Dover diving weekend

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>Saturday 24th Jan

I got to the boat at Dover at about 0830, and met straight away by Diving Dude and the Col Maniac, then soon Mr getafix. The wife had the kettle on the go making everyone a coffee, by this time Chasey baby turned up and I was feeling pleased that YD Divers turn up with plenty of time to spare getting their kit sorted. Jamie (6) my little one was earning his pocket money from ‘Help the Aged ‘, carrying dive bags to the boat from Diving Dudes car. Digger turns up, like his had just rolled out of bed and what a soul of the party he is. Agnes and his mate John boarded, we had coffee. Left the wife and Jamie ashore, the eldest Stephen acting as crew got the ropes squared away, and we left the pontoon setting sail for the wreck of the Pomerania.

Everyone saw our flag hardly twitching as we left the harbour in the Force 6 and a very gentle rock of the boat as we head for the site, 40 minutes later, the big lump came up on the sounder and shot was dropped, divers slowly got kitted up, and I thought what a pleasure it was having a boat load knowing what they were doing. Near enough to the minute of slack water, everyone was ready to get wet, Diving Dude had us in stitches as for most of us it was the first time we had saw the HOOD, posing piccies were taken, and like lemmings one by one they left the boat and down the shot they went. Viz looked a good 2 mts . The dive must have been good, because after 15 minutes, no one had surfaced or aborted the dive. So kettle went on ready for the TEA IN HAND as they reboarded. Diving dude was first up, and by god them horns on his hood are better than a delayed SMB, and come to think of it , I didn’t see his Dsmb. He got onboard and was complaining about his new mask leaking, but a mug of coffee soon had him smiling again.

The rest came in droves, Col Maniac came up with smile wider than his DV ( his first ever wreck dive ) as Digger swam in front of him for the ladder, with every one back all safe and well, we headed back to Dover at full speed to make sure that Chasey got home in time for his afternoon family trip out. Shaking hands with fellow YD’ers as they all left and went they own way.Even saw Paul Oliver coming down after his hard day at the office.

Digger was staying for the 2 days, and to help save the poor student his money, I offered him a free overnight space in the Hotel Taurus de Royale, he got all kit squared away his cabin sorted and sat chatting and having coffee. Watching 3 police cars and a ambulance turned up at high speed , Digs, Stephen and I went to be nosey, just to see our harbour patrol launch bring a poor lad they had rescued to the landing stage, What had happened was , the lad had bought a paraglider the day before and was sat on the beach playing, the canopy had got wet, so he had laid it on the beach to dry, whilst still in the harness when a sudden gust had filled it sending him 200 mts offshore screaming “ HELPPPPPPPPPP”. Then we watched a big motor cruiser being lifted out , just bought at the boat show costing £ 630,000 , the night before , the delivery skipper had put it aground on the Goodwin Sands in the dark at 32 knots .

Then comes a bloke from the Marina office, asking me if I had any divers about. This old man had dropped his GOLD CYGNET RING in the marina by his boat, so we moved Taurus to the other side of the dock , chatted with the bloke and Digs made a deal, kitted up, in he goes and within 2 minutes surfaced with the ring, and laughing because his computer was bleeping after clocking up deco. Then off he went to find the chaps crutch, appearing 15 minutes later doing his impression of King Arthur, got him out , What a way to have your weekends diving paid for you. dekitted and off to KFC and some beers, went to bed at 0230.


Sunday 25th

Boat was ready with Angus, John , Col Maniac, Mandy from Dover Divers and Janos , we had forgotten about poor old Digger who woke to my wife handing him a coffee, 5 minutes before setting sail for the LUSTANIA ( the 26 meter one ) at a nice sensible hour of 1015, the sun was shining and air getting warmer, sea was flat, what more could we wish for .Eyes were peering at the sounder by some , checking that 93 was not going to show. Shot was dropped in number 1 hold, but unfortunately, by the time the first 2 divers hit the bottom, the shot had come away from the wreck, but they all had a swim around the seabed looking for the wreck with some good bottom times.

