Outlaw

Hello guys,

here is the first half of the report. please be patient as in the next 2 days i shall have the rest finished. i hope there are enought information inside for those who have asked me a couple of questions and if there are not, then there will be in the next one. please enjoy, let me know if you like it long or short for the next one.

Spyros

Since I found out about “the standing wreck” I knew that this is a dive I definitely wanted to do. We spoke about it with Cedric Verdier, whom I became firm friends with, and we have decided that it would be nice to arrange an expedition to Lebanon, especially when Cedric would have been around to teach some courses, then it would have been easy to go from Cyprus to Lebanon. Cyprus is just 30 minutes away from Lebanon by plane.

So I took the task of arranging everything. In this course, around October-December 2007, until the expedition took place, I had discovered that organizing an expedition of this calibre, or any other I guess, is not something easy. Many times you get frustrated and disappointed, and off course, many times no one can really understand what you go through to make everything work fine, although my team member all thanked me very much and I am sure they all appreciated it from minute one.

At the beginning there were a lot of rumours about this wreck. Always “mystery wrecks” are surrounded by wild rumours, which make it even more exciting for someone to chase.

As some of the rumours were that special vizas are needed in order for someone to dive over there, I decided to search around a bit in the beginning i.e the net, Rebreather World where I asked a few people about some information, but very few actually had good information about it, I searched through the Lebanese dive centres etc.

I sent an official letter to the Lebanon Embassy in Cyprus, stating that I was acting as a lawyer for DIRrebreather team, stating our official interest in diving the wreck. It was also scary to do that at such times, because when I first made contact with the Ambassador, there were “polemical actions” going on in Lebanon. Next thing I knew I was in the Ambassador’s office and we were having a chat about it. I am sure he thought I we were crazy, as at the time there were so many people coming out of Lebanon, and we wanted to get it!!! And we were actually begging them to let us go in J

Through my search, I ended up getting in contact with Christian Francis, the owner of Lebanon Divers in Lebanon, and the guy who I am really sure (after seeing the official documents) that he found the wreck. At this point I want to point out that although a fellow Rebreather World member has given “hints” that Christian was not there when the wreck was found, I would like to state that I fear it is the opposite. Christian was searching for this wreck for nearly 8 years, but it was hard to spot it on the sonar, because of its upright position and they were getting a thick line in their sonars. They were thinking that it was fishing nets just stranded on the bottom on one end and standing half way to the surface. So, they finally found it in 2004 (I think) and the story is there for everyone as we know it.

After lots of emailing and phone calls with Christian, we arranged the dates, we arranged the prepayments (it was going to be 500USD per dive per diver, excluding gases, and logistics.) we had to sent 500USD as deposit and off course the rest would have been arranged by him. At this point I would like to say that Christian Francis and his crew, Haider, Mohammed & co were excellent with their support.

All and all time was going by really fast, and having to get between work issues, and then keep in touch with everybody, trying to gather everything right, the stress you get in feat something might go wrong in the very last minute etc. I also got to have a sudden hemmo operation just 2 months before the actual diving dates which freaked me out in fear that I was the one arranging this and I could end up not doing the dives. This would drive me to suicide!!! J

Actually this was a conbined expedition where some members came over to dive the zenobia wreck in Larnaca Cyprus, and then leave from Larnaca, go to Lebanon for the HMS Victoria dives. The plan sounded great.

At the beginning, because there were about 10 divers who showed interested in taking part, and because there was an issue with equipment, (how do we carry so heavy equipment, cameras, scooters, tanks, sofno, rebreathers, etc) we arranged to travel from Cyprus to Lebanon by boat. Imagine that, having a private big boat with compressors onboard, and I would have taken my booster and having big j cylinders and for helium and oxygen. That would have been awesome and it was arranged to be honest, but in the later stages as in all such expeditions members of the team started to cancel due to problems with scheduling, etc. it turned out that this would have been very costly to hire a boat/yacht from Cyprus so I started looking out at the big ferries who travel the Cyprus – Lebanon line. Unfortunately there were none, as this period was close to the Orthodox Easter so the only companies who were doing this line were only going to Israel and Holly Places. That meant that we had to take the plane as we had no other real alternative. The idea behind the boats would be to eliminated the off gasing time after zenobia diving and then the Victoria. We could have easily “taken off” and it would have been a nice cruise as well.

