It’s January 1st and I feel that a dive is needed, and I can’t be bothered to drive far so where better than the local lake?
With my house overlooking the lake it is a lazy option but has become an annual event for me and my buddy.
It isn’t the greatest dive ever; we have often been in and found the visibility down to a few inches and the depth is generally a maximum of 4 meters in depth. The bed of the Lake is a solid cushion of silt, if touched a cloud of fine sit rises up and quickly obscures vision. On the plus side there is plenty of life in the lake and it has a thriving ecosystem (although rarely seen underwater). Fresh water mussels, carp, pike, eels, etc and there is a rumour that a large wells catfish is around.
The lake used to have a fair and was a local tourist hotspot, it now has a swimmers and walkers.
We enter via a small jetty, away from the council land, set up by the local fitness club to allow their wild swimmers access. The depth is about ¾ meter and as we head out it is impossible to not kick up the silt.
Still as we head out and as the depth increases pass by the remains of three rowing boats, unusable now but once hired out by the hour. This is the marker for dropping below the surface. It’s a good day the visibility is a 3 meter yellow/greenish haze.
Heading North we swim out to in search of the Princess Irene, our local wreck. This is located in the middle at about 4 meters in depth it is an old pleasure cruiser that was scuttled in 1990 when the fair closed down. It used to take people on trips round the lake and now sits on the bed as a memorial for the old fair.
Following our bearing we swim over the greenish sludge until weeds appear and a large iron mooring spike is found and then we follow the rope to the wreck.
As ever it sits there with the rails rusting away and the wood still showing faint signs of the turquoise and red colouring. The engines have gone but the steering wheel still stands proud of the deck, slightly encrusted with a few small mussels.
It doesn’t take long to explore as its only 5 meters in length, so we take a new bearing to head back to shore. It’s a 20 minute swim with the depth gradually rising except for the sump and this time we skirt around the edge, the plan was the wreck today. The sump drops to about 12 meters and we have dived it a couple of times but has always had practically no visibility. And is full of broken trees so can be a tricky dive.
Heading back to the beach we pass the debris of the fair, tyres, old bottles, a few metal frames and a yellow dodgem car.
To finish we stop about ten meters from the shore. It’s about two meters deep here so we have a play colleting debris lost by swimmers, the haul includes a mask and snorkel, 5 goggles, an old iPhone and three pairs of sunglasses. A good haul.
To finish we head back the 600 yards to my house and have a brew and talk about the dive. Temperature 7 degrees, depth 4 meters, visibility 3 meters and a time of 55 minutes. A good way to start the new years dives.
Link to you tube video of a past dive on the Princess Irene. https://youtu.be/sv4pdZlrj9Q
