Diving in Moskva River
I spent 14 month in Moscow last year working for one of the largest Russian Oil Transportation Co. Besides numerous trips across the Mother Russia and CIS, I had few days off to explore Russian Capital after 7 years of absence. For those who being in Moscow at least once will be clear that Moskva River is no place to dive (it looks just like Chao Praya in Bangkok).
One of the days, my company decided to make a trip on a river and I was surprised how clear water was just before river enters the city.
I came back to my hotel and called Dmitri. I new him for many years and I asked him right away if he want to dive in the river. After about 10 minutes of hysterical laughing he asked if I seen a doctor… It took me a while to convince him that I was not drinking, taking medication or just being nuts lately. Anyway, he agreed to get a tanks filled and get his Lada new license plates, so we could get wet next weekend.
Anyway… Saturday, July 12th we loaded tanks into his Lada and moved to the Northern border of the city of Moscow. Easy to say, but if you are diving, you got to get some depth at least not to be hit by the barge. We spent almost 2 hours just looking for deep enough place with easy beach access (plan your dive in advance, guys!) Finally, we saw river bank with reasonable access and not to many people to see us.
All equipment assembled and to our surprise, we managed to get attention of at least 30 people. Shit, I hate to be laughed at! I am a warm water diver, mostly dive in Thailand and my 3mm Dacor wetsuit was no match for 20degC water. Dmitri had his 7mm farmer john on, but he supported my efforts by bringing bottle of pepper vodka. Dive profile looked like this;
Time in 6:48, Water temperature 19C (bloody cold in 3mm suit)
Went about 30 meters from the beach and still shallow, 5m, visibility is surprisingly good, too bad there is nothing to see.
Time 6:55, getting colder, 17C, and 9m deep.
Still nothing to see, I think we are in the fairwater now, can hear boats and barges moving above. I am starting getting really cold, need to swim. Signal to start swimming with the current. We saw riverbank about 300m downstream.
Time 7:15, 17C, 11m.
Now it is getting interesting; I saw pike about 50cm long and few smaller fishes. We are closer to the riverbank, many pieces of plywood here. Moving keeps me warmer; suit has nice seals and keeps me relatively warm.
Time 7:30, 18C, 8m.
It should’ve been a riverbank. No current, some fish, many fishing lines. We are swimming slowly, cutting fishing lines; I believe it is quite dangerous to continue this way. I notice Dmitri is trying to get my attention and look where he’s pointing his torch. What I see is a wreck! Hm.., not really a wreck, but Mercedes Benz, black, in a perfect horizontal position…
Time 7:40, 19C, 6m. Benz.
We are low on air, freezing, but there is no way we going to stay close to this thing. I am sure this car didn’t jump to water by itself and driver is still inside. Looks like Benz was in a water for no more that a month. No rust, unfortunately we cannot see inside, because windows are heavily tinted. We show each other “Hands off” sign. This thing is too “hot” to be touched. “Let’s get outta here” we signal and swim downstream as far as we have an air.
Time 7:45, 20C, surface.
This is the end of the dive. We are 20 meters away from the riverbank and a cliff. No doubts that it where car jumped from. We doff equipment and I run back to car to get some vodka. There is no such thing as a cold weather, if you have a bottle or two… We made about 500m downstream from the place where we entered the water. I guess current was stronger than we sought.
A week later, we made anonymous call to police and reported our findings. Called from telephone booth, just to be on a safe side…
I am not sure if I want to dive in Moskva River again. There is nothing interesting to be seen there, except occasional MB or BMWs.
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Alex
www.pattaya-scuba-diving.com
keep breathing
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