The journey by car took just under 10 hours, relaxed driving on Polish federal and country roads. The last 30 km over the narrow strip of land of the Hel Peninsula. Always along the water, partly at the same time on both sides.
Lena’s Divecenter (Lena Diving Baltic) in the small tourist town of Hel is housed in an old factory building, the office in a former caravan. The somewhat unusual optics of this does not impact the friendly cordiality with which one is received, nor the professionalism of the procedures, nor the accuracy of the fillings.
Lena has been running her base for 15 years now with an enthusiasm that makes you feel the love for everyday life.
The wrecks are a maximum of 20 to 25 min away, most even less than 10 min. From relaxed shallow dives on the “Bryza” to demanding dives on the “Franken”, everything is possible.
5 days of sunshine with some wind provided the best conditions above water and an extremely smooth Baltic Sea. Unfortunately, the windy weather of the previous days made the visibility under water much worse, so that we only had 2 m visibility at times. At 30 m, thanks to the thermoclines, it was super dark.
One of the highlights we were able to dive was for sure the “Munin” or VS304. The minesweeper of the Reichsmarine lies upright at 42m directly in front of the harbour of Hel. It is very special when the front gun appears in front of you in the darkness.
We were able to do a total of 6 dives on different wrecks from different eras and, as it was still early season, we had Lena’s RIB almost completely to ourselves.
A nice highlight on the side were the Polish Harley Days that took place on Hel this weekend. Live music on the promenade and plenty of motorbikes and their owners provided enough life in the small town.
Everyone’s conclusion: we have to go there again. And even though Lena is sure to roll her eyes (again) at the idea, we’ll be back.
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