Wittering & Selsey - 16th April

[JAG]

The weekend started with an invite extended by Garf and Mrs Garf to myself, Mrs Jag and j.w for dinner on the Friday night at Chez Burrows, as it was going to be an early start on the Saturday. Unfortunately j.w. couldn’t make it, which was a real shame. A fantastic meal and a nice evening was had by all. The next thing I remember is the alarm belting out at 5.30. Where the hell had the previous 4 hours gone!!
We set off at 6am into mist and fog. I had a feeling this was going to be a good day. Driving through Arundel, the sun had broken through and all you could see was the top of the Castle and top of the Cathedral breaking through the layer of fog. A truly spectacular sight.

Arrived at Wittering in plenty of time, sun shining, sea was like a millpond and not a breath of wind. These were to be my first sea twinset dives. Since my move to twins, the last five months have been spent with Garf and j.w. flitting between Stoney, Guildy and Wraysbury getting used to them, adjusting them, admiring them, shallow diving, deeper diving, drills, skill, simulated deco planning, more adjusting, adding a stage into the equation and yet more drills and skills, finished off with a full salt water check under Selsey Pier a couple of weeks ago. Basically the last five months were preparation for these dives.

Dive 1
HMS Prince Leopold
The plan was to use the rule of thirds for gas and a 30 minute bottom time.
We headed on the 40 minute trip to the wreck, my mind buzzing with nervous anticipation. Garf and I went over the plan and sat back to enjoy the ride. We arrived at the wreck and proceeded to kit up. With a couple of twinsets there really isn’t an awful lot of room to kit up. We were in first, descended the line, check that the shot was ok and continued with the dive. Viz for the first 20m wasn’t great, and then as we got near the wreck got better, water temp a comfortable 11 degrees, even for my hands! This was my first dive on the Leopold and looking up at parts of it jutting out, contrasted by the lighter background was eerie and atmospheric. We had planned a 30 min bottom time, with Garf sending the blob up at 28 mins. We started our ascent completing stops along the way, finishing with a 14 min stop at 6m, surfacing at 54 mins. During the ascent Garf and I stayed close but I wanted to make a completley free ascent to prove to myself that I could do it should the situation ever arise. Whilst my trim wasn’t great at times during the ascent, it was job done. When we surfaced it was a fantastic feeling to have completed my first sea twinset and full deco dive, and surfacing bang on time. Good work Garf! It was also nice to see everyone on the boat waiting for us!

We then returned to Wittering for a fill, both Nitrox and scran, then back to the beach for minor kit adjustments and to get ready for the second dive.

Garf’s Edit: We had a plan, longer plan, and bailout plan just in case we missed the wreck. We had enough gas to dive it twice and a backup of everything. As Ian has said, we had been building up to this, Ian’ first deco dive, for months, ever since my deco course with Mark Powell, and it was nice to see the training pay off, and break the surface when the plan said we were supposed to. Although great dives in themselves, we are basically building up to some serious diving in Scapa in August. This was my first dive on the Leopold, and is one I shall repeat. I did find it amusing when people on the rib were smiling at us struggling with all our kit, and then us going in before then and coming up to see them already de-kitted and waiting for us. Mwahaha. For those that are umming and ahhing about a VR3, it cleared waaay before the plan (taken from vplanner), but we decided to stick with the slates as Ian does not have a VR3.

