South China Seas 2008

I am thinking of returning to the South China Seas in April 2008 to dive the Repulse and Prince of Wales. I went on this trip with Jack Ingle in 2004 and thoroughly enjoyed the trip diving in warm 29 degree water on such historic shipwrecks.

I have spoken to Jack and made enquiries about booking the boat for twelve people taking the 1st trip out there on the 20th to 26th of April 2008.

The cost for this trip would be £890 for the weeks diving which includes cylinders, air and nitrox. (Helium is available to divers at extra cost). This is a full liveaboard trip so the cost also includes meals on board. The additional cost would be the flights out to Singapore, return flights are about £500. There is usually a couple of days stay over so you can get to visit some of the famous sights in Singapore, for example 'Raffles' Hotel, museums, local cuisine, cheap electrical stores etc.

Jack usually specifies a qualification of Dive Leader for this trip, so it would give anyone currently training a goal to work up to next year. I'm sure many of you have taken courses with Jack in the past or have read his many diving articles in dive publications so are aware he is a recommended instructor. (see his website jack ingle technical diving for info.) Most of the diving is done on air with nitrox available for decompression but should anyone wish to do further training on the trip it could be arranged, I did my trimix course on the last trip.

The cylinders are on board and are manifolded twin aluminium 80s ( 11L) with metal twinning bands and some ali 80s for deco gas. The rest of the kit we take along trying to stay under the 30kg weight allowance! The water is 28-30 degrees so a thin wetsuit is all that is required for diving. A full kit list will be sent out to anyone going. (Barry, there is no hammer or crowbar on the list so you can't take them!).

The Diving

The Repulse is a famous WW1 battleship which sailed with the Prince of Wales in WW2 to Singapore to deter the Japanese invasion, this
is a long and controversial naval story which is results in both ships sailing with no aircraft cover then fighting a losing battle with Japanese aircraft using
torpedoes to sink both ships with a huge loss of life. She now lies on her port side in 55m of water with her starboard side being at 38m, she can be dived comfortably using air and is a truly outstanding dive taking many dives to explore this vast wreck.

The Prince of Wales was a modern battleship in its day and was relatively new at the time of the sinking, she lies in 70m of water and is a trimix dive, she is upside down but there is access between the seabed and hull. The dives conducted will be to the wishes of the divers on board, when I went most of the diving was done on the Repulse.
It's a long way out to the wreck sites so on the way out we will dive on some other wrecks, with good visability, warm water and some interesting marine life.

At present I just want to see how many people would be interested in the trip so for further info. Email me marc.collier@virgin.net or give me a ring on mobile 07866 741203 Home 0208 660 7176
So far;
1. Mark Collier
2. Barry Robotham
3. Ian Brown
4. Steve Jones
5. Gerry Dowd
6. Mike Carroll
7. Tim Griffiths
8. Graham Richardson
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Cheers

Mark Collier 07866 741203