Weymouth and Swanage - 10th / 11th / 12th June

[Janos]

Well everyone's been writing about this last weekend so I guess it's time to tell my side of the story.

I'd been booked on a club trip on our Rib out of Swanage for sometime, but the organiser dropped out with a couple of weeks to go and so I stood in. We keep our rib in Swanage, but much as I love rib diving (wee keep our club rib in Shell Bay, by the chain ferry) I also like it when someone else takes the stress and so the plan was to book Mike's boat the Killer Prawn for the Saturday and dive from the rib Sunday.

However, the weather was looking good and I had some holiday to use up, so when I heard that Mark Powell had some space on a boat out of Weymouth on the Friday I was severely tempted. The weather was looking so good on Wednesday that a quick phone call and some frantic rescheduling of meetings meant that I was also getting some cheeky dives in on the Friday. Well it would be rude not to.

Friday

Friday morning saw me getting up at stupid o'clock, saying goodbye to t'missus (off on a hen weekend so not able to object to the diving ) and then down to Weymouth. I'm always over-cautious when estimating driving times and so arrived in Weymouth at 8ish. After quick trip to Asda to pick up chocolate biscuits and donuts I arrived outside the pontoons at 8:30. The meeting time was 9:30 and ropes off at 10:30. "Oh well" I thought. I have time to sit in the car and read the paper. But no. All of Mark Powell's victi^H^H^H^H students were there ashen-faced and trembling slightly.

After a few introductions (it's always nice to put faces to avatars) we took the piss out of JAG for failing to do up his drysuit in Stoney a while back. Then Mark and Paul the skipper arrived and we boarded X-Dream, as KyarraToo was unavailable due to an electrical fault. Boats eh? A hole in the water you throw money into.

We set off for the balck hawk where Simon A and I had an excellent dive. Although the bow of the Black Hawk is in 18m (the stern is in 50m odd) it was a good dive. She is well broken up as you would expect, but large parts of the wreck are very recognisable. There are some nice swim throughs and to the North of the wreck there is a nice reef with plenty of nooks and crannies for fish to hide in.

Viz on the wreck itself was excellent, and there was plenty of fish around. It clearly is the year of the spider crab, as there were literally billions of the buggers around. At various points throughout the dive we saw other people complete with twinsets and stages but the odd one or two had lost a mask! We tried to keep out of their way as much as possible but at times it was like we were being followed. "Oh you again - sorry"

I was trying out a new (to me) wing, but it worked ok, although on occasion I had trouble finding the dump. A bit more practice needed to build up the 'muscle memory' methinks.

Back on the surface we relaxed on board in the sunshine. I like sunshine. A day out on a boat with sunshine is often enough to keep me happy on it's own, but it's brilliant if there's diving too. Anyway. Yes. Relaxing in the sunshine. Paul the skipper had cooked us a tasty lunch of pizza, onion rings, crisping chips and stuff in the galley (how can people cook in such a small space - beats me) and so we stuffed our faces and then he produced the donuts. Cor. Then it was back towards Portland to dive the dredger by the harbour wall.

While Mark was hatching his nefarious plots on his students, Simon and I explored the dredger. Then we played 'count the spider crabs'. The vast majority of them are on the hrabour wall, so we scrambled (I would say pulled-and-glided but it was more of a scramble) across the rocks in our search. We had a bit more of a look around then it was another mad scramble back again. Great fun.

Oh - I also fond a small reel by the dredger so if anyone's lost one then let me know.

Back on board it was back to port to get the tanks filled (very quickly - 15 minutes or so for 32%) in Weymouth before picking up our cars and packing away the kit. After a quick window shop in UE I said my goodbyes before heading off to Swanage to meet another four people (Paul and Jen, and Paul and Kathy) from my club who I'd be diving with on Saturday and Sunday.

Saturday

Saturday was a leisurely lie-in, before going down to the pier at 11ish. Some gits had taken the trollies and were using them to dry their kit on so there weren't many around. I was tempted to just move their kit and take the trollies but Jen found one so we took turns with that. I met Rick, then Adrian and his mates and then we boarded the good ship Killer Prawn for a trip out to the Aeolian Sky.

Although t'Prawn is not the fastest of boats, she is well built with a lift and Mike has a tin of cake. Mmm. Cake. mmm

Sorry. Yes Mike has a tin of cake. Mmm. Cake...

Mmmm.

Right. Dinner time. I'm going to finish this later.

Janos

[Janos]

Right. Back home now and fed and watered so on with the report. Where was I? Oh. The Killer Prawn. Yes, although not the swiftest of boats, she is great for trips out to the Sky. I'd much rather spend a couple of hours on the Prawn then an hour bouncing around on a rib. There is a lift and cake, and also (according to both Jen and Kathy) one of the nciest toilets of any UK boat. Now I know this isn't that important to us fellers who can go over the side (or at least I can when I don't have an audience ) but I know girls think that a decent loo is important. Which is quite understandable.