Anyway, I then started contacting the Cyprus Airways, where I managed to get tickets for some of the members, some had booked it via net, which was 242 euros from Cyprus return, and we were allowed to have 20kg and then another 15kg free as we were “divers”. That was confirmed as I went to the headquarters in Nicosia and I write this as I have seen some other fellow divers enquiring about this. I was told that they would turn a blind eye and give us 40kg all together, and from then on, we would have to pay for every 1kg 5 euro. That was fine to be honest. So, tickets were settled as well.

In the same time, another visits to the Lebanese Ambassator where I took copies of our passports for each member that would participate in order to arrange visas etc. also constant communication with Christian Francis and all the member through our own forum (www.dirrebreather.com) where we had a continuous update on every little aspect.

Here I have to report specifically about Christian Francis and Lebanon divers. If one wants to dive the HMS Victoria, he has to go through Lebanon Divers. They are the sole diving center which is allowed to make trips as it was Christian who found and located the wreck. This is due to a presidential order and the Lebanese navy is aware of every possible trip that would go there, as it they are not alerted, then there might be trouble and divers and equipment might be arrested and equipment being confiscated. I state this as I found out through my search, because I have been given some “offers” from others to go with them and I refused as I found out about that.
The wreck is protected and the area is monitored. Off course, anyone with a boat can approach the area if they have the GPS co ordinates, but do you think it is worth the risk? Besides, the guys are very polite, very helpful and really put an effort to make your stay perfect so I wouldn’t change that for the world in my next trip when I decide to go there again.

I say this so I can continue my report. Lebanon Divers had no small tanks for rebreathers, so we had to either carry our own cylinders, or attach big S80s on the units. All team members were to dive using the megalodon rebreather and this was an option. I had an issue with my back so I chose to carry my own 3 liter tanks from Cyprus. Also another member decided to dive with 3 liter ones so I lended my spare set to him.

Another issue was that sofno was hard to get in Lebanon, and actually Christian had ordered 200 kg but there were going to be a week after we were supposed to do our dives, so we had to take our own. This is where the fun begins.

The trip:

On the evening of 3rd of April I met the guys just outside their hotel in Larnaca, getting ready to go to the airport. Cedric Verdier, Pim Van DerHorst, Henrik Enckell and me were actually packing our canisters with sofno lime so we would not have to take another 20kg keg with us on the plane. We all used the meg axial scruber canister except Cedric who uses the ISC radial one. I had already packed mine before I left home so I took a few pictures from the guys packing the cans on the touristic street. Imagine what would happened if we went just outside the airport and packing this white granular stuff into some sort of cylindrical metal pieces!!! J

All and all, we all finished and a taxi was called to transfer us to the airport. Unfortunately our 5th member / pariticipant Per Bjorn Ragvag had a big mess up with his flights and he had to change his flights and get straight to Beirut instead of meeting all of us and use the same flight there. We all packed our heavy stuff inside big bags which we gave away, but had our megs inside hand luggage that u are supposed to take with you on the plane. This is where Cedric gave some unbelievable instructions on how to travel with diving gear and the meg. I tell you this was a seminar for me!

