Wreck diving at the Baron Gautsch

I totally forgot to post the second wreck dive that me and Elisabeth did in Croatia this summer. So here is a little teaser in case you are not decided about where to go on your next free diving holydays.

The Baron Gautsch was an Austrian cruise liner that happened to run into a freshly laid-out mine field just at the beginning of the conflict that later developed to World War I in 1914.

The day we went, the sea was very nice to us. She was flat as a pancake. No wind, no current and a visibility that you can only dream of! After a 40 min ride on a rubber zodiac we reached the spot. The scuba divers went in first and Marco, the guide from the dive center, set an extra buoy just for us at the stern of the boat.



After the first warm-up descents to 10-15m we could already see the ship because it is huge! The wreck spans over nearly 100m and as I said, the visibility ways just fantastic.

As we went deeper the scuba divers where coming up, slowly approaching toward the surface. Marco was taking some nice pictures when he was sitting on the wreck waiting for us.

One time I almost bumped into him when he was hanging on the rope but he took a nice picture how I came gliding down. I then decided to make the dive a dynamic in -20m across half the ship. It was breathtaking... ;)

On my last real decent there I was going to straight down to the stern of the ship (-28m). There I swam over to the portside and down the hull. I could look into the wreck but did not dear to go inside. I then went on to the bottom (-31m) and around the stern toward the starboard side where I made my way back up to where the rope was attached. On my way back up I know that this was the best dive in my life and it was worth all the hassle with training under bad conditions in dark and murky lakes. This was what I am freediving for. When Elisabeth met me for safety she was greeted with a biiiiig smile.

Too bad thought that we where both really tired and still had to detach the rope down there. Elisabeth went down coz I just dived and when she came up I realized that the rope got stuck after some meters again. So I was going down to the ship (again) and hastily flung the rope around some metal parts it got stuck at.

On the way back on the zodiac I was just high. That same day we went diving at the tunnels just in the bay of Pula. So if you'd ask me about the perfect diving day, I can name it.