Continue the cycle of underwater photo stories: today I show some pictures from a dive to one accessible and at the same time interesting and well-preserved sunken objects (wrecks) of the Black Sea coast. It is said to be a former German torpedo boat, a trophy of the Soviet Union during World War II, later converted into something more peaceful like a diving boat. I cannot vouch for the absolute truthfulness of this information, and I myself doubt a little about its torpedo mission, but ...
... but it was interesting for me to look at it, no matter what kind of boat it was originally :) In addition, I did not find convincingly substantiated versions on the Internet about the other origin of this boat, so we will call it in accordance with the most common version β torpedo boat.
So, this boat is located in the Kapsel bay in the Black Sea, not far from Cape Meganom of the Crimea peninsula. The nearest town of Sudak is located very close, about 3-5 kilometers away. There are 300 meters to the shore, and a depth is about 12 meters below sea level, it is accessible for amateur diving, even for beginners. A buoy on a rope is tied to one of the metal parts preserved on the deck. It is convenient to navigate by it: when going under the water near the buoy, it is enough to dive along this rope as along the launching end. No matter how it seems in the photo, this is not a man on a rope, but the boat itself :)
The boat is quite large, so you can swim up and down, over the deck or around the hull without getting in the way or jostling with other divers. Unfortunately, we were not very lucky with the transparency of the water, so we could not capture the whole view, the visibility is rapidly decreasing β however, the Black Sea is not famous for its particularly transparent water, especially at shallow depths.
The torpedo boat stands almost exactly vertically at the bottom, which, in my opinion, is a rarity. It can be seen that the keel sat down firmly and steadily in the ground. The boat sank, according to the story we were told, somewhere in the mid-1980s, already decommissioned from the navy and converted into a diving boat. It happened during a storm due to crew error, fortunately no casualties. After that, some parts of the boat were cut off and taken away.
By the way, around the deck there are quite beautiful fences with railings overgrown with all kinds of vegetation. We should take a closer look at them from all sides.
In general, there are many living creatures of all kinds. Here a motley fish tries in vain to hide in the algae at the bottom, and if you look closely, a small jellyfish is noticeable next to it.
And what is it that can be seen over the railing through the water?
Whoa! Here, on the deck, there is a very formidable and photogenic weapon, around which fishes (and sometimes divers too) constantly hover. But wait, is this a real firearm?
No :) If you look closely, you can see that this weapon is decorative, handmade. It was installed by enthusiastic divers or local dive centers specifically for more fun and for the entertainment of tourist divers, as they often install various interesting and funny things at dive sites.
Oh, and by the way: the big beautiful steering wheel in the first photo of the post is also not real, it was never placed on this boat. As we were told, it was installed in the place of the wheelhouse that is missing in the present, in the place where there was once a real wheel, so justice was observed here :)
Still, a person for the scale is just wonderful, here you can definitely see that the boat was not small at all! This is the stern of the ship, or rather, its (initially) underwater part. The ship's rudder is located here, and one of the propellers can also be seen.
Having swam around from all sides, I really wanted to look inside the boat. Moreover, there are open hatches and even holes specially cut right in the hull for easier entering.
One by one, our dive guide guided us inside along the shortest and easiest route. We didn't see much, but actually we weren't supposed to be there β we do not have the appropriate certification for diving inside wrecks.
Hmm, it looks like a sink in front, under the windows? Unclear, but terribly interesting :) I'd like to continue diving on wrecks!
An additional entertainment besides the boat itself is feeding the fish. Our dive guide picked up some mussels somewhere right there, and now he opens them right on the deck and invites the fish to feast on.
Fish with a forked tail fin, dark with a silvery sheen, are called swallows here, just because of the shape of the tail. There are many of them here, but there are some others too, more colored.
I donβt know their names even approximately ... Well, okay, the main thing is that they are all cute and do not even refuse to pose in front of the camera:)
Well, I really enjoyed diving on the wrecks, and I hope you enjoyed this little underwater photo story as much as I did :)
Other posts in this series:
Small Underwater Photo Stories - 1
It's better to watch the photos in high resolution.
OLYMPUS E-M5 Mark II
You can also see my photos in my blog LJ and in my profile on NatGeo
Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! ππ₯³π
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
These shots are so spectacular! And you are really brave to go in there and explore the unknown of the underwater :)
It's probably one of the very few things I wouldn't dare to try due to my biggest fear which is water :D
Thank you!
I would be lying if I said that this underwater object is unknown :) dive centers bring tourist divers here, so this is not something unique... but I would like to explore something completely unknown, very much!
Water is rather dangerous, but so attractive! And knowing simple rules helps to reduce the danger to an acceptable level for me :)
Oh, I see. I think I've heard something at the news that Romania will have a possible location for tourists who want to try out diving, but it's not a very popular thing to do over here, maybe that's why I was so surprised seeing your post π
Diving is a great activity for me :) I see on the map that Romania has access to the Black Sea, so maybe people do dive a little on the coast? What do you think is the main attraction for tourists to Romania? I have never been to this country, but it would be interesting for me to visit there.
Yeah, actually there was some news that a special place for diving will be arranged on the Black Sea. Though, I never heard people doing it before.
I will never have enough time or space to write about it. That's the main reason why I have my blog on here and where I try to promote my country as much as possible. Of course, there are some place very known by almost anyone like Dracula's Castle, but Romania has so much more to offer and there are a lot of unknown and underrated locations. So if you ever plan visiting Romania don't hesitate to let me know, or simply follow my blog and you can make a list of what you consider it's worth your visit :D
Ok, got it :)
Yes, I started following your blog not so long ago, so at least there I will look at your country. If they will organise diving on the shore, it will be another plus for me to come some day:))
Haha, no doubt about it! I'll be the first to let you know if they start organising diving over here :)
What a wonderful experience. I miss scuba so much.
