Weymouth 10/11

[Diving Dude]

I arrived in Portland friday evening and met John Duncan in the bunker car park.
We then proceeded to the pub over the road and were joined by Angus, here we met the other guys staying in the bunker, they were to be on Autumn Dream.

Sat am, after a full fat mega calorie brecky we head into Weymouth and our dive boat Skindeep.

Skindeep is a new cat with a tail lift with plenty of space and benches.

Here l met the others, Nicky, Philip (Frogkick), Lou, Caroline, Paul Bogle, Sharon (Angus's friend) Mark (disadvocate- divernet) & his buddy Alex.

We discussed with Ian the skipper where we would like to go, l suggested the Salsette and he gave me a strange look and agreed.

We passed Portland harbour and soon reached the wreck site, strange l thought to myself, the Salsette in Lyme Bay and we would have to go around the Bill to get there, still the skipper knows best.

Down the shot l go, onto the wreck at 26 mtrs, maybe the Salsette is shallower than l thought.
Lost the light at about 12 mtrs very dark at the bottom and the vis an atmospheric and moody 1 mtr. Saw one small fish?, a couple of small crabs and a couple of hermit crabs.
Back on deck the skipper admits it was the Bill & Ben or Ben & Dick wreck (Binnendyk)
Second dive the good old Countess of Erne, in a majestic 1.5 mtrs vis, which is better vis than l had last time.
Next day, John Duncan waves goodbye to his weight belt and the boat sets off with only five divers, Angus, Paul, Nicky, Philip & Myself.

Skipper asks where we would like to go and l say the M2Sub, he agrees and drops us off on the east side of Portland bill, ended up, surprisingly not fining the M2 but had a pleasant drift with Paul Bogle as my buddy.

Second dive, the wreck of the Hartlepool, stunning is not the word..............crap is......................well crap vis, l'd guess 10-12 no 12-15 inches, after a couple of minutes down both Angus and l decided enough was enough.

The best thing about the last dive is that it made me realise that the vis on the previous three dives of 1 to 1.5 mtrs was pretty good.

The boat and Skipper are excellent.

Had a great weekend, thanks for arranging it Philip.

[Lou]

Ahhhhh, so that's why the last dive was "a classic"!!

Viz 1m on the Benny - I think you are being generous.  When I reached the shot I couldn't see it at arms length.  Weird feeling that.

Still, I didn't throw up, we did dive, and the boat was great.  Company was ok too!

Lou

[Angus]

Lou, yep - that's why it was a 'classic UK dive' but it was a good laugh anyway.

I'm not sure I was on the same boat as Howard (Dive Dud)!!!  though cos I could have swore the name of it was SkinDeep - he was on DiveTime.  

[Diving Dude]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Angus @ Jan. 14 2004,19:23)]though cos I could have swore the name of it was SkinDeep - he was on DiveTime.  

Yes, its confirmed l'm going mad, of course it was Skindeep.

l was going back through my logbook to when l first dived Weymouth and the boat was Divetime and the name stuck in my head.

And Angus its Dude not Dud  

HA. l've eddited the name now, so anyone reading your post Angus will think you're the crazy one.

[Angus]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (diving dude @ Jan. 14 2004,19:58)]And Angus its Dude not Dud  

I know - I saw your reaction on another thread and couldn't resist it!!  

[Mark Chase]

I am abit concerned about prais for the skipper when you ask for the Solsett and he sticks you on the Bennindike. Which is a crap wreck (but I might be bias as it tried to kill me once   )

Still glad to here you all got wet and it wasnt in a puddle. WIth the forcast up this way I am amazed you got in the water outside the harbor.

Andyp just Emailed me to sat Saturday looks good ??? I am in shock at the moment so I am off to bed. Nite Nite.

Mark Chase

[JohnD]

<font color='#F52887'>I know it was a bit extreme to chuck my weights overboard just to get out of a second days diving in the Portland gravy, but I am glad I didnt go on the second day. My missus was so glad to see me when I got back we did a little &quot;horizontal folk dancing&quot; must go away more often! I am back down that way staying at the Aquasport for a stag weekend diving in february. I think a good weekend was had by all, and it was good to see Howards &quot;HOOD&quot; even if we didnt get to see the other (more famous) one.

[Lou]

Mark - don't worry, it was only Howard's little joke. &nbsp;We all knew we were going to the Benny. &nbsp;Which is why Mark (disadvocate) and buddy declined to dive! &nbsp;They had been there, done that before, and knew the viz would be sh*t!

It was the realisation that we could crawl into a hole and not realise it that lead C &amp; I to curtail that dive after about 10 mins on the bottom. &nbsp;I did get the feeling that it could try and kill me too, so it obvioulsy wasn't personal, Mark!

Lou

John

That's too much info!

[frogkick]

&quot;My missus was so glad to see me when I got back we did a little &quot;horizontal folk dancing&quot; must go away more often&quot;

Happy to hear that John - better than Morris dancing.

Everybody: Now that you've witnessed the effect of our Portland weekends, get off your backside and join our 9/10th August gig (see planned trips). It'll do wonders to your sex life...