Digs and Janos were diving as a pair, and were the last to surface, following their Dsmb I hit the MOB button on the new software on the Taurus to track them. The clever bit being is that it tracks the divers by GPS and tidal drift, resulting in the ‘O’ flag displayed on a laptop screen of a admiralty chart, we left them briefly as we went to the day before wreck to drop off Angus and John to see if I could get the shot back, but the tide was to strong, so off to get Digs and Janos who by this time was .6 of a mile away from us travelling at 20 kts took us no time at all in the flat sea, and we could see the Dsmb nearly straight away, they had waved to a anchor fishing boat, wondering whether to shout “ which way to France ? “. They were both they chatting away relaxing in the mid day sun, smiling as getting back on the boat with coffee waiting. Heading back to Dover wondering if we were still in January getting back just after lunch.



All I can say is , what a great weekend we had, and was good to see lots of YD’ers meeting each other.

Cheers Lads.

[Janos]

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] (Andy the Commie 2 @ Jan. 25 2004,21:18)]All I can say is , what a great weekend we had

Definitely.

Nice to put some faces to names too.

Cheers all,

Janos

[Getafix]

Saturday was a nice sunny day but a touch windier than forecast but who believes them anyway? I arrived about 8.45am and was greeted with a handshake by Andy and a cup of tea by Jo (his wife).......great start !!  Howard and Tony were there and Mark arrived 2 minutes later, Digger ,Angus and John shortly after that. There were only 7 divers so we had some space on Taurus which is a nice stable boat. After a short run out Andy shotted the Pomerania and we got kitted quickly,Andy was easy with DSMB or up the shot ascents. Myself,Howard and Mark jumped first,and we intended to split in different directions upon reaching the bottom. I droped down the line first and the others are not far behind in the 9 degree C water, by 18M it's black,and at the bottom of the shot at 27M we have about 2M vis by torch...........looking up i don't see the green glow so although the Pomerania has few areas to get inside without knowing it, i decide to reel off. I amble off along some plates and broken wooden decking but after 5 mins i get the feeling there's someone behind me. I can see a torch glow 4-5 M away...............i'm being stalked ! .......some lazy git's following my ground line    . I'm taking it slow poking about in a few holes and generally annoying the Tompot's so the mystery diver comes alongside me......it's Mark. We head over to what i think was the midships section and i peer down a hole....i can't believe it,in my torch beam glowing green and 15 inches round laying under some debris is a porthole. There's no glass in it but i can see a couple of the fixings, i stare at it for a few seconds..there most be some catch..i reach into the hole banging my tank as i stretch down and pull up a perfect.........half a porthole.........HALF!!!      I show it to Mark but i don't think he's too impressed by it, i decide to leave it behind for some other shmuck to get excited over on a later dive. We turn back for the line and Mark say's he's going up,i'm happy to follow as well despite still having a few minutes of no stop time ( on 32% ) The currents starting to pick up and Marks got a few minutes deco to do so we act like flags at 6M for 6-7 minutes. Getting back on Taurus is easy,it's got a good ladder and the Tea and Coffee is soon served.........a great day,i really enjoyed myself.Thanks to Andy for taking us out      .

Alan

[Mark Chase]

I am going diving I told the wife

Your bloody not she said Were in a badminton competition at 4.30 in Kensington and we are not going to be late

Ill be back by 1.00 no problem I said, its only Dover

A quick Email to Andy asking what time we were expected back in dock and I realised I had stretched the truth a bit. Well a lot actually. Andy reckoned we would be in by 1.00

Working on the basis you can only die once and ignoring the infinite possibilities for divorce I set off for Dover in the AM.

Andy's new boat is great with a nice cabin area and plenty of space for kit. It desperately needs some kitting up benches but with only seven on board there were no problems.

I was on single and pony which is OK but the last time I dived single and pony was errrrrrrrrr last year with Andy???? strange but true. So there I was kitting up and guessing how much extra lead to cable tie to the wing. I settled on 4 KG

Howard and Alan were already there and by the time I kitted up Digger and the others had arrived and were exchanging army stories.

I went in with Howard and Alan and was second down the shot. I dumped all the air from my wing and suit and I was still floating. Not good. So I gave my self a little tug down the shot and thankfully I started to descend. I was a bit slow getting down as I felt a little buoyant and I decided that a no deco dive was definitely the order of the day  

I needed the torch before hitting the bottom of the shot which tells you how crap the viz was but I was very pleased to find Alan had reeled off from the shot at the bottom. This meant I could hang on the shot and avoid any buoyant ascents without the agro of actually having to reel off my self. I set off after Alan and glanced back to see where Howard was but he was not around the anchor so I guessed he had gone solo.