Oh yeah! I miss diving a lot too ... looking at my diving suit and scuba in the cabinet and feeling sad. Last year I managed to dive for only 4 or 5 days :(
I totally understand your sadness. We used to dive most weekends back in Australia but we moved to Canada 3 years ago and I'm such a cold frog so I haven't been diving here. We were lucky enough to go diving in Hawaii last year though before the pandemic broke out.
Oh, in Australia you must have had some awesome diving! I definitely want to come there someday and of course dive there! Why did you leave there?! π
In Russia, in fact, there are also great difficulties with diving. We have a not too long summer, when in local lakes in a small part of the country the water warms up to at 18-20C degrees (but below 5-10 meters it is still noticeably colder - the thermocline), plus there is the Black Sea coast in the south, which is certainly warmer and better than lakes, but still not comparable with the warm waters of Egypt or off the coast of Indonesia and the Philippines, including the diversity of the underwater world. Therefore, we here have to learn to dive in a dry suit and, in the long term, ice diving, but I donβt like the cold too :)
We left because of my boyfriends job. If you ever make to Australia I would highly recommend Western Australia for diving. It is so beautiful.
Oh wow! what a difference in temperature. I can imagine that lake diving and the Black Sea would offer some interesting diving too. But I agree, diving in warmer waters is definitely more enjoyable, at least in my opinion haha. I haven't been lucky enough to make it to Egypt or the Philippines yet. I think Egypt would be extremely interesting both above and below the water.
Oh, I see. Work makes people do a lot of different things :)
Thanks for the recommendation about Western Australia, I hope I will be able to use it someday :)
In turn, I definitely recommend diving in Egypt and the Philippines (we were on the Negros island) - inexpensive and very rich underwater world. And it's quite warm :))
But if the on-land, historical part of the trip is also interesting, then Egypt is certainly more interesting, you are right.
I'll keep my fingers crossed so I can use your suggestions one day too
Posted using Dapplr
Hiya, @LivingUKTaiwan here, just swinging by to let you know that this post made it into our Top 3 in Daily Travel Digest #1084.
Your post has been manually curated by the @pinmapple team. If you like what we're doing, please drop by to check out all the rest of today's great posts and consider supporting other authors like yourself and us so we can keep the project going!
Become part of our travel community:
Thank you! :)
What light are you using? Inside that wreck was well lit. I've been diving for quite awhile, didn't know about a special cert to dive wrecks.
Really great shots here man, thanks. Good call @livinguktaiwan.
If you're going to be penetrating wrecks you really do need to train for it as it's not always as straight forward as nipping in and out. it can be very dangerous if everything gets silted up divers can't find their way out. We've all done it on an easy swim through but exploring wrecks....get trained if you want to post about it π. I do love wrecks though. Somethng very cool and atmospheric about them
Copy that, thanks. Of course I wouldn't get carried away before proper training. In Laguna Beach, Ca, there was a small wreck a few thousand yards offshore and only about 60 feet deep, other than that I haven't had much experience. I just don't remember a cert specific to wreck diving. Maybe I misunderstood and it's just training, not certification.
Cheers @scubahead!
Fun fact: My autocorrect had Latina Beach instead of Laguna Beach and now I'm curious where Latina Beach is, sounds sexy! ππΏ
hmmm Latina Beach very interesting ;)
And I also like the wrecks, even outside and small, and when you get inside even a little ... atmospheric and mysterious, yes.
Thank you!
I use video light Archon W42VR (because I still haven't figured out the underwater flashes, although I purchased them a couple of years ago π).
Regarding training in wreck diving: yes, as the @scubahead told you rightly, if there really is an intention to often dive and penetrate into serious large wrecks, then it would be better to complete the training first, I think many dive centers will not take responsibility take you with them without a certificate (this is my guess, I have not tried). I don't know about other systems, but for example Padi has this course.
Thank you! I keep seeing your handle. Man, your feed is a heck of a collection of civet images. I'll have to keep up with you a little better. :cheers:
Nice to hear it, thanks! :)
Hope you know that 'civet' should've been 'cover' and I'm not so sure autocorrect is who they think they are.
Oh so that's what it meant! I just thought it was one of the many English words I don't know π
Very nice. Nice to see a good scuba post with wrecks thats not somewhere tropical!
Thank you! Don't you like the tropics? :)
Well, I think that the tropics also have enough interesting wrecks, but so far everything is difficult for me with the tropics, and we don't have a lot of wrecks available without technical diving ...
it's refreshing to see some diving stuff posted thats not in the usual spots. I've done a lot of cold water diving many years ago and just don't think it gets enough publicity
Ok, got it. Yes, indeed, when people talk about diving, they usually think of the tropics. And I dream of diving in really cold waters too, there is a lot of beauty hidden there. But it is necessary to overcome my dislike for the cold and invest some more money in new equipment. Some day :)
ah there is that. I've been spoiled now so to go back to the cold would be errrr a change but I have fond memories of it
Yes, the water in the Philippines is very comfortable, after which it is scary to think about cold water :)
sooooooo cold. Leaving here soon though so diving may not be on the menu for a while.
fascinating underwater world, so beautiful. I never got the chance to do diving plus I don't know swimming so these photographs are giving me the chance to explore the mysterious underwater world...
Great post with memorable experiences...
Thank you! I am very glad that such posts are interesting. I sometimes like to watch videos and photos of underwater photographers, especially from those places where I have not dived (and there are a lot of them π), it is so mesmerizing!
Maybe someday you will also have a chance to dive under the water :) By the way, the skill of traditional swimming is not very necessary for a diver, diving under water with a scuba and fins is not difficult at all ;)