. Various people slept there until it was destroyed either during or perhaps just after the German occupation of the Channel Islands in the second world war. |
Keenie piloted the boat and found the wreck first time. Paul and I dropped the shot bang on the wreck. Alan and Paul dropped in to tie it on. The shot was in and the adrenalin was pumping. Jon and myself kitted up for our turn as Keenie brought us back to the shot. It was all very slick we looked like pro's.
Once in the water, the swell made it uncomfortable to remain for any length of time on the surface. Quickly we headed down the shot line and the deeper we descended the darker it became, making a torch an absolute necessity. The wreckage soon loomed out of the darkness, lit up by the light of the torch beams at a depth of 55 metres. Whilst conditions were dark, the water on the wreck site was surprisingly clear and free of sediment with several metres visibility. I could see the strobes at the bottom of the shot line that Paul and Alan had left pinging away which was a sure indication I was getting close to the target. The wreck itself is breaking up due to its location and the large loading/cargo mast that once stood proud the last time I dived her, has now collapsed onto the deck and making a nice home for the resident conger population. A gentle current swept across the wreckage and the surrounding seabed quickly sweeping away any sediment stirred up from the two rotovaters that went down before me. It looked like I had landed mid ships, swimming over what looked like the remains of an old shower block I couldn't stop thinking of who the last person was who had a shower, before she hit the reef and sank. Dropping down into one of the ships many dark corners and swimming inside a small room, I came across broken pottery, 3 or 4 basins electrical, plumbing fitting and bottles scattered over the floor. This looked like I had come across the ships kitchen. After 20 minutes, dive computers started to bleep warnings, reminding us that it was time to head back to the strobes and surface above. On completing our deco stops and surfacing, we looked around for the boat, the choppy waves betraying the fact that the wind had increased during the course of the dive. Once safely back on board, we de-kitted and headed back to Braye harbour and a well deserved beer or two in the Divers Inn. Pubs are Alderney's best asset. This is all the locals seem to do, so if you ever go there, you must do the same. DRINK!! All pubs in Alderney are good, some are just better than others, 16 pubs in about 1 sq mile makes for alot of drinking and socialising!!! By the time we had visited 6 watering holes and had a bite to eat at the local Thai restaurant, it was 8.30 pm and time for the 2 hour boat trip back home. Endeth a great day. One last thing, to finish the day off was a cracking sunset we had on the way home with Les Casquets and the storm front that was coming in from the west for Sunday, making for a great photo. (alas the bloody battery was flat on the camera!). |
| Deco Stages |
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| Keenie on the mark |
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