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Chill Swim 2016

Posted on January 15, 2017 by Mark Lyons

CHILLSWIM

Chill Swim 2016 ….. “Long distance open water swimming isn’t just about swimming around buoys in a loop– it’s about the journey. Travelling the length of a lake from one end to the other, swimming across a channel, or completing a swim from one set point to another gives the swim meaning. You haven’t swum a lake until you have completed the full length of it” ……

Lake Coniston

I had another Shoulder operation back in late 2015, 4 years since my accident and they were still hacking away at me !! To aid my recovery and speed up regaining my mobility I hit the pool a few months after hoping for the best. Swimming definitely helped so I needed something special to keep me bashing out those strokes (repetition is my Achilles heel and swimming is definitely not the most exhilarating sport, especially when your doing serious mileage) so I was on the hunt for something to train for. Something needed to capture my imagination and excite me … its always something different, unusual, often daring and this time I found it in the Chillswim Coniston. A long distance swim from end to end on the famous Lake Coniston. Full of History and lore it is the 3rd largest lake in England , home to the Swallows and Amazons tale, Donald Campbell and his speed records in the Bluebird and the infamous “Lady in the Lake” murders…. Was this for me ? … yes! , Did I need any more persuasion ? No! … sorted then I was in. I fired off the link to my friends and Al , Deeksy and Lyn rose to the bait , a team was born! We spent most of the summer on Alemoor , the best wild swimming loch within easy reach of Hawick. An occasional foray here and there to mix it up including a cracking Sunday afternoon when Al , Mick and I swam the length of St Marys loch with a now injured Lyn supporting us. We finished the day off with Steaks at the Gordon arms, for recovery of course 🙂

Chillswim 2016

On the day we were all feeling fit and my shoulder the best for years, Ill never have a good shoulder again but it was as good as it will ever be so I was buzzing for a 5ish mile cruise up the lake. We arrived to high winds and heavy rain !, pretty much the normal for the lake district 😀 The Event organization was professional , friendly and smooth running , we were on the bus and off to the start in no time and soon we were running into the loch and swimming out the bay …. next stop Wild Cat Island. I stopped to take it all in as I swam along the famous Island , several times in fact. It’s all to easy in an adventure to be to fixed on the finish line or chasing a time, and not stop to take mental photos and bask in the feelings of being somewhere special.

Every mile and a half there was a food stop, I ignored the first and continued on , stopping at 3 miles for a banana and a blether with a guy from Wales. He was swimming in his trunks. I was in a wet-suit and it was chilly enough. To be honest swimming in a wetsuit isn’t that hard, it takes a lot of the hardship from wild swimming and sorts out your bad technique , heavy legs etc . Swimming in speedos 😀 is a LOT harder and you need to acclimatize your body to the cold as well as swim a lot better and harder. Kudos to the hardcore Welshman 🙂

the 3 bananas 🙂

The swim went great and the 5 odd miles went in very quickly , pretty soon I was swimming up the finishing straight cheered on by the crowds … picking up my medal and goody bag on the way through the sign off. We posed for photos by our beautiful assistant and photographer Jan 😀 The weather was cold and rattling with wind so very Quickly we headed to the pick up point and jumped in the bus headed back to the registration car park .. the driver was pumping out the heater … luuuvvvvverly !!! what a day !

Deeksy the fish 😀

Champions !!! 😀

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Climbing the Forth Road Bridge …..

Posted on January 14, 2017 by Mark Lyons

Tam was ringing my phone, maybe he had another bag of 20 oz sirloin steaks ? I better answer I thought ! 😀 😀 ….. Hey Mark fancy climbing to the top of the Forth Road bridge he says … , Sounds good I said !!

up there ? Aye right up there !

