In beautiful conditions yesterday evening we flashed the 4 miles offshore in our RIB to dive the wreck of our old favourite, the SS Gowrie - which was bombed and sunk by German planes based in Norway in the early years of WW II.

She is perhaps the most beautiful wreck on the north east coast of Scotland - perfectly intact lying on her port side in 60msw. The bomb that sunk her missed but exploded in the water near her starboard side stoving in a plate at her boiler room and allowing her to flood slowly. The crew reported that the German planes were so low that they could clearly see the laughing faces of the pilots as they made their bomb runs. Every porthole is still in place and at 185 feet long she is easily diveable in a single dive despite the depth. It is possible to go in through a gap in her hull at the very stern and move into the cavernous Engine Room which still has her large triple expansion engine hanging in midwater surrounded by catwalks. Passing by the engine we usually exit through the funnell opening.

When we got on site above her wreck the sea was as flat as a millpond and with weak neap tides we had a glorious 2 hours of slack water - enough for 2 waves of divers to go down. There seems to be a plankton bloom in the shallows as from 5-15 metres down the water appeared thick and almost murky. Once you were through that layer a clarity returned to the water. With the plankton bloom happening the jellyfish are out in force and on the ascent we moved from clear water into a seething mass of jellyfish feasting on the plankton.  The visibility on the bottom was 7-8 metres with some ambiant light still weakly managing to get down to the wreck.

Back at the harbour we recovered the RIB and then had a well earned pint of Guinness sitting on the harbour wall as the sun eventually went down. It doesn't get better than that!