Record Breakers!
Well, as I have already mentioned elsewhere in the site… Leigh and Mark not only discovered and dived the long-lost Yolande wreck Yesterday (9th December 2005) but they ended up breaking a world record whilst they were at it!!! Leigh had found the wreck earlier this year half buried in sand over 130M below the Yolande reef saddle where it had originally sat since its sinking in 1980, until a hefty storm in 1987 had finally pushed it over the edge. The plan had been to return in August to dive it further, discovering the stern and hopefully taking some pictures. Sadly fate intervened and the project had to be postponed until this week. After several days of final training, the deepest wreck dive ever went ahead successfully (though not without incident!) yesterday. The dive actually went below 200M, as they swam under the stern, however computers give up at 200M and Mark’s depth guage imploded, so it is difficult to tell how much deeper they went! Both members of the deep team were checked out fully at the hyperbaric chamber afterwards… just to make sure, and to celebrate, half of Sharm together with the whole Yolande project team were out in the Tavern last night. Of course certain members of the team were necking back the water to ensure that no delayed DCS ensued!!