Near-zero visibility hampers search
One of the two-man teams was able to look through the window of the wheelhouse, but could only see debris.
The divers were frustrated by poor visibility, the position of the herring-boat, which is lying on its starboard side, and fishing nets which surround the vessel.
While the skipper and other crew members could have been expected to be in the wheelhouse the divers could only see about one and a half feet ahead of them, so it was too early to say whether or not the crew were inside.
Search officials now fear heartbroken relatives will have to wait until early next week before the search can be resumed.
Latest weather forecasts predicting gale force winds until Sunday at least has prompted coastguard and navy officials to rule out any more diving until next week, unless a major change occurs in the meantime.
“It’s very disappointing,” coastguard spokesman Chris Reynolds said from the diving platform aboard the Granuaile yesterday as the search was finishing for the day shortly after 4.30pm.
Several two-man teams went into the water from the Irish Lights ship two miles off Hook Head, and were able to confirm that the Pere Charles was lying in 35 metres of water in the position indicated last week.
The trawler sank at about 6pm last Wednesday evening, with the loss of crew skipper Tom Hennessy, his uncle Pat Hennessy, Pat Coady, Billy O’Connor, and Andriy Dyrin, and poor weather conditions had prevented divers from getting near the craft until yesterday.
A change to calm conditions yesterday morning meant that the 14-man navy diving team were able to head out to the Granuaile at about 8am, before starting to dive at 9am.
Chris Reynolds confirmed that two sets of divers were able to use the morning weather window to get down to the Pere Charles and establish that it was lying on its starboard side, covered with netting.
Even with hand-held lights and lights on their head-cameras, the divers could only see about one and a half feet ahead of them while underwater, according to Mr Reynolds.
“We started today with great hopes of getting one or two people out, but when we got down we found it wasn’t the way we’d like it to be which is upright and free of netting. It was down to one side, covered in net. It was very dangerous,” he said.