Anyway where was I - yes - off to the Sky. A nice journey out to the Sky, chatting with Adrian and his mates and finding out a bit more about how other clubs go about it whilst being marshalled by Kathy for DP1. Then shot in, a bit of a wait for slack while we saw a re-electrified KyarraToo with Mark Powell and his YD students aboard, and then it was down the shot. I was with Adrian diving twin 12s of 32% and stages.

When we got down the shot we had a good 10m of viz. We came off the shot a little too early and were the wrong side of the wreck but sorted that out soon enough. There were some nice easy penetrations - lots of space inside - perfect for where I am with my diving and we exited the wreck ok to see a land rover chassis. The four wheels were perfectly in position as was the engine. The gearbox was missing though - I later found out that there are at least two that have been recovered and are driving round Poole!

Then there was a flurry of activity and all I can see of Adrian is his yellow fins sticking out of the wreck. Thinking that he's been eaten by a giant Conga I'm about to surface and raise the alarm when he emerges triumphantly with a lobster. I get out my goody bag and we bag him successfully. A bit further on I spot a huge (and I mean huge) lobby under a pipe. After a little while I manage to tease him out, but my faffing has meant that Adrian came over to see what I was doing and the lobby escapes into a pipe. Ah well. He didn't get to be that big without being clever so I guess his genes will live on and be passed on to breed other smarter lobsters.

Satisfied with my contribution to improvng the lobster gene pool we swim on through another part of the wreck. We find some nice little glass bottles and also a large conger. Adrian manages to grab another lobster using the unconventional method of persuading it to grab onto the umbilical cord of his Halcyon torch. Ah. I can see the terror in Adrians eyes so I take "Dinner" as the lobster is called and help him bag it. Then it was more exploring before shooting a bag and doing our stops. I had a Vytec while Adrian had a VR3 so we ended doing both deep and shallow stops but that was fine with me. With plenty of gas an extra 5 mins of deco never hurts.

This dive was definitely up there in my top 10 UK dives. It was an absolute classic.

Back on board there was much amusement as "Dinner" nipped Adrian whilst we banded them up. All back aboard the Prawn steamed back towards land where we were going to do our second dive.

This was a drift over the Scallop beds. Adrian and I were clearly chasing someone else as although Adrian collected a respectable 24 scallops I only managed 5 adults (and a few which I though were a bit small) and an artillery shell. Ian (a Scottish feller from Eltham BSAC, and former bomb disposal expert) reckoned that this was probably safe, but after watching the gas bubbling out the tip for a bit I thought it best to return it to the sea.). But anyway, highlight of the dive was the tiny (2 inch) juvenile scallops fluttering up before us as we swam along.

Credit here is due to Mike. Although it was getting late in the day (we ended up back at the pier at around 1900) we never felt under any pressure to cut short the second dive. With some skippers I have been out I've felt really rushed and cut the dive short, but Mike would have been happy to stay out all night (well not really but you know what I mean).

Anyway, back we went to Swanage, and Mike showed us where the Peregrine Falcon was nesting. Pat at Divers Down stayed late so that we could get our cylinders filled before the Sunday. Things like that which make life sooo much easier. She told me about the plans that they had for Divers Down - there's going to be another compressor and they're also looking at getting a membrane Nitrox system. Nothing definite yet but I told her it would be A Good Thing to have.

Then back to the caravan to eat Lobby and the scallops and sleep the sleep of the righteoous as as you do when diving.

Sunday

Sunday was a disappointing day. We were out on the rib to dive the ledges and the Betsy Anna. I was non-diving cox for the ledges, and when we got to the Betsy Anna we decided that it was looking a bit lumpy and that discretion was the better part of valour and so we headed inshore and dived Poole rocks, which were decidedly, er, sandy. Hey ho. I did see a dogfish though.

A bit disappointed, as we canned the dive at the last minute and didn't even get to go to a pub it was back home on a bit of a downer, but all in all it was an excellent weekend.

I'm sure that I've missed out a fair bit, and other people have filled in quite a few of the gaps, but it was nice meeting everyone, both on Friday and Saturday, but especially good meeting Adrian, Mike and Pat of Divers Down who made the Saturday one of my best ever days of UK days diving.



Janos

[Adrian Kelland]

A great day eh Janos? Sorry to hear Sunday was not so hot.

Adrian

[Gizmo]

Top report Janos and good to meet you again.
Mark

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report M8, i may have to join you down that way one day

[Steve S]

Great report mate unfortunately I've got to spread it around first

Safe diving,
Steve

[Tony F]

Cracking report - what UK diving is all about.

[RickW]

green incoming

top 10 dives in the UK? what you mean its downhill for me from here? Great report and great day - very memorable

[Adrian Kelland]

Originally Posted by RickW

...what you mean its downhill for me from here?

wellcome to the rest of your life

[Janos]

Originally Posted by RickW

green incoming

top 10 dives in the UK? what you mean its downhill for me from here? Great report and great day - very memorable

It's what I like about UK diving - it's so variable. Somedays you can have a cracker and others it's pants - and you normally can't tell until you get on the boat.

But the good days (like Saturday) more than compensate for the bad days.

Janos