Alan did a cracking job of laying the line and I caught up with him in no time. My main reg had a mini free flow and was weeping a slow stream of gas the whole dive. This was most odd and a service was obviously in order. We rummaged about a bit and Alan found the half port hole which was a good crack but my 26% fill didn’t afford me much time on the bottom 26-28m so I turned after 15mins and headed back to the anchor. Alan followed which was handy as I managed to get the line caught on my fins at one point and he helped me out.

Back at the anchor we mooched about a bit and I racked up 7mins deco on the Vytec and decided it was time to go. I had 30mins bottom time which was a bit short but I didn’t want to risk any more deco with my dodgy weighting. I waved good by to Alan and set of up and Alan decided to follow. I felt a bit guilty and hoped he hadn’t felt obliged to follow me up. To add insult to injury he had to wait out my 7mins of deco. Alan was on 32% so he hadn’t even gone into deco but the tide was running by now so he wasn’t going to pass me on the shot easily.

Safely on the surface after 40mins I was pleased to be back on the boat and coffee in hand coz it was a dammed cold 9c on the bottom and despite the warm sun I was feeling a little chilly.

Some would think us mad doing a 1.5m viz dive in January but to be honest I had a great time. Poor old Howard had a mare with his new mask but apart form that we were all smiles on the way back.

I cant tell you much more as I was off the boat and doing 90 down the M20 before they had tied off. I got back home at 1.15 and we left for London at 2.30. So a great little dive and no divorce threats. Cant be bad.

Thanks Andy and Alan

ATB

Mark Chase

[Digger]

<font color='#000080'>Well, best diving I've done for ages, despite me missing the wreck on day 2!

Absolute pleasure meeting all of you guys, and thanks go to Andy for not only providing accommodation and the odd cigarette, but the means to pay for the diving too!

Top rate skipper, boat, tea, coffee, and a great day out even without a few metres of viz on one of the best wrecks out there.

As for them kids, I don't know how you trained them Andy, but they are going to be the most useful guys on a boat in a couple of years. And boundless energy too!

Plenty more to come. There's no way I'm passing up diving like that. Even if I have to drive 6 hours to get there.

[Andy Phillips]

I'm actually jealous, I was having a nice day right up to the point that a guy in the pub accused me of winking (I ask you) at his girlfriend, she must have been all of 10, kina cute, but a wee bit young. Got a bad eye I said, just had an op I said, would he listen, no. It all started to get a bit shove me, shove you when luckily somebody injected a bit of diplomacy and the handbags were re-stowed.

God I want a dive, rather than going to one.

Nothing to do with diving, but I thought I would just share this with you all.

Andrew

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>Andy,

You are welcome for a ride if you let me know in advance.

What i found to be a real pleasure was , everyone was friendly having a laugh and a bit of banter,,,, divers sharing infomation on their ow kit / configs and the pro's and con's. BUT most of all was that everyone knew what they were doing .

Only having been in the commercial &amp; club world , this certainly was a eye opener weekend for me and now know what i have been missing out on for years.

Bloody hell, even had a bloke on board with a dive hood with little red horns on, and a comment has been made from a women from the marina &quot; Who was that HORNEY DEVIL on your boat ? &quot;...... I did have to tell her that the diver in question is cemertary side of 40 ......... &nbsp;,,,, Sorry Howard.

Another thing i noticed was ,,,,,,,,,,,, HOW you modern divers are streamlined with ya kit......... not like the normal sports diver from the club.



Andy

[Digger]

<font color='#000080'>I'm getting all steamed up now. No-ones' ever said I knew what I was doing before....

I suppose I ruined my efficient, streamlined approach by leaving my twins on board!

[Andy the Coastie]

<font color='#0000FF'>DIG's &nbsp; &nbsp;


GET out of UNI and get on the frigging TELE.

[Col.Maniac]

Hi,
Saturday and Sunday were the best dives I have done since I started diving middle of last year &nbsp;, Also as Andy said was my very first salt water wreck dive on saturday too. &nbsp;The boat is the best one Ive been on, easy to get off and on with plenty of room to move &nbsp;
It was nice to put names to faces too, pleasure to meet fellow YD`ers, hope we can do it again soon
Thanks all for a realy good 2 days out
Tony