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BELL ISLAND, NEWFOUNDLAND 2010 Trip report by Heather Knowles © Copyright 2010, Northern Atlantic Dive Expeditions, Inc., All Rights Reserved.
Each year we look to do one "big trip" – sometimes that trip is very big and involved (read, expensive) and other times we try to do something regionally that is different, but within driving distance and that can be done at a reasonable cost. Given that we just went to Grand Cayman, we decided on Newfoundland for this year’s trip. We selected the late September timeframe for a variety of reasons—the timing was good for most of the group in terms of planning with vacation time and the diving conditions (in terms of visibility and water temperature) in Newfoundland would be reasonable in their balance between good visibility and cold water that time of year. Of course, there’s no such thing as perfect planning. More on that later. The shipwrecks off Bell Island—and there are four of them—are known as spectacular dives. The SS Rose Castle, SS Lord Strathcona, SS Saganaga and SS PLM-27 were all torpedoed at anchor in two separate German U-boat attacks. The wrecks are within a short distance of each other, sunk in 90-150 feet of water. The main (and pretty much only) operation in the area is Ocean Quest Adventures. Ocean Quest was founded by Rick and Debbie Stanley, who are not only own and operate Ocean Quest, but they are also avid divers, videographers and photographers, conservationists, as well as all around nice people. We set up the trip to stay at their lodge, support all of our diving needs for gas and fills through them, and dive from their 38 foot dive boat. They have a great operation with the infrastructure to do just about anything. But first we had to get there. We decided to drive because we were bringing a lot of equipment—everything from rebreathers, scrubber material, extra tanks, camera equipment and scooters. It wasn’t as logistically complicated as our Halifax trip, for example, but we had a lot of stuff. It just simply would not be economical to fly with all of this given baggage fees most airlines charge. We didn’t want to ship anything up in advance because some of it we couldn’t live without for several weeks, plus there is a cost associated with doing this as well. So, we decided to drive. The ride is about 1500 miles and takes about 30 hours, inclusive of the ferry ride from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. We were not familiar enough with the ferry options at the time we selected our dates to consider what ferry routes were in operation in mid September, but we later learned there was only one that time of year, and it was the North Syndey-Port-aux-Basques route. Overall, the distance is the same, but by taking the Argentia ferry, we would have had more time on the ferry and less time driving through Newfoundland. To some extent, you’re deciding whether you want to be on a boat longer or on the road longer. It would seem to most that the former would be preferable, but it’s not necessarily so. We’ll get to that later. Anyway, Dave and I got loaded up and underway on Friday night since we thought a good jump on the drive would be worth it, especially since we wanted to make sure we allowed for plenty of time to get to the ferry. Usually, we like to take it easy on the drive at the start of a trip to avoid burning ourselves out. We drove as far as Bangor, where we stopped for the night. The next day, we made the trek to North Sydney, which is at the far north point of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. We took our time and arrived around 4 pm. It was a beautiful drive through the area, especially through Cape Breton. We starting meeting up with the others and making plans to grab something to eat while we waited for the ferry to arrive and begin loading. Pat was the first to mention the hurricane—Hurricane Igor and asked whether it might impact us. I wasn’t sure, but at that same moment, I got a call from Debbie at Ocean Quest to check-in with us. I asked about the hurricane—yes it was headed to Newfoundland, and we’d just have to see. Fair enough. I asked about other options such as the Bell Island mine if we couldn’t get out to the wrecks, but the mine is closed due to the fatality there about 3 years ago. We decided to hope Igor took a turn out to sea. The ferry terminal was an interesting place. There isn’t a whole lot in North Sydney outside of the terminal and a very small town. The ferry terminal itself has a large main building where I think they only thing they serve to eat are french fries. I have never seen so many french fries in a single place. And after awhile, I think we started to smell like french fries. Anyway, as a bunch of divers from the US, we definitely stood out a bit amongst this crowd, which was comprised of lots of truck drivers, and hunters going over to the island to hunt moose. Our ferry was scheduled to depart at 10:30 pm, but as we quickly learned, the schedule is far from reliable. We were