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Wreck of the Lalen Mendi

Situated to the south east of Beachy head just over 7 nautical miles from the marina, this 2138 ton collier sank after being torpedoed by the German U-boat UB-56 whilst on passage from Middlesbrough to Barcelona. She is now very broken but still a very good dive. She lays from east to west and is 6-7 metres proud in parts. The depth to the sand is around 35m.

After such a lousy few weeks weather this dive was doubtful. However the weathermen had been forecasting excellent weather for a few days and in the end we weren't disappointed. The trip out was very sunny and pleasant; the dive itself was very good. Even though it was fairly deep at 33m it was still very light and this coupled with good visibility made it an excellent dive. There is plenty of the wreck still to be seen including, as usual, the boilers. There are also large parts of the superstructure still standing and these are a haven for crabs and lobsters. There is supposedly a monster lobster hiding on the wreck. Garry and Dion claimed to have seen it and even though they said it was right in front of me I never saw it. nor did anyone else. Mmmmmm!! Could they be narked. As well as the crabs and lobsters we also ran in to the usual extremely large shoals of pouting, and some pollack. The highlight (no pun intended ) was the fact that I was testing out my new Metalsub torch !! Wow. Everyone joked and called it a light sabre before the dive, and yes it is !! The light it gives off is absolutely amazing. Well worth the fairly high cost !!! I can't wait to get it to the Red Sea to try it out on a night dive. That will be really something.

Anyway have a look at the pictures below and if you have any thoughts please send me an email