So, instead a good friend of ours “ the godfather” of Cyprus as Cedric calls him, took us to the airport with his Rolls Royce and we were like stars arriving to the airport. That was fun. In check in, I stayed behind having all four hand luggage with the megs inside, so the others went and checked in everything, and then they came and after a while I went. It was funny that were going around the airport in pairs or alone, so we wouldn’t be spotted and be asked to open our hand luggage. Mine was 23kg and you are only allowed 6kg I think. I had put the meg in there, full scrubber, my regulators, along with bail out regs. Also a few other stuff like stage rigging kit etc, spares etc. I was puling the luggage around the airport pretending to be cool but when the stairs came it was hard to pretend that this was a “light” bag….but I had to do it!

After a long time, where we stayed at the very end, (we were actually being called by the speakers) as everybody else was on the plane and we were not! This was actually intentional as I again say, after Cedric’s advice, is best to go last. In case they open you bag and they start arguing that this bag is too heavy and has to be loaded on the plane, if you don’t make it, you just say “ok, I don’t go on the plane.” Then they’ll have to unload everything off to get your bags that have already being packed in from before and do you think that the airline will allow at least another 1-2 hours delay…this is something I leant and I was amazed. Cedric became a master onto this, if you consider the travelling he does…

So, after giving the guy on the computer screen a shock, and explaining what this was, and what were going to do, we were finally on the plane with no problems and after 35 minutes we landed in Beirut.

No real problems over there. Actually the people were very nice, nobody really speaks to you, although you get the feeling that you are somewhere “weird” as the airport seems to be in control of the army rather than civilians. Army personel is everywhere, and we stood in line, taking our turns we got a visa without paying anything as some were suggesting we needed to pay 50-80USD for that. We passed from a few checks, got our bags and gone out where we found the taxi driver waiting for us.

Now there is chaos outside, lots of people trying to take you as a customer etc. we got onto a mini van which was nice, the driver loading our stuff as if he was throwing potato bags onto the bag, and finally took off. On the way through Beirut it was noticeable to see the army presence everywhere with M16 riffles ready for action. That is the only time that you realize that this place is never in rest from war. Apart from that, I really enjoyed the trip. Beirut is a very big city and the co-driver “Samir” was trying to give us a tour in Arabic showing us the monuments etc on our way to the hotel. What we all understood and we commented laughing was that the guy was “the national captain of the volley ball team but was not a good football player”… I am still laughing as I am writing this… very nice guy, but…J

After 90 minutes we arrived in Las Salinas, where Lebanon Divers center is and were Christian Francis arranged the rooms for us. Las Salinas is a very nice place with its own small harbour and it gives you the feeling that you are in a mini oasis. The complex had cinemas, restaurants, fast food named “the las burger” which was rather weird getting breakfast at knowing that 140m dive is to follow….50USD per person per night was not bad including breakfast.

Next day we met with the guys, Per had arrived a bit later and we left him sleep a bit more, and then we had our gear fixed, and each of us configured his unit, bail out tanks, weights etc. I must say here that that day, 4th of April was very windy and it got us wondering if the sea will be kind enough to calm down for us. We were supposed to do a shallow dive but believe me it was rough weather so we dived in the harbour where we played around with gear etc. that was the whole day gone. Breakfast, gear configuring, lunch, gas mix filling, dive to configure stuff and then out, hoping for the weather to change. I really thought that it would not, but!

At night, we met Christian who came from Beirut. I was surprised to see that he needs to update his picture on his website “Christian I hope you are reading this mateJ”

We also saw a dvd of the wreck just to get as much more information we can about it and we made our plans, deco, bail out scenarios etc. at this point, I would like to say I I don’t want to give what mixes we used, what procedure as I know there there is a mixed community feeling of giving out such information. (maybe untrained divers might use it…I don’t know.so I’ll try and keep it simple).

The dives:

Next day we woke up very early, personally I had a hard time to sleep all night, as me and Per were chatting around midnight and I get a call on my cell phone and as I say “hello”? the next thing I heard was something I truly wish you all not to hear. “I am the husband”…. J I got shocked for a second as I thought “this can’t be true” but it was. Someone had an issue with his wife who I was acting as a lawyer defending her in court and he was suspicious she had a thing with me…you just can’t believe the chat I had with the guy.