delayed until about 11:15 pm, and even at that, we’re talking approximate times here. When we finally got on the ferry, I was half-asleep. We parked the truck on the vehicle deck, grabbed our overnight bags and headed up to our cabin to crash out. The ferries are fairly nice vessels in that the accommodations are comfortable. We spent the extra money to have a private cabin, which was worth every penny. The seas were a little rough on the crossing, but we only felt the occasional slight roll of the ferry; I slept very well. When we arrived at Port-aux-Basques, we fueled up, coffee’d up and hit the road—for 10 hours (about 550 miles), driving across all of Newfoundland on the only road through the island, the Trans Canada Highway (TCH). If you haven’t picked up on all the foreshadowing I’m doing here—well, take note. The ride was more or less uneventful and mostly just "long." It was a beautiful drive for sure, with some really scenic parts that were really awesome to see. There are a few town/cities along the way, but the stretch between the west side of the island and the eastern/southern area where we were heading is pretty much open frontier—vast and sparsely populated for the most part. It’s not a stretch of road you want to be driving at night given its isolation and how far you are from any real help in the event of a problem. The biggest risk along this stretch of road is moose. At night, they are in the road. During the day, they tend to be along the side of the road, but can easily wander out. However, we did not see one moose on the entire trip across Newfoundland, a point emphasized by Dave throughout the duration of the trip, as he came to Newfoundland to see the moose and dive the cold water. We arrived at Ocean Quest around 5:30 pm that day and settled into our accommodations. The lodge has a kitchen, dining and common area and a half dozen or so double occupancy rooms. There is also an apartment unit within the building with additional accommodation. The lodge was very comfortable, modern and well set-up to house a large group. Everyone found their places and we met with Rick and Debbie to get the briefing on the house rules and dive plan. The first day’s plan was to dive the PLM-27 as sort of a warm-up/shakedown dive. We prepped gear, hit the rack early and planned for breakfast at 8 am. We tried not to think about the hurricane. The following morning we gathered, had breakfast and headed over to the marina to dive the PLM-27 (Paris-Lyon-Marseilles), a 400 foot long British ore freighter, operated under the Free French Forces of General Charles De Gaulle that was sunk by the U-518 on November 2, 1942. The wreck sits upright in 90 feet of water, but can be reached in about 50 feet of water, with most of the diving in the 70-80 foot depth range. It’s the least intact of the four Bell Island shipwrecks—much the PLM-27’s superstructure having been destroyed by passing icebergs.
PLM-27. Click here for photos. The weather wasn’t ideal, but it was good enough to get out, at least for one dive. A front was coming through and behind it, Hurricane Igor was expected to hit. We had hoped the hurricane would turn out to sea and pass Newfoundland completely, but this wasn’t going to be the case. In fact, a direct hit was predicted.
The sad end of about 5 months worth of planning. Nevertheless, we splashed in and began our descent. Dave, Scott, Roman and I were diving on all of these dives as a group of four. Upon arriving on the wreck, the first thing I noticed was the sheer size—these are large wrecks without a doubt. There are two moorings on the wreck and for most recreational divers; the wreck is too large to see the entire thing in one dive. Usually one dive is devoted to a trip to the bow and another is devoted to a trip to the stern. We were tied in at the stern, but we decided to make a go of swimming all the way to the bow and back. Rebreathers, shallow wrecks and as we discovered, not-so-cold water meant that we could be down there for a long time! The visibility was very good by our standards—about 30-40 feet or so. By local standards, I think it was just OK. On top of the wreck it was very good, but down in the lower parts of the wreck it was definitely a bit murky. We worked our way along, passing holds and then the bridge and then ultimately arriving at the bow. The bow section is most notable for its very large anchors—one of which is still in place and the other is down on the bottom. The foc’stle is also intact and a swim through is possible. There are a few places in the wreck where light penetration and swim-thrus are possible, but the space is tight and silty. After checking out the bow and anchors, we were starting to get close to the end of our 50 minute bottom time so we headed aft all the way back to the stern, where we dropped down to the bottom to appreciate the massive propeller and rudder that remains. Again, visibility was a bit murky, but I did my best to get a few photos while Dave cruised around with the video camera. After checking out the prop, we