Scouting mission in the North Sea

On the 20th of July volunteers of Ghost Diving the Netherlands went out for a scouting mission in the North sea. This mission was quite different from regular projects we are running on a daily basis. Let me tell you about our day.

We gathered in the harbor of Scheveningen at 07:00, which might sound early, but is actually later than we would usually do for these kind of events. The travel time for our volunteers to get to the harbor varies between 15 minutes to two hours, so some of them were already up as early as 5 o clock. Because the tide was not ideal, we decided to do one dive and planned accordingly.

The plan

The team consisted of 11 divers and we had help from two additional volunteers for surface support. We went out with Aquila, our trusted partner to support us on our missions on the Dutch part of the North sea. We always start with securing all our gear and checking if everyone is on board. It was a 3,5 – 4 hour journey to get to the “pispottenwreck”. After leaving the port there is some time to relax and maybe sleep for a little while, to make sure everyone is well rested and ready for the upcoming dive. Around two hours before the dive we do a joint team briefing, where we discuss the goals of the dives, create teams and decide on tasks and responsibilities.

The plan for today was a scouting mission. We wanted to find out if there are nets on the wreck and if so, where and how big. Additionally, we would also look for specific hazards to help us build a plan for the actual recovery of the nets.

The dive

The visibility on the dive was amazing. It was 10+ meters easily and the current was extremely mild. Normally a north sea dive would be around 30 minutes because of the tide, but this time, with these conditions, we could stay much longer and one of the teams was in the water for over two hours! The “Pispotten wreck” is located at 27-30m. depth. The wreck is still unidentified to this day, and got it’s nickname from the toilet-bowls that are scattered around the bottom.

The aftermath

When we surfaced we had a good idea of the wreck and the locations of the net. We recovered some lead and fishing lines, but left the nets for the recovery dive. We found one crab which was completely covered in fishing-line. It was too entangled to fix it underwater, so we took it to the surface, freed him and put him back into the ocean. We again gathered with the entire team to do a debrief of the dive, this is something we always do to learn and further improve our safety. We also put all our notes and memories together to create a map of the dive site. Below you can see the map we made to give you an idea.

All in all a very successful day. We made the basis for further missions. We’ll be sure to update you on our work on the “Pispotten wreck”.

Rick van Beerendonk | Ghost Diving The Netherlands