All Creatures Great and Small: Gascony/Mulberry 8.5.05

[tom]

You'll understand the title eventually, I promise.

Myself and a couple of mates went down to Wittering today for some diving off Wittering Divers' ribs. Given the weather over the last couple of days I'd not been optimistic, but the forecast had cleared sufficiently for us to be able to go out today. When we got down there the sea state was surprisingly good.

We'd booked to do the Boxer as the first dive, but a change of plan was recommended by the skipper Nick due to weather/tide conditions - vis was likely to be shocking (apparently going on the experience of a dive about 3 weeks back that I suspect might have been written up on here...). So, change of plan: the Gascony. Not my favourite wreck, but what the hell it's a dive... to sweeten the pill we were promised that we'd have a dolphin encounter on the way. Yeah right, pull the other one.

As we were zooming along, my hat flew off, and Nick circled the rib round so we could pick it up. Just as well, because I needed to have something to eat--as well as my words--when, right on schedule, the dolphin turned up and surfed alongside the rib for a while. Apparently there have been a pod of three hanging round the area for the past few weeks, and this one comes to play with the ribs. Very impressive beast - about 6-8ft long, messing round the boat, coming pretty close in and looking like it was having a great time (big smile on his face--as usual).

OK, so that's the 'great' creature out of the way... time to go diving. Arrived at the Gascony (http://www.divernet.com/wrecks/wtour260401.htm ), wreck is shotted, and in we went. We were the second group in, though for some reason the first pair hung around on the surface and we were the first down the line. Vis is looking reasonable as we head down and gradually as we approach 30m something comes into sight. The seabed. Oh boll0cks, here we go again - this happened on the U90 last weekend too...

Fortunately, all was not lost, and one of my buddies spotted a dark shadow a few metres away uptide (vis was about 4+ m). I clipped off my pocket reel to the shot and we headed for it, and soon arrived at the wreck. It looked as if the shot had landed on the large unbroken sloping area of hull plate near the boilers, and basically fallen off. I draped my reel over a bit of plating and left it there so the other divers could follow the line to the wreck. This might seem like a silly thing to do, but we weren't planning to return to the shot - that's why I'd attached the reel to the shot, and deliberately not tied it off anywhere along the way - so that when the skipper pulled the shot the reel would go up with it. Plus it was my Buddy pocket reel, which is a piece of crap and I'd have no regrets about losing! If there was a better way to handle this situation, I'd be pleased to hear it - but this seemed to work OK. [edit: the reel was recovered as planned, and I got the damn thing back...]

So, off for a mooch around the wreck - quick look at the boilers, current was running a little so we head off with it, peering in holes and frightening fish as we go. Quite a bit of life about - mainly bib and spider crabs. Turned out this was an area of the wreck I'd not been on before, and it was more interesting than previous dives I've had on it. We cruised past the holds, where I think I finally saw the chassis of one of the famous gun carriages, and ending up at the bow. At this point one of the guys indicated he was hitting his gas limits, so I fired the blob and up we went. Short dive, but a nice one.

After a nice slow ascent we reached the surface to be faced with an 'Open Water' scenario as one of the guys put it: waves that had got a wee bit bigger, and no boat in sight. Fantastic! A chance to use my flag! So I deployed that, around the same time as we spotted the rib off in the distance. Within a few minutes they motored across to collect us.

On the way back to shore, we were treated to the dolphin experience again - but even better this time, as Nick spent a few minutes just cruising round with the dolphin accompanying us. Absolutely brilliant. It was worth going down just for that, never mind the diving. Eventually the fun had to end, and we went back to shore for some lunch and to get air fills before heading back out for the second dive, on the Mulberry.

On the way out, we spotted the dolphin again briefly but didn't hang around as it had taken a little longer than expected to get fills and we were running late. Reasonably smooth ride out, we arrive at the Mulberry, get kitted up, jump in and head down the chain--to be confronted with the smallest and least welcome organisms spotted on the trip. The plankton bloom had arrived, and it had brought its friends. No, not basking sharks, just more plankton. And some other plankton as well. And some more.