Dive 2
Gascony
Same plan as before, 30 min bottom time.
Decided that Garf would “blob up” after 28 mins again, I know this was lazy and selfish of me, we should have shared the blobbing up duty, but in all honesty was grateful that he did as I could concentrate on other aspects.
On the ride out to the wreck, we were joined by a bottlenose dolphin apparantely. I say apparentely as despite him surfacing very close to us on several occasions, I was always looking the wrong way and never actually saw him!
We reached the wreck, kitted up and went over the side. Descended the shotline and upon reaching the wreck were presented with excellent viz. There was a slight current, nothing much, lots of fish, tompots, crabs and a couple of nice lobbies. It was turning out to be another cracking dive. After about 23 mins we turned a corner somewhere on the wreck and I felt the current really pick up, getting stronger. After 26 mins I signalled to Garf to blob up, 2 mins early as I was finding it difficult to stay within the wreck and breathing quite heavily. Up went the SMB and so did we, completing necessary stops. It was during the ascent that Garf showed me his broken reel. Nice improvisation mate! The surface swim back to the boat was a bit of a chore, but the Explorer 55 makes for a nice li-lo..
On the way back, the dolphin made another appearance, this time in front of me, several times and up close. This was my first sighting of a dolphin in the wild, anywhere. It was much bigger than I expected and I felt privileged to witness one in its natural habitat.
Upon our arrival back at Wittering, we beat a hasty retreat up the beach, quickly de-kitted and a sharpish drive across to Selsey to join Skippers boat for our Mulberry night dive.

Garf’s Edit: Another cracking dive with great Viz. I had never seen a dolphin that close (If Id had my VR3 in my hand I could probably have brained it with a half decent throw). The current did pick up a bit towards the end of the dive, and I did notice Ian getting a little stressed. Happens to us all, and I don’t think there was anything to learn. As the SMBci was on the way up I noticed the reel starting to fall to bits. The little metal U had bent and the winding handle was missing. I ripped the metal bit out and stuck it in a pocket and then used the reel as a spool,winding it in manually. Pain in the arse it was, but shiny new custom divers 125M reel on the way courtesy of the nice chap at diver’s warehouse.

Dive 3
Mulberry
Arrived at Selsey in plenty of time. Boarded Skippers boat and it was lovely to have a loads more room and to meet him again. We arrived at the Mulberry, chatted for a few minutes, kitted up and watched a lovely sunset. As soon as the sun disappeared over the horizon, we disappeared over the side. Unfortunately my Greenforce battery was drained at this point due to previous dives, so I turned to my backup UKD4R, a little worried that I wouldn’t have enough light. Fortunately Garf had is Halcyon lighthouse in front of me and therefore illuminated most of the channel! Another absolutely cracking dive, lots of fish, lobbies, tompots, crabs, big wrasse and a large congar and good viz. The coffee waiting for us when we got back onboard was warmly received!

Garf’s Edit: This ranks as one of the best dives I have ever had. The Proteus 3 proved its worth big time with a beautiful blue light in the pitch blackness. I could have just idly hung around in the dark for hours if it wasn’t for the fact that skipper would have skinned me alive if I’d stayed past max dive time . Cup of tea after getting back in the boat, diving the South coast doesn’t get any better than skippers boat in my opinion. The only sticking point on this dive is the absolutely shite Halcyon webbing that comes with their harness. Soft as a soft thing. That’s been derigged and replaced with uber-stiff webbing from mike’s in east Grinstead or woz webbing if he reads his pm’s. Other than that, just about the most relaxing dive I’ve ever had.

Returned back to Garfs at about 11pm where we had been informed that a curry was waiting for us and Mrs Jag had bought me a great print of U110 being captured by HMS Bulldog and HMS Aubretia! What a way to end a truly great days diving.

Garf’s Edit: Yes, well, perhaps the mcdonalds on the way through chicester wasn’t the best idea ever, I didn’t honestly fancy a curry when I got back to the house, but you can’t turn down two ladies who greet you at the door with drink and curry.

As always, it was an absolute pleasure to dive with Garf and I’m extremely grateful for his patience and the knowledge he imparts. Oh, and the man can cook! I got some more valuable experience under my belt to boot. Roll on Sunday.

Garf’s Edit: Nice diving yourself mate, looking forward to next weekend.

[onthetrain]

excellent reoprt guys. Sounds like you had a great time.

[Diving Dude]

Great report Ian.

Did you see anything that looked like depth charges on the Leopold?

Dave (Skipper) says he's never seen them and someone on another thread said it's unlikely that a ship of this type would be carrying depth charges, but the last time l dived this wreck with skipper both my buddy and l saw what looked like (in our limited knowledge) depth charges in racks.

[Paul Oliver]

Yes guys, top reporting, sounds like a cracking day out

[Tony F]

Top report guys.