After breakfast at the LAS BURGER we loaded the gear onto the boat and we took off. It was a nice 1.5 hour trip with some waves, but compared to how the sea was the day before this was perfect. I was the only one not to see the dolphin who made a few jumps along the boat as I was playing with my VR3. having this time to yourself, gives you the chance to relax, visualize your dive, actually dive your dive in your mind, and be able to foresee to a certain extend what might go wrong. Off course this was a wreck we even saw on dvd, but still unbelievable. Nice to see the mountains with snow on their peaks and we were actually going diving…

When we were finally there, Haidar dived in to secure the line. There is a line from the propeller of the wreck coming up until -6m, so the ships passing by wont get it in their propeller. So Haidar had to attach the marker boy to that line. Once everything was set, we were ready. I would dive with Pim and Per, and we got ready, jumped in the water, and waited a couple of minutes on the surface to catch our breath trying to swim out there from the boat. We all wished each other a good dive, and we went down. 6meters and we did a bubble check, and then we descended. Pim was going first, I would be second, and then Per. We were holding down the line, going down. I could see pim was “actually cleaning the line from the algae” as he was going down, and all the fish were rushing to have a bite from the remove “greasy” stuff. I was following and I could see Per was just after me. We would be giving the OK signal on our descent, and I was at around 40-50 and could still see nothing. I could just focus on the image of Pim going down and then I saw him moving his hands!

Something started to get darker down there, and was continuously getting more and more darker image, until I realized it was the Victoria! That sight, will always stay with me until I die I think. People say, that one picture was 1000 words, and they are right. I had a hard time to write this report, because I just have the picture in my head, and its hard to describe it. One must definitely see it to believe or get the image. I was so happy that I was there. We landed on the stern of the ship. “touchdown” I said deep inside me. I stayed there looking around and I had mixed emotions. I didn’t know if it was fear or pure respect for the wreck and its history, but there was something there. Believe me. These things just don’t happen like that. I could not “accept” in my mind that a ship can actually sink like that. Am talking the whole wreck is standing vertical with exactly 90 degrees angle. This is impossible. This is like the stories you read from young age about the Bermuda triangle and the losses and you are suddenly in front of a similar situation. So many thoughts through you mind with seconds ticking away.

Another thing that I clearly found strange was that the stern was actually very sharp. What I mean is that from its design, if you don’t see the propellers, you ‘ll think that this is the front. Its so sharp, and narrow. Not thick, like today’s modern war ships with “thick asses”. I dive the zenobia a lot and compared to that, this ship was not “fat” big in width, and I was actually expecting something else. It was frightening because as you are in the stern and you just lean a bit forward and there is chaos! Lots of darkness and lines everywhere, some fishing nets entangled here and there, etc. you are actually standing next to a skyscraper and you are so tiny compared to it… I just don’t know how to describe it. It was a mixture of feelings, excitement that I was actually there, doing the stuff I was always dreaming of doing when I was younger, and that was me. Finally doing it.

We spent some time for Pim and Per to take pictures of the propellers and from around and I just started finning a bit to go around it. That is the image you see on the video me going around with 2 sling tanks on my left, and then Pim following around. Per was taking the video which is actually very good I think. We found out Pim had a leak on his solenoid, we let him know, and we decided to continue the dive and he was more than fine and we were together. Reasons I mention this is because after releasing the video for other member to see and share our experience, it got so polemical from certain members. One must not actually bear in mind “oh shit, I got a leak and then bail out.” You have to think, of the conditions, will I ever get to dive again here, the sea, the conditions, can I handle it? Can I continue and if it get worst then I bail out? We were paying 500 US per dive per diver as well, so many thing to consider. Bottom line where I want to get is we spotted it, we did evaluation and we decided to continue. No big deal. It turned out we are all ok, and we enjoyed the dive.

