Cruising out of Sydney Harbour, it’d been one year to the day since our good friend lost his life whilst we were exploring the MV Limerick. It only added to our anticipation, as the 70m dive we’d about to undertake was a relative unknown. Armed with more government survey data procured by Scott Willan, we’d previously scanned the site with our depth sounder and had a target in the GPS.
We drop a shot line on the target, gear up and descended. Not much is said, we just get on with the usual business of diving. As we hit the bottom, visibility is only about 3-4m and it’s twilight dark. Squinting, we see the outline of a wreck just out of view which gives us that feeling of relief, knowing we haven’t just done another deep dive to a sandy sea floor.
Together, two of us struggle to drag the heavy anchor and chain of our shot line across the sand to the bow of the wreck. Once there, we shake hands and acknowledge what we’ve achieved, before getting on with business. For me that’s shooting video, for Dave that’s firstly inflating a balloon as a signal to open-circuit divers that we’re on a wreck and to come down.
The current on the bottom is strong, such that we were fighting to hold position as we swam to the stern of the wreck. We can’t see a propeller, or an engine for that matter so we think it’s likely a scuttled ship. Having wasted time with the anchor, we’re quickly at the limit of our dive plan of 40min @ 74m. Reality hits, and we’ve got 2.5 hours of decompression ahead of us.
On deco, surface crew were kind enough to throw down some beers for a little celebration. Although not in the tec diving manual, it’s a welcomed break from the tiny jellyfish that sting my face as they drift past. On the surface, more celebration as we share what we’ve seen and ponder what it could be. At the time, we named it “Andrea’s Wreck” after our lost friend. Subsequent dives and research suggest that the wreck is that of the SS Yamba, but I’ll always remember it as Andreas’ wreck.
Previously Published: Asian Diver No 136 Issue Jan 2015