rose back up to the top of the wreck to begin our ascent and decompression. We were told to expect some very cold water, but this dive wasn’t cold at all. The water temperature was in the 50s. Even near the bottom where a deeper thermocline exists, it didn’t drop all that much. In fact, I never turned on my heated vest once, and while I was enjoying my new dry gloves (I finally caved and put the ring system on my suit!) I was quite comfortable—and in fact, a little warm. With all of this stuff on, plus an XM-450 undergarment that is still pretty new, I was sweating. Where was this cold water?! When we surfaced from the dive, the decision was made to head in due to the deteriorating sea conditions and increasing wind. We were happy to get a dive in and pretty much headed in knowing that we didn’t have to keep an eye on how many beers we drank that night, because we weren’t going anywhere the next day… The next two days were wiped out due to the hurricane. First, due to the impact of the hurricane itself and then the after effects with a large high pressure system blowing the mess out. The hurricane brought ~100 mph winds and about 6 inches of rain in the time it was moving through. It truly had a significant impact to Newfoundland and was noted as one of the worst storms to hit the province in recent memory, mainly due to the huge amount of rain. There was tremendous flooding and we were without power for almost two days. And the grill almost blew away. You know things are serious when the grill is about to spin off the porch like it’s headed for Oz. Initially we were just dealing with a lot of wind and rain. We anticipated that we might lose power and began making preparations to deal with that should the situation arise. A few of the boys went to the liquor store and bought more booze and Tostitos. Dave and I discussed the dinner options with Rick, and he arranged to bring in one of his chefs to prepare dinner for the group that night since most restaurants were closing down. Dave and I went for a drive around the area to check out what was happening and grab some coffee. Many boats in the marinas were getting battered, if not destroyed. It seemed only a few marinas were truly sheltered. A few crazies in the group decided to go for a hike and do a little storm chasing. They got very wet. The group otherwise milled around the lodge conjecturing about the many scenarios that could result from the hurricane impact. A few of us were back at the lodge discussing all of this when suddenly and somewhat expectedly, we lost power.
Not the most protected marina in the area...
Tremendous flash flooding wiped out roads and flooded several areas out completely.
Top of the world? Jessica is planning to do Mt Everest in those sneakers. Photo courtesy of Dan Cullaty A few groups were actually stranded away from the lodge at that point because a large pole came down, taking power lines with it and starting a small fire. The magnitude of the storm was substantial and starting to feel real. The eye of the storm would pass about 30 miles from us. No power, serious flooding and local fires due to power lines in the road. We began to wonder if roads would remain intact. Eventually the group was able to find their way back to the lodge where everyone was to remain for the duration of the storm. Since we had to start conserving resources—water, battery power, Blackberry and iPod capabilities, we actually had to talk with one another and even consider reading books (until it was too dark)! The horror! Rick and Deb had taken care of the food situation and soon enough it was time to begin the challenge of cooking by candlelight. It sounds romantic. It sounds like "olden times" but the truth is the candles were battery powered and had switches on the bottom of them. It was almost like those old times. Yet somehow, Dave and Tim D missed the switches and repeatedly tried to light these candles until the burning plastic smell finally suggested we weren’t dealing with wax and wics. Well, at least those candles really have an authentic look now.
Tim explains the mishap with the candles to Debbie. Photo courtesy of Roman Ptashka Jason, our chef, and Rick got to work on the cooking. We had a single propane burner to do all the cooking for 14 people and the room was dimly lit at best. It was going to be a challenge, but the boys seemed up for it. We had dinners prepared for us a few times during the course of the week and each time it was generally authentic Newfoundland cuisine. There was lots of fish, some moose and other assorted specialties that we’ll get to later in this report… Rick was preparing fried cod tongue. No, that’s not some Bugaboo Creek name for mozzarella sticks; it’s actually fried cod tongue. Thankfully, it was dark enough in the room that I couldn’t look too closely and I departed the safe confines of my food comfort zone to take the chance and try these things. They were a little weird, but not bad. Sort of a unique consistency, but not bad… I actually had a few of them. The beer helped.
