Wreck Diving in Sri Lanka

Can you imagine being in a tropical paradise for two weeks and not swimming - either in a pool or in the sea? Well, when I finally reached the south coast of the country and entered the Indian Ocean for the first time, you could hear it - my sigh of pleasure mixed with the sizzle of a hot body touching tropical water. I snorkelled for a little while around damaged coral reef and saw some small fish and a venomous sea snake, but I was really after turtles (the ones from Nemo with Aussie accents). Unfortunately, they simply teased me from my hotel and refused to come and lay eggs on the beach or swim with me. That said the hotel was just 4 metres from the water and the turtles were everywhere.
           

Anyway, I want to discuss diving. I did not realise it, but it is five years since my last dive in Sardinia, so I felt rusty yet determined in equal measure. I knew Sri Lanka would be a nice, warm ocean to dive in, but I did not know that the diving season only begins on the 1st November. Luckily, my first host in Sri Lanka, Pri, knew the wife of a guy who owned the dive school at Mount Lavinia, so I called him and pleaded with him to take me diving. Whilst he could not do it straight away, and he could not guarantee the quality of the dive, he agreed and we set a date for a refresher PADI pool session and (depending on the outcome) a day's diving in the ocean. I would then be leaving Sri Lanka two days later, so I knew I was cutting it fine.

I turned up at the dive centre and met my instructor, James Clark from Hull, someone with a Hull accent which got stronger the longer we were together. He put me through my paces with a written
theory test, an equipment test and a full pool session. I must say he was excellent and as it all came back to me and I passed each subsequent test, I grew in confidence. Our pool session was halted
temporarily by a fantastic tropical lightning storm, but the hotel staff put on the underwater pool lights so we could finish as the night closed in. It is quite magical swimming under water during a downpour, you should see the raindrops silently impacting the surface from below and the lightning looked an amazing mix of purple and blue from beneath.

   

On the dive day, I met James, another instructor called Jehan and Naren the owner, for 8.00am. We quickly loaded up the boat, discussed our dive plans and pushed out into the waves. 

Dive one was a disaster. we descended to 18 metres and the visibility was so poor I could not see my own hand in front of my face! I hung on to James' arm hoping he would signal to abort and go to surface - he did. Back in the boat, we discussed how the stormy weather and monsoon season was affecting the sea, but decided we would travel further from shore (about 5 kms) to a wreck called the "Medufaru." I crossed my fingers as we entered the water a second time. This time we would be going down to 30 metres - would the visibility be better or worse?

It was brilliant. The fish life was extraordinary and included: a marble moray eel, loads of lion fish, bat fish, angel fish, butterfly fish, electric rays, tuna and jack. At one point I swam through a huge 'ball' of fish, hundreds of them all spiralling tightly together ( I later learned they were being hunted by tuna who were circling them in ever decreasing rings to form what is called a 'bait ball' before they shoot in to pick off individuals.)

However it was the wreck of the ship which impressed me the most.
                            

        

It was huge and had split in half. The prow of the ship, complete with a large bulbous nose at the water line was sitting intact on the bottom, whilst the stern of the ship was standing vertically upright, fractured somewhere in the middle. The Medufaru was a cargo ship transporting building equipment and supplies when it sank and it was eerie to see an old-fashioned JCB on its side covered in coral, large cement mixers and the two cranes the ship would use to load and unload. It was silent and majestic and a privilege to dive. Before I knew it, time was up and we had to surface.

We completed a surface interval break of over an hour (to reduce the nitrogen in our blood) and we watched the local traditional fisherman with their nets and pots and I threw up due to the choppy waters buffeting our boat. Jehan and I decided to dive the wreck again but this time we would descend to the deepest part quickly and then swim upwards through the wreck!

It was amazing to swim through outer companionways, inner corridors and the main cabin and to see the hold of the ship split open in the middle. The vertical rear of the ship, with all the cabins and different floors was fascinating and I wanted to stay down there for longer to see how the fish, coral and plant life had taken ownership. But time was up and I was cutting it fine with my air. Due to our depth, we had to complete a safety decompression stop for the second time and I waited patiently at 10 and then 5 metres surrounded by thousands of tiny pulsating jellyfish. Magnificent.
                                  

   

                                           The stern of the ship rising vertically.

I cannot wait to dive again during this trip. Thank you to all at islandscuba, particularly Naren, who heard the enthusiasm in my voice and decided to adjust his start of season plans to include me.
Paul