Tam had fallen heir to the opportunity from some Edinburgh top brass who won it on an “auction of Promises” a prize donated by Amey Highways, the company who maintains the Forth Road Bridge. We were to meet Davie Gill chief of maintenace from AMI at their Edinburgh control centre , the big glass building you see when you come over the bridge from the Fife side. He would give us a safety brief and equipped us with the relevant rope access safety equipment to get us to the top. Soon we were at the bottom of the Southside tower looking up ! Its tall 😀 Great link here for loads more info FORTH ROAD BRIDGE

In we went and the 3 of had to squeeze into a service elevator , Davie from Amey explained that it had a load of 435kg for equipment so could handle our weight no problem but it wasnt built for 3 burly fellows like us …. He wasnt joking !! If anyone even had a “semi” we were all in trouble ! 😀

Up we went until it stopped and we had to climb a long long 90 degree ladder to the top , strenuous work but eventually we reached the top hatch and daylight !

We exited on the bridge and what a view !! WOW WOW WOW !! we were looking down on EDinburgh, Fife , North and South Queensferry , all the surrounding are and best of all the 2 other bridges , the classic Rail Bridge and the New bridge which is approaching completion.

New bridge ..

Tam and I felt like we were eye to eye with the crane drivers working over it. Watching the traffic, both cars and Boats was mesmerizing and the shudder every time a lorry crossed under us a little unnerving ! WE were also able to see the HMS Queen Elizabeth the huge aircraft carrier being built further up the Forth.

Next stop , the very top! Davie was happy we could handle it so we headed up the final ladders to he birds nest , the pinnacle of the main towers where the aircraft beacons were. We were flying high today , more than 500 feet above the Forth to be exact!

The Very Very top !!!

We hung around up top taking in the view and listening to Davie telling us all about his experiences with the bridge. All too soon it was time to go down but there was a surprise awaiting us, a visit to underneath the bridge !

Air under the feet under the bridge

me and my Dad tam 😀

Up in the birds nest

tap of the world !!! 😀

Facts and figures courtesy of Forth Road Bridge

The Forth Road Bridge is a long span suspension bridge which when opened in 1964 was the largest in the world outside the United States and, together with the approach viaducts is a little over 2.5 km in length.

The bridge has a main span of 1006 metres between the two main towers. The side spans which carry the deck to the side towers are each 408 metres long. The approach viaducts are 252 metres and 438 metres long on the north and south sides respectively.

The two main aerially spun cables from which the suspended deck is hung are 590 mm in diameter, and each is made up of 11,618 high tensile wires with a 4.98 mm diameter. The suspended deck is made up of a steel stiffening truss, with three longitudinal air gaps at roadway level to improve aerodynamic stability.

The main cables are anchored at each end to take the 13,800 tonnes of total load in each cable. These anchorages are concrete, cast in tunnels of tapering section, cut into rock at an inclination of 30º to the horizontal. The tunnel lengths vary between 56 and 79 metres.

The suspended span decks are hung from the main cables by 192 sets of four hanger ropes with diameters of 44.5 and 52.4 mm. These hanger sets take loads of 176 and 224 tonnes. Between 1998 and 2000 all these hanger sets were replaced without interruption to traffic.

The deck on the main and side spans carries traffic loadings to the main cables via the hangers and does not contribute significantly towards the resistance of the truss to global effects. On the main span the deck is an orthotropic stiffened steel plate. However, on the side spans the deck is of composite construction with a 200 mm thick reinforced concrete slab on steel beams. On all the suspended spans the surfacing is limited to a thickness of 38 mm.

The pier from the north tower was sited on the Mackintosh Rock, a whinstone outcrop that made an ideal foundation. The south tower was located about as far from the shore as the depth of bedrock would allow the construction of a foundation with compressed air working. Caissons were used to enable the pier to be founded on sandstone some 32 metres below high water. Pier defences were constructed around both piers in the late 1990’s to withstand collision loads from shipping.

The main towers are of welded cellular high tensile steel construction and rise up over 150 metres above high water level. The maximum thickness of the steel in the towers is about 25 mm. These towers were strengthened in the late 1990’s to take the ever increasing weights of heavy goods vehicles crossing the bridge.