Party time. Yes, that is a pail of cod tongues. Photo courtesy of Roman Ptashka Once we were done with the appetizers, Jason went to work on the main course. I have to say, it was truly impressive. Cooking nearly in the dark, over a single propane burner, Jason turned out a spectacular meal. We had steak, fish, and an assortment of other things that the darkness and number of beers I had consumed stand out only as a blurry memory to me now. It was good though. We were proud to take part in the first "hurricane party" that will no doubt be part of the future offerings of Ocean Quest Adventures (the power outage will be recreated by flipping off a breaker). Despite the fact that we were in the midst of a hurricane and had no light, heat or hot water, it was a lot of fun to hang out with everyone free of distractions and modern day conveniences. The next morning broke with clear skies and heavy wind. Tina (one of the other cooks) and Debbie took a turn at preparing breakfast. Deb was making toast "old school style" by holding slices of bread sandwiched in a grated frame over an open fire. The propane burner was back in action making the rest of the breakfast meal. Each morning Tina prepared breakfast for us, which was a real treat. Rick and Deb had made plans to take us around and show us Newfoundland, as best they could given a lot of it was in disarray. Restaurants were closed, museums were closed, and ferries were not running. There wasn’t a lot we could do.
Making toast the old fashioned way. This is nowhere near as "fun" as it looks. Photo courtesy of Roman Ptashka In fact, much of the region was simply taking stock of the damage that had been done by Hurricane Igor. We learned that several sections of the TCH, the only road out of dodge, had been wiped out by the massive flooding and rain and it was closed. We were stuck there. The current estimates put it at several days before it would be reopened. We had to be on the road by mid-morning on Saturday in order to make our ferry and we were concerned this would not happen. I tried not go there thinking about being stranded in Conception Bay and having to fly home, but it was hard not to… Deb was already on the damage control and group morale management though. As we learned, Rick and Deb know everyone – really – and Deb made a few calls to her people that got us the most accurate information from the municipalities as to when the road would be reopened. She felt confident we’d be OK. With that, we loaded up in the van and headed off to do some sight-seeing. We toured downtown St. John’s, which definitely has its very own flavor of youth culture. The look was sort of a cross between 80s Flock of Seagulls and 90s grunge. Throw in a few bowling pins in a tattered backpack toted along with, and you have your average teen Newfoundlandite. Beyond the downtown, we visited a few places with some breathtaking views, including the eastern-most point of land. We were as close to Europe as you can get without crossing ocean. The vistas were spectacular, but it was so windy that it was difficult to hang out for long. Eventually, we worked our way back and scouted out options for dinner. Power had been restored and things were slowly coming back online. Interestingly, there were unbelievable waits almost everywhere. Only a relatively small number of restaurants were open and most had 2-3 hour waits for seating. After striking out at few places, and passing on a place that looked like they were cooking the chicken with the head and feet still attached, we found a restaurant where we could get in quickly. We had a good meal and were relatively optimistic about diving the next day. The weather wasn’t great, but we had a potential window and we were going to take it. We needed to make an early start, which we discovered not everyone likes to do, and met at 7 am to take advantage of what would be a limited weather window. Our plan was to dive the Rose Castle and the Saganaga. The Rose Castle, a 455 foot, 7,546 ton freighter, was also sunk by U-518 on November 2, 1942. The Rose Castle went down in less than ninety seconds, with the loss of twenty-eight men. The Rose Castle is the flagship wreck among the four. It is also the deepest—with the top of the wreck around 100 feet, most of the diving between 120-140 feet and the deepest part of the wreck around 160 feet in the sand.
