Diving the Ice Prince?

[deepbull]

Originally Posted by CALLISTO

The possiblity of "upstaging" Mark Chase didn't even enter into it

Oh Please !!!!!!! 12 Divers on the boat and no one saw/mentioned the irony

so they are divers now then hahahahahaha

[Ding Dang Doo]

Originally Posted by Adrian Kelland

What was wrong with the Persier Mark? I know it is smashed to bits, but you never know what might be uncovered. What boat were you on BTW? We were out playing on club rib, did the Rosehill (further west of the Scylla) and had 10m vis an 30m. Nice and light too.

Adrian

Persier is one of my best ever dives... but it's horses for courses, I suppose - I'm more into the life that's there, rather than what the wreck is about...

Sorry you didn't enjoy Mark.

Pete

[Janos]

Well, here's a trip report of sorts.

I turned up at Weymouth, bought a twinpack of pasties [1]. Only to be greated by Howard P saying that the dive was off because of fog. I was a little surprised, as I thought it would burn off, but so it goes.

Then Howard P acted like his namesake and suggested it was time for breakfast. So we went to the cafe and I had a nice but pricey bacon sandwich.

After half a dozen calls to Brian Aquanauts [2] we had six of us booked on to dive something.

I drove down to Plymouth, with Missus GPS taking us on a not particularly efficient route. As despite my best efforts to lose Mark [3] the Dude arrived in Plymouth ahead of us. We turned up at 12ish

It was the Transac race in town so parking was a nightmare. After much faffing we were all loaded and parked up and on track for the 2pm (yes really) lock.

Only problem was that Graham wasn't with us, as he was still parking, but he met us at the lock and all was well.

First dive was the Persier. My last eight dives (4 Portsmouth, 4 Swanage) have had a maximum of 2m (yes 2m - I measured it) viz so the nice blue water was a pleasant experience on the way out. Although it was what I was expecting and why I suggested Plymouth. The dive on the Persier itself was really enjoyable for me. There was shedloads of life, a lovely swimthrough at the tunnel, and Ada told us afterwards about the fire control system by the engine room. Superb.

Back on board we motored slowly over to the Scylla and plopped in. I lvoe the Scylla as she is so wreck like. We weaved in and out and I finished up with a swim along the length of the wreck looking for weightbelts. I know Mark was natually in a Bad Mood after all his hard work had gone to waste but I really enjoyed the couple of dives we did.

Saturday I dived with Woz. Again with Aquanauts and the unimitable Dougie as skipper. We had a couple of really great, easy dives. First on the Mewstone which was Dogfish City, and secondly on the Glen Strath Allen, where I practiced my cuttlefish mating gestures and found a stone knob.

So after a couple of weekends of distinctly average diving, it was really enjoyable to get out in 10m of viz in bright sunshine for some truly enjoyable diving.

Janos

PS- And the life in Plymouth is like nothing else. I'm sure there are species there that aren't found a hundred miles or so up the coast in Swanage.



[1] - Yes the Dude did wnd up eating one. Funny that.
[2] - A man who really does go the extra mile. Well done.
[3] - It's like that advert - "yes dear, we've lost them - but how are the goign to find the restaurant now"

[Diving Dude]

After taking the piss out of someone recently who jumped in without there zip done up, l jumped in with part of my braces caught in the zip and instantly flooded my suit, so l got straight back out, did up teh zip properly and jumped back in. After about 30 mins l was cold so ended teh dive.

For the second dive Dougie 'the skipper' lent me some padded trousers and l wore two fleeces and only got cold as we started the ascent.

l still can't believe that l ended up driving to Plymouth and back in a day, but all in all it was worth it.

[purple vonny]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

l still can't believe that l ended up driving to Plymouth and back in a day, but all in all it was worth it.

And via Weymouth for breakfast

[Janos]

Originally Posted by purple vonny

And via Weymouth for breakfast

Well it was the company that made Weymouth

I'm still trying to work out how the Dude managed to take both trays of doughnuts to Plymouth tho'.

Janos

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Howard Payne

There was no conspiracy at all Mark
Would I really have been on the Friday trip if we'd planned to be dive it on the Monday?
As it was I had to can Monday's diving because of last minute family committments which was a tough call.
The decision to dive the Ice Prince was taken on the spur of the moment on Sunday evening. We'd had some shit conditions on the Saturday and it seemed like a fun opportunity in favourable conditions. The possiblity of "upstaging" Mark Chase didn't even enter into it
I think you're being hard on Graham - my experience of him has been nothing but positive - I find him to be dead straight and one of the best (if not the best) out there. I can't think of anyone I'd rather have up top when I'm down below. Lets not forget that by canning it - he probably lost £300 himself?
He was in an impossible situation: we could have had 6 hours of motoring out and back only to find that we still couldn't dive the wreck because the fog hadn't lifted. I would suggest that then everyone really would have been pissed off and £50 poorer to boot? There was a bank of cloud sitting above the fog and without being a meteorologist - his explanation that this could stop the fog being burned off seemed reasonable.
It isn't going anywhere and should be a cracking dive for many years to come - there will be plenty more opportunities?

I think you need to re read my post Howard. Slowly and carefulley this time.


Then consider I phoned every one I could the night before and asked if they were willing to risk it, and they all said yes. Had I known Graham would can it without even trying, I wouldent have botherd driveing down.

I knew it would be heavy fog at 10am but I was expecting it to clear by 1pm when we would be getting in the water.


ATB

Mark

[Mark Chase]

Originally Posted by Ding Dang Doo

Persier is one of my best ever dives... but it's horses for courses, I suppose - I'm more into the life that's there, rather than what the wreck is about...

Sorry you didn't enjoy Mark.

Pete

M8 no offense ment but 4 months of planning had gone down the toilet twice, it took over and hour to find a parking space, my Vee Cam broke on its maiden voyage, I was underweight and off balance with a single 10ltr bailout (its all i had) and I was looking at the ten miles of surface viz at 2pm and couldn't help thinking we relay should be diving something a little better than the Persier

So strangely i couldn't find much to be positive about on the dive i am afraid.

ATB

Mark

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by Janos

I'm still trying to work out how the Dude managed to take both trays of doughnuts to Plymouth tho'.

Junior gave them up very easily.

So we managed to eat 24 do-nuts between the six of us, two of which l ate on the journey from Weymouth to Plymouth.

[deepbull]

Originally Posted by Diving Dude

Junior gave them up very easily.

So we managed to eat 24 do-nuts between the six of us, two of which l ate on the journey from Weymouth to Plymouth.

and how many on the boat as i only had 1
you chubby dud

i know you had breckfast as well chubby as i paid for it ;}



ada