Long weekend trip to Haven (Arenzano, Italy)
Last winter we were brainstorming where we should go in the next year, would it be Sardinia again? Or Krnica? Maybe Portofino? Malin head? To keep things manageable, and to still enjoy some deeper diving and maintain skills we selected the Haven. Which was a dive site around the corner, right? Rogier would have gone pre-covid, pre-Team Yellow to the Haven, but due to buddies that cancelled the trip, he didn’t go. As a real tour-guide Rogier booked the hotel and we contacted the dive centre. Only later we figured out that we booked a place one driving from the actual harbour where boats sail only 5 minutes to the Haven Wreck. So, we rebooked the hotel and dive centre.
The trip was scheduled from Thursday to Monday, with diving days from Friday to Sunday. The trip was +- 14 hours or some of us started driving a little earlier and drove in two laps. Two dive teams were formed based on certification, a “deep” dive team that would visit the propellor of the Haven and a “shallow” dive team.
Obviously, diving is the most important during these trips, but nice food is the second most important parameter that needs to be well arranged. We enjoyed some days of Italian restaurants, maybe the most memorable was that little bar. Every time you ordered drinks, a plate full of little bites and mini pizzas appeared on the table.
For the first diving day, we agreed to make two dives, to take it easy and do a kind of “check” dives on the wreck, seeing the enormous deck @ 54 meters depth with its pipelines, seeing what holes we could penetrate and seeing the hole in the side of the wreck.
Saturday, we dove into the engine room @ 67 meters depth. We used the DPVs to arrive swiftly at our destination, the engine opening, where we secured our DPVs to the wreck, and where Rogier fixated the reel/guideline. Entering through the shaft of the engine room, the viz wasn’t so good, but after descending a few meters the first parts of the engine appeared. The orange glow of rust and the dimensions of the engine parts are so immense, very impressive to see. The spare pistons were lined-up beside the engine, these were larger than 1 meter in diameter! We swim around the 8-cylinder engine and then we ascended.
Sunday was already the last day of diving; the conditions were good, and we went off to the propellor of the Haven. We planned the dive for a maximum of 25 minutes at 6 meters and after seeing the propellor @ 77 meters, we would spend the remaining of the bottom time in the wheelhouse. Using the DPV we scootered 2 rounds between the propellor and the rudder, the sizes were gigantic. After spending 8 minutes we ascended to the wheelhouse level, where the bridges that are molten down are a good reference. We were even able to scooter through the wheelhouse, footage is available.
After four nice dives on the Haven, we look back on a successful and fun weekend. A special thanks to the Techdive crew in Arenzano, a very capable and helpful crew. Team Yellow granted this facility for a reason as our “five-star favourite”. We will be back!
Notes 1: Please make sure the roads package Switzerland is activated in your TomTom, we don’t mention names, apparently it sends you through France, which is a very nice route as well .
Note 2: Bringing a DPV is fun to pass decompression time.