The SS Rose Castle. Click here for photos. We loaded up and headed out. Sea conditions were OK, but clearly not great. I wondered how long we’d be out there for. Around these parts in Mass Bay, the conditions were not anything we aren’t used to seeing, but there, it was borderline not do-able for a variety of reasons. In any case, we arrived on the Rose Castle and grabbed the mooring. Arthur gave us an excellent dive briefing as he had done before and we were on our way. I was not sure what to expect. I mean, a hurricane had just passed through! At home, I knew this would mean you’d be lucky to see your hands, but given that we had come so far, we were diving regardless. I brought the camera, though it seemed like a rather pointless thing to do. Maybe. We dropped in and swam up to the mooring. The visibility was a little murky, but it wasn’t a milkshake. This was promising. Dare I be optimistic? We started our descent. Amazingly, the visibility got better! We arrived on the wreck to find about 30-40 feet of dim, but clear visibility. I was thrilled. We struck off for the stern, where there is a large stern gun completely covered in anemones. The stern is also very intact and is just a great sight if you can swim off the wreck a ways, then turn and look back at it. We also made a tour through the engine room to get some footage of the well-known telegraph. The engine room is very murky for some reason and getting a good shot isn’t easy, well, for me anyway. After touring through the engine room, which is accessed through a crack in a bulkhead, we checked out the radio room, which is a small deckhouse above the bulkhead leading to the engine room. So you can see a lot of cool stuff right in the same area. This took up most of our 50 min bottom time. It was such a great dive that I honestly did not want to end it. I wasn’t cold, but I did have to pee. And no, I do not have a "She P." We surfaced at about 90 minutes run time. I still hadn’t gotten cold. It was a great dive, but the conditions were once again beginning to deteriorate. However, Rick was hard at work helping us to get our dives in and he agreed to run a second set of tanks out to the group for our second dive on his RIB. We met in a sheltered cove where we did the swap, and then proceeded to head back out to the wreck of the Saganaga. Yeah, we needed the open circuit divers for ballast!
Rick met the boat at sea to bring more tanks out. The Saganaga was a 407 foot long British steamer that was torpedoed on September 5, 1942 while at anchor. She was carrying a cargo of iron ore. Among the crew of 48 men, 29 were lost. The wreck sits in 110 feet of water and can be reached in as shallow as 60 feet. As the Saganaga was struck by two torpedoes, sending her to the bottom in less than 30 seconds, so this wreck is a bit less intact than the Rose Castle, for example.
The SS Saganaga. Click here for photos. The sea conditions weren’t getting any better, so once he had done the bare minimum surface interval, we suited up and splashed. We dropped down and begin swimming aft. We cruised through a large cavernous space, most likely due to torpedo damage, popped out the side of the wreck and then headed to the stern. The wreck had some really nice swim throughs. Visibility was decent—maybe 30-40 feet, at times murky. We swam the entire length of the wreck and saw some of the key features—such as the large anchor on deck with the chain stretching across. The bow was a really pretty sight. We saw small piles of 50 caliber rounds and even some personal effects such as shoes, which is always a reminder of the human side of these shipwrecks and the tragedies around their sinking. After about 40 minutes on the bottom, we headed up for a short decompression. Things had definitely gotten a little sporty on the surface, so getting back on the boat was a bit of work, mostly just timing the approach to the ladder. We had a very slow and rough ride back to the marina, but it was worth it—the diving was awesome and considering we had begun the day thinking we’d be lucky to see anything at all given expectations of low visibility, we were thrilled that we had instead completed two awesome dives. Our last day was ahead and we were hoping to repeat the come-back with another dive on the Rose Castle, followed by the Lord Strathcona, the last among the four and only one that we had not yet dived. Everyone prepped their gear and otherwise laid low for the night. We had confirmation that the roads were re-opened and slowly restaurants and other infrastructure were coming back online. The only problem was that the wind wasn’t coming down. When we woke the next day it was breezy, but doable. Once again the question was how long the weather would hold out for. We got underway later than we should have and this ultimately was costly for us, as the wind came up hard in the early afternoon and as a result, we lost our window and didn’t get our second dive on the Lord Strathcona. We made our best effort at the second dive before it was called. Rick even ran another set of tanks out to us and we did the transfer at sea, in some choppy conditions. All in all, it was a good day of diving, though very disappointing not to get the last one in on the Lord Strathcona. We did have a spectacular dive on the Rose Castle, where we did another pass through the engine room, followed by a swim all the way to the bow and back. In many ways, we were lucky to get the 4 dives we did considering how challenging the weather was with fronts, hurricanes, wind and such. Even though we brought scooters with us, we never used them. The sea conditions were rough enough the entire time such that handling them was going to be a challenge. Cruising the Rose Castle would be awesome though. When we returned to the lodge, we broke down gear and rinsed everything, which is a nice treat to have the ability to get most of the gear cleaned up before you get home. We wrapped up our dive gear and got ourselves cleaned up for a night on the town, and our initiation as honorary Newfoundlanders. Yes, we were about to get screeched. Rick had plans for us.
