South China Sea 2006

South China Sea 2006

The South China Sea is subject to the heaviest commercial boating traffic in the world and is therefore littered with wrecks. The wrecks vary from WWII battlecruisers and mine sweepers to container ships and oil tankers through to small coastal trading junks.

The purpose of this trip was to dive the famous British Battle Cruiser HMS repulse.

The Repulse lays in 55m of water on the East Coast of Malaysia. It is on it's port side making penetration into the wreck tricky. You can still clearly make out all the largest guns on the deck and swim through large parts of the superstructure.

For me the highlight of this trip was diving on an oil tanker called the Seven Skies which sunk on it's return maiden voyage. It sits upright so the superstructure is in about 25m of water and the engine room about 45 - 50 m. Because the superstructure is shallow it is covered in colourful corals making it a very pleasant dive after doing a lot of the deeper wrecks in the area. With so many wrecks still to explore and yet to be found, we will return again.

This is a must do trip for any wreck enthusiast. Most of the wrecks are steeped in history and went down in full battle during the Second World War. Due to their time in the water, the growth on the wrecks is amazing with plenty of critters for those more inclined to marine life. With a lack of divers in the area, most of the critters were extremely inquisitive and hung around allowing the amatuer photographers plenty of time to get that award winner! (Well a good shot anyway)

Once again a successful trip was had by all. Whether we were diving on the enormour wreck of the Repulse in 55m or a small simple barge in 20m, there was always something new or interesting to check out.