Surface water temperature now extremely high for this time of year at over 15 degrees C.

Visibility after being great was at 8 and 10m on couple days at HMS Audacious. However, reports of other sites are of very good visibility.

Vis around 15 – 18m off north Donegal at the moment. Water temperature around 12.4 centigrade.

Plankton seems to be only starting now – very late or very little?

Couple of nice photographs from Stewart Andrews (copyright) of one of the 4.7 inch guns on HMS Viknor and another of the bow of HMS Pinto.

In 60m this WW1 U boat is a super dive.

Video by diver on the Rosguill.

15 metres plus on a wreck out west 3 May.

Good start to the season

4 May – Justicia – 18m & lots of ambient light. Cold though! Surface 10.5 C.

New handrail fitted on board the Rosguill.

ALL divers will have a grab rail for EVERY step when “disembarking”.

Empress of Britain – 163m – Redux from Stewie Andrews on Vimeo.

Well, 2013 has turned out to be a real “back to normal” year for diving off north Donegal. Water temperature just over 16 degrees. Vis as a usual in the 15 – 25 metre range. Plankton cleared allowing lots of ambient light on the bottom. Weather reasonably settled interspersed with a day or 2 occasionally hitting beaufort 6/7.

Some great diving including – RMS Amazon, HMS Viknor, SS Englishman, HMS Transylvania, Cargo, U89, U1003, a first Type XXIII Deadlight and not to forget the classics, HMS Audacious, SS Empire Heritage, HMS Laurentic, SS Justicia, SS Roscommon. Few more days before the year finishes.

All in all, happy days.

A group of SCUBA divers from the south coast of England enjoying top class diving at the wreck of the Caliope (18m) with vis of 15m +. Previous day at Tory Island scenic diving with 20m + vis. Doesn’t get any better!

Nice YouTube video taken by some of Rosguill’s Irish & US divers : –

July 2013 and the main diving season is about to kick-off.

Water temperature is, if anything, a little higher than normal @ around 13.5/14 degrees centigrade.

Vis – at present the vis is anything from 10 to 20 metres on differing wrecks with reasonable/expected ambient light.

All in all a normal season – great.

U-boat off Malin Head had less than 2 metres vis – my personal view is that the weather has been mixing the bottom up and that was the problem. Next day on the Viknor the vis was 15m, so pretty normal for this time of year. Temp at surface 10 degrees.

The Rosguill has for 2013, had the addition of a door for diver’s entry to the water and an extension to the gunnel for re-embarkation. All divers who have used the door have commented on the ease of use.

HMS Audacious was the target for a group of Irish divers who took advantage of a break in the weather. Vis 15m and temp on the surface of almost 10 degrees. Nice comfortable start to 2013.

What the rest of 2013 holds is, as always, a mystery – everyone hopes for no more Red Tide – but there is no doubt that there will be some great dives done – Watch This Space!!!

Check out – http://forum.technicaldiving.ie/index.php?topic=4036.msg25710;topicseen#msg25710

2012 ended with a dive on the Laurentic – 20m vis and reasonable light. Back to normal practically. Link here to a video taken by one of the divers – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OHg-kSw13w&sns=em

This year will never be forgotten in the minds of many divers who experienced the Red Tide – the wrecks of north Donegal had gone from hero to zero in a season.

However, there were as always, some notable highs. Empress of Britain @ 160m was a real biggy. 5 dives on HMS Hurst Castle another great. Assyria at 140m another achievement. U 1003 was the first WW2 war loss u-boat which I had dived. Carinthia dived twice.

The other insideous happening was the ubiquitous use of video cameras, brought about by the GoPro and its housing & aided by Cathx lighting.

2013……………………………..who knows, but there are great wrecks & great dives awaiting.

Stewart Andrews has released on Vimeo, the video he took on the epic (for Irish sports divers) dive on RMS Empress of Britain.

RMS Empress of Britain, 163m rebreather dive, 68 miles West of Rosguill, Donegal , Ireland from Stewie Andrews on Vimeo.

Rosguill, deep technical diving, Donegal 2012 (720p) from Stewie Andrews on Vimeo.

Nice video of RMS Amazon.

RMS Amazon diving Donegal boilers from Stewie Andrews on Vimeo.

Or – if you want to watch it in HD – https://vimeo.com/50472370 – Enjoy!

Nice photo taken by Barry McGill of the squid launcher on HMS Hurst Castle.

Diver examines the anti-submarine Squid Launcher on HMS Hurst Castle

First dive by a group of Irish divers on the largest merchantman ever sunk by a U-boat. Lying far to the west of Tory Island in 160m, this leviathan was over 42k tons, 237m long. Other info on wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Britain_(1931)

Congratulations to the dive team headed up by Barry McGill and including Stewart Andrews, Paul Tierney & Rez Soheil. Support by Stephen McMullan and Kevin McShane.

The wreck was shotted on the bow within a few metres of the anchor, enabling the team to examine the whole bow area. Stewart also videod the dive.

View on the sounder showing the bow section to the left and the stern section to the right