 Remember this pile of wood from our Dive Against Debris dive at Rutland Water?  Well in keeping with our reuse policy one small piece has now become the mount for our magnehelic gauge.
What is a magnehelic? Well, it is used for testing the initial inhalation and exhalation effort of any regulator's second stage as part of a regulator being serviced here at Dive Rutland. Want to find out more then why not join our Equipment Speciality sometime and see it being used.  Our first Dive Against Debris nicely timed with Project AWARE week 2019! held at Sykes Lane, Rutland Water. Now we say first but every dive is a Dive Against Debris as in we always collect any rubbish we find.. this was just our first formal one. Project AWARE is a not for profit organisation who are about taking action to create both local and global change for the ocean and the communities who depend on it. But why Rutland Water its not an ocean? Well at some point all waterways connect and the water runs into the Ocean. It is local and its great to do something for the community and when we are out and about collecting rubbish (yes Bridget rubbish not trash!) we always get asked what are we doing so, so its a chance to talk about rubbish, recycling and maybe using less of it... yesterday we reminisced about glass tomato ketchup bottles for those of us old enough to remember them... Our area: Two 40m squares... one behind the beach area that is currently closed and the other to the right in what we know as our National Watersports Area Question: What would we find? We seriously hoped nothing but freshwater grasses and fish  We had a beach comb first whilst the first two sets of divers kitted up and in less than 10mins we had a little pile of plastic and our non divers  Then had a walk the length of our water front and wow some of the stuff found raised some questions as to why it was there in the first place.  So whilst the divers were busy underwater Trevor setup a little kitchen and started to cook bacon butties... wow... thanks Trevor much appreciated. At times he did look like the Swedish Chef of the muppets, don't you agree?.  What did we find? Quite a bit of freshwater grass with at least one of our divers coming out looking like the Monster of the Deep  A set of keys, a Carbon fibre paddle and a metal pole / rod so all in all not bad... shame about the topside If we could remind everyone as the Anglian Water signs clearly say, please take your rubbish home with you or put in any of the bins provided. Thanks to everyone who came along today to support our efforts, it was great fun and the weather was kind to us to.
Lets keep our tiny county tidy whilst taking that one small step to reduce our usage of single use plastics. So, what one small challenge are you going to set yourself.
 Do you all remember the Project AWARE Homework project undertaken by one of our Junior Divers - Thomas Frieland?.. no then refresh your memories by having a look at our blog on the subject here Rubbish is bad for us and the Environment As you are probably aware Dive Rutland are a 100% AWARE dive centre AND its Project AWARE week 14th - 22nd September so we are donning our fins to make a stand against debris and in conjunction with Anglian Water we are going to grab a mesh bags to remove any debris we can find in the water. Every piece of trash we remove will be documented and the results submitted to Project AWARE. What are you going to do?In affiliation with Anglian Water we are running a Dive Against Debris event at Rutland , so come and join us on Sunday 15th and take part in our inaugural Dive Against Debris. You need to book with Tracey to receive location and timings for this event. This is not restricted to diving, we are inviting our past and current Seal Team members to join us and will include a land-based project as well as in water and although we are not diving an ocean I wonder how many of the top 10 items of rubbish we will find and collate.  Have you noticed we have added to our training offering the Project AWARE Dive Against Debris Speciality. If you wish to find out more then have a look at our website The Dive Against Debris Speciality is available as part of this event to Club Members for £60.00 and counts as one of your specialities towards your Master Scuba Diver Certification In the end we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand; and we will understand only what we are taught. ~ Baba Dioum, 1968
As a former USN sailor and a granddaughter of men onboard WWII ships that were sunk, diving wrecks has always been a strange experience. Diving the German High Fleet at Scapa Flow was a different experience. When you consider the fleet was a planned scuttle and the loss of life the night of the 21st of June 1919 was from confusion, they became something different. Briefings onboard the Huskyan are thorough and well presented. Emily paints a picture in your mind not just in a single dive briefing but as the week goes on so that you are able to recognise features across the ships and progress to finding more and more detail as the week moves on. It is truly an educational experience. The diving detail and historical research that Emily includes in the briefings make the wrecks come alive. The Hot Chocolate between dives was pretty good too..  Starting on the SMS Dresden and making our way through the Konig, Cöln (with incredible spotting glass) Kronprinz Wilhelm; I learned how to recognise features and navigate the wrecks, the scuttle damage, salvage damage, and deterioration over time was presented and the wrecks briefed in a way that meant we could curate our visits underwater. By the time we dived the MarkGraf, I was familiar with the wreckage and able to find the six guns, even if my buddy lost a tad bit of focus. We had the pleasure of attending our Skipper’s lecture for the Scapa 100 conference. Emily talked about her survey work on the HMS Vanguard. If you didn’t realise by this point that she was passionate about the wrecks in Scapa Flow, there was no escaping it here. The history and imagery she brings to life reminds you of the peril from naval wars. When she was explaining finding the boots in the officers quarters, the emotion in her voice confirmed she was the right person to carry out this work. I came with really only one mission for Scapa, find Tracey the seven guns in the SMS MarkGraf gun run. Only six are possible from outside. Our first dive I spotted five, but I can cross the gun run off as with detailed help I have found all six. Tracey is able to wear her MarkGraf T-shirt with pride because she has now seen all six of the guns (three more than ever before!)  The MarkGraf is probably my favourite wreck, but it’s hard to pick a second. There is so much to see that I can only imagine returning time after time. Even Skipper Emily passed up an eight metre torpedo tube multiple times before going to investigate. Time will tell what treasures these wrecks may hold as I plan to return in 2022 for our next club trip..     Trip Report written by Bridget Weid
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