Going around the ship as we are under the propellers you look upright and you are just speechless. Becaue of the standing position, and the light on top this makes a very good scenery. Something hard to describe to someone unless you actually see it like that. Going around you just see the hull which is covered with algae and microorganisms and lot and lots of think and thin fishing lines, which makes you cautious not to really be closed to get entangled anywhere. Finally we are on the front side, and you notice the wooden part that is gone, and the metal is all is left. That huge cannon is suprising. Also there are other smaller cannons on the side. When I say smaller, one should think that they are actually small, but compared to that huge back cannon, they are small. In other words, these are big cannons, coming out of small windows from the side of the ship, like window portholes. Going under that huge cannon makes you wonder and brings shivers to your spine.

“this ship has been here since 1893. hmm, standing like this….? Off course some day it will finally go down….” These are thought that quickly rush through your mind…and then the big one. Wow, what would happen if it suddenly started leaning towards one side….? Off course you don’t actually think is going to happen when you are there, but, you just realise that if it was to happen, you are probably a memory…

There are so many holes and spaces to look in for. You need a good light. I had my solus 2500 which I consider a strong light, but it was like a toy torch down there. We did a complete round circle of the wreck, at 100m, then we started ascending towards the left propeller and Pim was always taking pictures, and Per was doing some mini videos with their cameras. I was thinking of taking my camera with me, the mako I have for sale, but I did not want to make a lot of task loading of such a dive, so I did not. I wanted to enjoy the dive as much as possible.

Once at the propellers and seeing that the time to start ascending was clocking we all gave the signal to ascend and started ascending. Along the whole ascent you could see the satisfaction on the faces of all of us and the calmness that all the hassle that we went through was really worth it. I silently said goodbye to the “image” of the stern and the 2 propellers and the rudder just slightly turned and said “see you tomorrow”….

Half way through the line around 40-50 meters Cedric and Henrick were coming down like rockets going on their dive. How many signals can one make in 10 seconds trying to explain about the dive….i would love to have my image being filmed when I was believed to be trying to say to Cedric my feelings. I was like a madman….

Cedric looked at me with a weird look and I just realised so I wave “nothing, ok everything ok”…J

After about 3 hours since we left the surface we were breathing surface air and got on the boat. Once you leave your equipment on the boat and you seat down and relax, you take a moment to yourself and you really cannot believe what you have just done and where you have just been.

1.5 hours back to the Las Salinas harbour was full of talk about who saw what, what was where etc…all excited and smiling having a laugh etc. but all of use deep inside, I think were happy that this chapter, the famous HMS Victoria was conquered…I know we were not finished with her, but I felt like the Padi signs “been there, done that” situation…that good!

I had the smart idea to take with us some corn beef and some bread, the others choose to take biscuits, chocolate etc. I was starving so I quickly started eating the corn beef with bread and having large chunks. That was something I really regretted doing because for the next 1.5 hours I was struggling not to throw up. I wish I threw up so I could empty my stomach, because for the next stay in Lebanon my stomach was playing games with me.

Finally after a tough ride, we were back, unloading stuff and going for a warm shower (very much needed after using helium mix for dry suit inflation + wind on the boat on the way back) and then straight for filling the meg tanks for deeper diving the next day. It was afternoon so we were done with fills at night, then we were looking at the video taken by Per and it’s the video you see on youtube. Then we started talking for our next dive and preparing our plans for the next day’s 140m dive along with some bowling and some snacks at the Las Burger…. By that time the exhaustion was starting to get us…from the previous day, flights, etc.

To be continued guys, hope you like it so far. Sorry for long chat, and keeping you but since I was doing it, I thought I would do it well.

Thanks.

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CMAS - IANTD - TDI
Kamikazi Instrustor Trainer
DIRRebreather Team Member
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"Once an Outlaw, always an Outlaw"