19th October 2014
by Richard Booth
With the original weekend plan of a trip to St Abbs cancelled due to the dodgy weather forecast, a small band of Tyneside ‘divehards’ still determined to get wet, made the long journey over the Pennines and down the M6 to Capenwray.
On arrival kit was quickly unloaded and a quick inspection revealed that the water in the entry area appeared to be nice and clear!
The first dive involved heading over to the left (north) side of the lake initially exploring around the wreck of the Podsnap. It appears that some idiot has gone to considerable trouble to extract the toilet out of the wreck.
Why someone wishes to vandalise this site is beyond me. Still on the plus side, the toilet seat provides endless opportunities for individuals to practice their underwater ‘gurning’ skills. Could this be the birth of a new form of competition in the clear waters of Capenwray?
Moving swiftly on we passed over numerous small shoals of perch swimming amongst the weed and debris on the bottom of the quarry until we reached the wreck of the yacht before returning back around the north side along to the exit point, pausing briefly to explore the small wreck of the African Queen.
After decompressing with a coffee and hot food in the Porthole café, we returned for a second dive. This time we descended down to the plane taking the opportunity to explore around the cockpit and look into its interior at what remains of the pilots seats and the instrument panel.
Having briefly explored this aircraft wreck we headed back up into shallower water to spend our remaining dive time trying to photograph some of the different species of fish that can be found hanging around the steel platforms. Here we came across shoals of dace, numerous large trout, plus two sturgeons which appeared to follow a set circular route patrolling around the steel training platforms, allowing a great opportunity to photograph them.
It made a nice end to the dive.