The approach viaducts are significant structures in their own right. Reinforced concrete piers support a continuous deck structure that consists of twin steel box beams with transverse beams and outriggers having a reinforced concrete composite deck slab and 38 mm surfacing.

The traffic loading on the bridge is now significantly higher than expected by the engineers who designed the structure in the 1950’s. This has been due to the increasing weight and number of heavy goods vehicles on UK roads. A large capital programme to strengthen the bridge to take these increased loads is continuing.

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Swimming the St Mary !

Posted on October 2, 2016 by Mark Lyons

St-Marys-Loch

St Mary’s Loch is the largest natural loch in the Scottish Borders, and is situated on the south side of the A708 road between Selkirk and Moffat, about 72 kilometres (45 mi) south of Edinburgh. It is 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) long and 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide, and was created by glacial action during the last ice age. The loch is fed by the Megget Water, which flows in from the Megget Reservoir, and is the source of the Yarrow Water, which flows east from the loch to merge with the Ettrick Water above Selkirk.It connects by a short section of river to the Loch of the Lowes, immediately to the south. Between the two, connected by an old arched bridge, is Tibbie Shiel‘s Inn, an 18th-century coaching inn, which was frequented by the Border poet James Hogg (1770–1835).^[1]

Swimming the Mary

It was on !! We were fit , motivated and the water was calm..ish 😀 Mick , Bongo and I rocked up to St Marys and swam the length in good style , from Tributary to outflow we treated her with respect !!, more than the angry sailors did to us …. hey its not your Loch mate , its everyone’s ! Lyn helped with car support due to her broken arm and it was nice to have her waiting at the end with warm clothes and a towel. We finished off at the Gordon arms and a lovely burger. REsultttttt !!!

Bongo , Mick and I smash the Mary

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Dive Dive Dive … The U-12 German U-Boat

Posted on March 3, 2016 by Mark Lyons

I just had an amazing weekend with the top dogs of the North East wreck diving MarineQuest over in Eyemouth. Fantastic North Sea diving with great mates new and old. I was fortunate enough to dive both the Glanmire wreck with crazy fins Undersea Wully (Saturday in questionable conditions) and the U-12 on Sunday in near perfect conditions , if cold both topside and undersea with the Zero Viz conquistador Neil Farmer. Both excellent and adventurous dives. The U-12 however just blew me away. A German submarine sat on a white sandy beach deep under the open North Sea , now there was a real adventure !! Especially as a German submarine has been on my bucket list for years and this one was to be perfect !

U-12 sets sail

A little History .. taken from here

“Type: U-Boat … Date of loss: 10/03/1915 …..Depth: 47m
The wreck itself has great historical importance as it was the first submarine to have an aeroplane carried on its deck for deployment at sea, an unusual concept, which proved to be a limited experiment for this boat. An early WWI design of submarine, U12 had a two stroke engine running on kerosene (paraffin) driving twin stern propellers. The wreck is lying bolt upright on a seabed of fine sand which bounces the light making for year round visibility. Respect should be given as it is a designated war grave”

The Sinking of U12

It was against this backdrop that a ferocious naval battle occurred off the east coast of Scotland. On morning of the 10th March 1915 U-boat U12 was spotted by the trawler May Island east of Fife Ness. Three British warships, the Acheron, the Attack and the Ariel, were sent to track it down and engage it. Having earlier attempted to torpedo the HMS Leviathan, U12 would not be allowed to escape.

Image: The HMS Ariel. Copyright Graeme Govenlock

According to the Admiralty logs, at 10.15am the Ariel, the Attack and the Acheron found and attacked the U-boat. After being strafed with machine-gun fire U12 submerged. The Ariel spotted the periscope of the vessel submerged just under the surface. At full speed the Ariel rammed the U-boat. The boat resurfaced to a hail of gun and shell fire which damaged the conning tower and killed the U12’s captain, Hans Kratzsch.

postcard of the sinking of U12, copyright Jim Macleod

Image: A postcard commemorating the sinking of the U12. Copyright Jim MacLeod, reproduced by kind permission.

