Two divers dead in Scharendejke NLD

[wgw04024]

I wonder what the beam of that boat was, and how you 'transport' it to a lake?

36', how do you transport that from the ocean to 'a lake'?

 

[Bob DBF]

I wonder what the beam of that boat was, and how you 'transport' it to a lake?

36', how do you transport that from the ocean to 'a lake'?

May be it was taken up a river to the lake.


Bob

 

[wgw04024]

It's a 'saltwater lake'. Interesting.

 

[Miyaru]

I wonder what the beam of that boat was, and how you 'transport' it to a lake?

36', how do you transport that from the ocean to 'a lake'?

....
There's some background information on this webpage (in Dutch).
....

Use google translate to read it in English.

 

[ajduplessis]

I struggle to understand how wreck trained and apparently experienced dives enter a wreck without a guideline.

 

[Tom_Ivan]

I struggle to understand how wreck trained and apparently experienced dives enter a wreck without a guideline.

I think the idea is that the vis is so bad and the design of the wreck leads to divers unknowingly entering it and becoming disoriented.

 

[ajduplessis]

The idea of descending onto a wreck when visibility is poor without guideline is madness, not matter how you look at it.

 

[Rollin]

struggle to understand how wreck trained and apparently experienced dives enter a wreck without a guideline.

I know that wreck quiet well, I visited it at least 15 times.

It is basically a concrete barge with two large compartments. As the ship is laying on its keel, these compartments can be visited very easily, by the large top openings, these are meters wide, on the deck. Just sink in, and get straight up again. It is like a hole with some overhanging at the sides and more ceiling in the front and back. I'm not saying this practice is safe, but it is easy. Most divers don't do this, but many do, taking a quick look. The ceilings are full of life. It is considered overkill to use a reel for this. But I'm not saying this is wise.

But, there is a third compartment, beneath the wheelhouse. The small opening is backways from the back cargo compartment, it is full of beams and fine silt. I never considered entering this place, but a trained cave/wreckdiver (I'm not) can of course. Then, there is the wheelhouse itself. It is a small house with a door and quiet large windows. Again, nice to swim through, but technically it is entering a wreck.

I don't know where the two unlucky divers were found or what they did before they died, only thate they were found 'in the back'. But being found inside the wreck says not much about the risks they took or what happened. One can assume, as they were not immediately found, one or both were well hidden in the smaller compartment. But if you don't know the place as a rescue diver or marine diver, you are reluctant to penetrate even in the larger compartments. As visibility is often low (1-4 m typically), it is very dark at 25m depth.
In one way or another they took a wrong decision, and payed a high price for it. I took decisions like that as well and probably often without knowing. As long as everything turns out well, we even don't realise it.

 

[Zef]

It's a 'saltwater lake'. Interesting.

Its not a lake it is a bay...actually more like an estuary. There is a thermocline and a halocline with sea water making up the upper layer and fresh water making up the layer below the halocline at 7 or 8 meters deep. Because of the fresh water below halocline the bottom is fairly barren and silty and not much lives in this zone. The silt is easily stirred up and the visibility is often very poor.

The top of the Serpent, the main wreck at Scharendejke, is at approximately 20m depth. Not much light penetrates the thermocline/halocline coupled with algea blooms in the brackish zone above the halocline and suspended silt below it the visibility is bad on the best of days.

I dove there Saturday the 12th of May. In the past there was a line that one could follow to guide them through. The day we were there we had to swim against a current to get out to the closest buoy marking the wreck and when we descended the visibility was terrible and the line was no longer present. Some of the folks in our group spent the weekend at the hotel/hostel at the marina and dove on Sunday as well...despite the number of divers there that weekend, according to my fellow club members, the line was not replaced.

-Z

 

[Rollin]

I don't think there is a halocline in Grevelingen, even at 25m, it is salt water. The Serpent is covered in tunicates, tubularia and other animals living in sea water. But to be honest, I never tasted the water at the bottom.

Besides that, a line is your own responsibility, not that of them, whoever 'they' may be.