The water could probably be fairly accurately described as 'snotty', but vis was still about 2m or so. Still, it was a nice enough dive, as the site is swarming with life and so there's plenty of 'macro' stuff to look at. Some nice big colourful wrasse as usual, and we spotted the tail of the resident conger. Apparently there was a cuttlefish around as well, but we missed it. A comedy moment was provided by a small wrasse - it was spooked at the sight of us and shot off, smacking its head right into a clump of seaweed/gunge. I don't know if it was affected by the vis, or was blind, or just stupid, but I've never seen a fish do a comedy pratfall like that before.

We surfaced to find weather conditions not quite as nice as when we went down, and some portions of the trip back could probably be best described as 'interesting' - the wind had got up a little, the sea state had worsened, and some blustery hail/rain showers decided to pay us a visit. I wore my hood and mask for most of the trip back in. Not surprisingly, although we met up with the dolphin again, the skipper didn't hang around for long and got us back to shore quickly due to the deteriorating weather (gusts up to 30 knots according to local weather station). Ironically, of course when we got back to the beach it calmed right down and the sun came out again! The joys of British diving

Anyway - damn good day out, decent diving and brilliant dolphin encounter. Cheers to the guys at Wittering Divers.

[johntemp]

Good report.

Sickoning though as I was due to do 3 dives with Wittering on the Saturday and it got called off when I was two miles from the car park!

I enjoy diving with Wittering divers, they are a good setup but I just never get the luck with the weather when I book with them.

[DanE]

Nice one, Tom.

We did the Boxer with Wittering over Easter and the viz was rather shocking, at just above zero. We found a nice anemone, though

dan

[Ant P]

Originally Posted by johntemp

Good report.

Sickoning though as I was due to do 3 dives with Wittering on the Saturday and it got called off when I was two miles from the car park!

I enjoy diving with Wittering divers, they are a good setup but I just never get the luck with the weather when I book with them.

I had the same happen to me the week before. They couldn't go out because there was some unexpected fog. I had just driven for two and a half hours

English diving. Pfft.

Cheers, A

[tom]

Originally Posted by DanE

We did the Boxer with Wittering over Easter and the viz was rather shocking, at just above zero.

Has anyone dived the Boxer and actually seen it? I booked it because it was a new wreck to me without doing any research first, having read up on it since booking it sounds as if it's a bit pants to be honest. Is it worth a dive?

[MattS]

Has anyone dived the Boxer and actually seen it?

Yep. I always thought it was a bit pants until one day we dropped in and the vis was 10m+ I could see end to end of a WW1 destroyer. The Solent's like that you can dive a wreck in darkness for years, then one day you get the vis and the light and your whole impression changes. I know lots of people get frustrated with it but I enjoy it as the good days can be such a surprise.

She sits almost upright, but buried in the shale almost up to her gunwhales. The bow and aft are recognisably intact but there is a lot of damage amidship and the stern is pretty much absent. Still turns up portholes and shells from time to time as the seabed shifts.

[MattS]

The seabed. Oh boll0cks, here we go again - this happened on the U90 last weekend too...

Tom, admiting you missed the wreck can ruin your dive cred.

Top Tip when diving with outfits that don't apply quite the effort Skipper does securing the shot in the wreck.

'No, I did not miss the wreck, I wanted to explore the debris field as part of my ongoing survey'

[tom]

Originally Posted by MattS

Tom, admiting you missed the wreck can ruin your dive cred.

Well, I was going to keep quiet about it but given the company on the boat last weekend the chances of covering it up were pretty minimal

Still, could be worse - couple of guys I know recently managed to miss the Mulberry...

Thanks for the info on the Boxer BTW, sounds like it might be worth a look under the right conditions (but then if the conditions are good, would rather be off doing a better wreck - Catch 22 really!).

[MattS]

(but then if the conditions are good, would rather be off doing a better wreck - Catch 22 really!).

Predicting conditions in the Solent is like trying to guess lottery numbers!