Badly damaged and under fire, several crew of the U12 appeared on the deck of the boat and surrendered. While these men were rescued, many other were not so fortunate. With the conning tower hatch jammed, 19 men went to their deaths as U12 sank within minutes. The crippled Ariel was towed back to Leith docks after the engagement. The surviving crew of the U12 found themselves in the middle of a diplomatic row upon their capture. With U-boat crews perceived to be little more than pirates by the British authorities, there was a popular clamour in the press to see the crew hanged. Instead they were kept in solitary confinement and denied any privileges of rank – a fate not shared by other prisoners of war from more traditional forms of combat. The German authorities responded in kind with British prisoners of war. With the intervention of the Swiss the diplomatic row was eventually resolved.

Dive Dive Dive … The U-12 German U-Boat

Jacob George …

Without doubt the U-12 on the day rivalled some of the more famous dives I have done across the globe … World class diving right on the door step !! Neil and I left my place early to be in Eyemouth at 8am for a 9am RO (ropes off). The original plan had been to dive the U-74 20 miles north of Eyemouth but due to favourable conditions a plan had been hatched to dive the far more elusive U-12 German U-boat. The day started good and kept getting better !

Heading East …. EARLY !!

Due to its position in the open sea 30 miles East of Eyemouth it is an exceptionally hard dive to catch, often taking a diver years of waiting. Luckily conditions were on our side and it was beautiful, sunny if a little cold at around 4 degrees topside morning on the East coast. We set sail with a full boat of technical divers on the Jacob George, a fast dive boat from the Marine-Quest fleet.

U-12 Conning tower

It took several hours of bouncing across the waves heading straight out to sea with land rapidly disappearing behind us before we arrived at the coordinates of the Submarine , Iain expertly set up and dropped the shot and explained that as we were all technical divers with different run times and decompression obligations that he would set up an “easy shot” where we would all have a tag and leave it attached to a separate line at 30 – 35 metres. We would take out tag as we ascended and the last person to leave would take his tag , disconnect the easy shot and we would all drift with the current and not have to hold on for our lives. Iain explained that it was far safer and he would stay together as a group out in the open sea so he could keep us all in sight. This relaxed me a little as the open sea is a disconcerting place , and there was a slight swell on and a mad current would appear at the end of slack tide. Nice call Iain, my comfort zone thanks you immensely 🙂

forward Propellor tubes ….

Pretty soon we were buddy checking as we circled the buoy ready to drop in when slack tide was ascertained … go go go we all plopped off the back and descended .. the visibility in the open sea was the best I’ve had in the UK , 8-10m crystal clear and even at 47m below there was enough ambient light to see but the torch still had to be on after 35m to pick out the detail. The conning tower came into view and soon Neil and I were off circling the submarine trying to see it all in our short bottom time.

We descended to our maximum depths to see the propellers, then the torpedo tubes , one still with a torpedo loaded , the other with a man-eating 2 foot long lobster in it ! 😀

We slowly circled back and round to see the rest including a look down the conning tower , those guys had to live tight and all too soon it was time to ascend the shot , picking up our tags and heading up the “easy-shot” for a short decompress at various depths and stall for 25 minutes at 6m before surfacing .. I really need to get a waterproof copy of Game of Thrones for this 😀

Soon we were being picked up by Iain and I could again relax in the relative comfort of the Jacob George .

Iain was soon feeding us the tastiest Bean Casserole ever cooked and cups of tea galore just made Neils day !! Earl grey to boot 😀 The rest of the divers including rebreather divers who I think must be impermeable to the cold water eventually surfaced and the shot was raised and we soon sped back to Eyemouth harbour two very happy men ……..

I really can’t thank and recommend Marine Quest enough for its professional and super friendly and accommodating diving. The day was perfect right down to the second helping of bean casserole 😀