We arrived in Dubrovnik midday on the 8th August we were going to stay in the (only) hotel on the island of Miljet. Which in the brochure said there was a dive centre in the hotel complex with plenty of dive sites around the national park. After a 2 1/2 hour coach drive from Dubrovnik we arrived at the port, which was the closest to the island, still one hours sailing away. After a nice boat trip over flat calm sea, which in my mind looked like it had excellent diving potential. After dropping my bags off in the room, I set off in search off the diving centre to find it had closed 4 months earlier. Because the authorities had stopped all diving in the national park and surrounding area something to do with Jacques Cousteau saying that the coral that is found in the park and surrounding area is normal not found in these conditions so they decided to stop people seeing it. So the dive centre had moved away to another island two hours away from ours. But I had spotted one in the harbour where we had sailed from an hour earlier. Oh great at least the sea is flat calm I thought. The chap behind the reception said a chap called Mario was the dive guide/owner of the dive centre and he usually eats in the hotel restaurant. I spotted a man in a CMAS instructor t-shirt so I thought he was the chap. It turned out luckily for me that it was indeed him. I presume he spoke little English as the outcome from the strange conversation was that I could dive and he would pick me up in the morning at 9.00am and we would be diving the wreck. I had no idea what depth I would be doing apart from it was 40 metres at the bottom and good vis, which seemed to be his answer to everything.

At 9.00 on the 9th August I was waiting with an Italian chap who was a PADI Dive Master and French chap who was a Padi Open Water diver. Then Mario turned up with the boat with some other people in, We went back to the harbour to get kit sorted out. All I had to do was remove an insert from a cylinder and I was ready. Everyone else was messing about trying on wet suits etc.

Now time to look at qualifications / log books. One Italian said I could do any depth as I am a Padi Advanced Open Water diver. To which Mario replied, "that shouldn't allow you to own a dog let alone dive". Which made me laugh. He was impressed with my log book because I had 50+ dives all in cold water with low vis. Me and a French chap called Dennis buddied up, the plan was to go down the reef to the top of the wreck at 22 metres. Then if we felt ok drop down to the gun at 32 metres, which Mario said, he had seen English divers pretending to shoot the German diver the week before.

Also funny for me but not so for the German couple on the boat. Mario also told us the history behind the wreck, which I am going to bore you with. The boat is called Schnellboot-57 and is a German torpedo boat. The boat started its service in the German navy war fleet in 1940. In 1944 it was attacked and badly damaged by the English fleet. Other ships tried to help but the English had done such a good a job they couldn't help. So the decision was to sink the boat to avoid surrendering to the English. So a rather interesting dive with some history. Mario also said that the torpedo's were still active and we were not to touch them I don't know if that is true or not but I risked it and wrote Monkey was here on one of them.

Dennis and I did go to the gun, as the German couple were at the bottom of the wreck they escaped my fire. On the return to the reef Mario turned around and started to head towards the wreck again so me and the Italian Dive Master took charge stopping every one at 6 metres for 2 mins as no one seemed to know or care what depth they had been to. Then we made everyone do 3 mins at 3m. By this time Mario was with us again it turned out that one of them had got their weight belt caught on the wreck and shot to the surface from around 37/38 metres. Mario had gone up to see if they were ok then gone to look for their weight belt.

As that was the only site worth doing above 40 metres and I was on holiday with my mum I decided miss the others out and do the wreck again. This time on the boat there was an Irish Family, an English chap and me. We did the same as last time we visited the two torpedoes and the gun. Unfortunately at 32 metres my camera decided to flood. But seems to be ok now. After the dive there seemed to be some confusion as to what depth everyone had been to. It had been said to Mario that Rory, one of the Irish family members, couldn't go below 18 metres, as he was only Open Water, but the whole family had followed Mario past me and I had stopped at 32 metres!

They hired all their kit from the centre but depth gauges didn't come in full kit. So no one except the dive guide and me had a depth gauge. I unfortunately couldn't get down on the second dive due to ear problems. But it was still a fun dive, after the dive we went and had a meal together. This is one of my favourite diving days so far.