Rick gets pumped up for the Screech-in ceremony. We got cleaned up and gathered in the lodge dining area. On display was a large, once fresh, but recently thawed codfish and a dozen or so shot glasses filled with Screech rum, which is a local rum. Also on display were a few side dishes with various assorted appetizer looking type of food—something looking like ham, some small salted fish and stale bread? I could handle the shots of rum, but the salted fish, I wasn’t so sure… Rick arrived, we assembled into order and began the initiation. This involved donning a local-ish sort of hat, eating one of each of the food samples, reciting a few phrases, followed by taking a shot of rum and kissing this cod fish, which has seen more action than I care to think about. I couldn’t handle more than a small bite of the salted fish, and I managed to escape most of the others, but I did have to do the shot and kiss the cod fish. It was interesting to say the least. We took a few photos and had a few more cocktails to prep for our evening out before loading up into the van and heading into St. John’s for dinner. I don’t really recall much of dinner. After dinner, we hit the town for some local music. Our last stop was an Irish bar where we caught most of a great performance of a local band playing Celtic music. I even hit the dance floor with Rick. It was Dave’s and my wedding anniversary, so Rick had arranged for this to be noted at each stop along the way, with a song dedicated by the band. We only had to dance once though! All in all we had a great night and it was a lot of fun to check out the local scene with Rick and Deb, who are well known and well liked by everyone we met. The following morning we got up, slowly, ate our final breakfast and said our goodbyes. Some of us were in better shape than others and got on the road at various times, but Dave and I hit the road around 9 am or so in order to give us plenty of time to make the 10 hour crossing back to Port-aux-Basques. About halfway across, Dave finally saw his moose. We got a glimpse of one grazing by the side of the road. We had to immediately text Deb to let her know that despite not finding any cold water, Dave was at least satisfied that he had finally seen his moose. Everyone was pleased!
I was once again very tired so as soon as we got to our cabin, we hit the rack. I woke up the following morning for our 7 am arrival and offloading. Unfortunately, the weather was not good—and it was very windy. Apparently, it was too windy for the ferry to dock; especially given its bow thruster was not in operation. Great! We turned around and did circles offshore for the next 6 hours. I have to say, if there was any point during this trip when I was at the "brink," it was at this point. I had to be in work the next morning, but it was Sunday afternoon and we were circling offshore in Nova Scotia… and we had about 12-13 hours of driving ahead of us once we reached North Sydney. But I confined myself to my quarters for the protection of others and myself. We finally were able to make another attempt at landing and were successful in docking around 1:30 pm. When we got off the ferry, we put our nose to the grindstone and powered home, arriving in Salem around 1 am. I was beyond tired at work that day, but I got through it. At least we didn’t drive almost 900 miles on a donut tire…
Scott and Roman's rental Prius had a rough ride. A few miles outside of Port-aux-Basques, they blew out a tire and had to drive the remainder of the trip home on a donut spare tire.... Photo courtesy of Roman Ptashka
They almost made it... gosh, we're really gonna miss them... Photo courtesy of Roman Ptashka Overall, we caught more than our fair share of tough breaks on this trip—who could have seen a hurricane hitting Newfoundland that week, but we still managed to have fun. We had a great group of people, who kept a positive attitude when things got tough, and Rick and Deb truly run a fantastic operation, and spent the time to take care of us while we were there so that we weren’t sitting around all day looking at the wind blowing. I would love to go back to Newfoundland—especially since we still haven’t found cold water and didn’t get a dive in on the Lord Strathcona. Next time, however, we will fly up. The drive, while beautiful, was just too long for me given the time we could devote to the overall trip. But we’re Newfoundlanders now.
Heather becomes a proud Newfie.
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