Sunday morning at Horsea

[chrisch]

Nearly everyone in the club was going. Our one and only trainee, Richard, was due to begin his open water dives. So we met up at the Yacht club first, did our car-sharing and were ready. Builder Alan said his daughter had rung to report 4 inches of snow in London. But it was a lovely day in Shoreham and I joked we had the snow tyres on the back and should I change them to the front (driving) wheels. Then it started to drizzle a bit and the wind was cold so we decided to set off leaving the other two cars to catch up. Alan had set off before us, one of his passengers having forgotten something.

So it was that we were on our own on the A27 heading for Portsmouth. At Lancing the snow started. The flurry became a full on storm and soon the snow was settling on the road. Another few miles and it was 2cm deep. Then the first accident. A Discovery with a horse box had tailgated a small car. The little car (about a 207 - too bent to be sure) looked pretty much written off and the Disco was not going anywhere ever again either (wonder if they rode the horse home )

The traffic crawled through Arundel at about 5mph and after first laughing about the situation it was starting to become tedious. Sunday morning brings the most pathetic and useless drivers out of their hibernation and its grim round here at the best of times with all the old tossers that think their heads will explode if the car does 50mph.

However, we were soon on the dual carriageway and driving past the queue of idiots as we sailed down the nice white crisp snow of the outer lane at about 40. The second layby had an upside down car in it (don't ask how it got there we couldn't figure it out) and a bit later on a car in the inside lane with its bonnet welded to the Armco. What is wrong with people its just snow FFS.

At this point the mobile went and it appeared that the rest of the club were canning it. The weather report was bad for the afternoon. Fair enough. We figured we would keep going as we had rented a wing to try out and I wanted to test my new twins for valve shutdowns. The snow just kept coming and I seriously began to wonder if we would need to put the snow chains on for the first time ever in the UK. However, the dual carriageway was still one lane of crawling imbeciles with fog lights and hazard flashers and grimacing divers shitting themselves with the outer lane pretty much empty.

By Portsmouth the worst was over and we rang from Horsea to hear that the others were stuck in a traffic jam in Worthing. Time for a cuppa.

The wind was bitterly cold and right in your face. God knows how Richard would have coped in a semi. Kelly and I titted about for a while getting the weight right and shouted at each other a lot. (Well more me shouting at her really ) She was first to try the twin 12s and after a few attempts we got it sorted. Valves to hand - spot on. My dive with the rented Halcyon single tank wing was less successful. I'd really liked the wing in the pool but with all the kit on I was much less impressed. Barely enough lift at the surface either - if I bought one it would be the bigger aircell.

Time to swap kit over. The water was over 9C but the surface air temp was about 3C and with the wind chill maybe -2. Kelly kept her hood and gloves on but I needed to swap the regs over and so my hands were physically painful by the time I put the gloves back on. Our plan was just to drop to the bottom of the ladder and do a valve drill then back up. I was shivering at this point. The new cans were fine. The tens are much harder to shutdown so I am sticking with the 12s. Result. Once in the water I warmed up so we did a small tour, giving Kelly a chance to try out the Halcyon. She felt the same as me about it.

Vis was around 4-5m and the overall thing quite pleasant. A few jellyfish and loads of crabs and blenies and dragonets. Actually quite nice for newbies. Poor Richard. Max depth 5m - the 21/30 in the twins really was overkill

Dekit and a big bacon and egg buttie and more tea. By now the sun was shining and the sky blue and a lovely day apart from the bitterly cold wind. There was still snow on the fields but the approach road was clear and the drive home uneventful. The others should have stuck it out.

It was my first trip to Horsea and I rather liked it. I hope it doesn't close down, that would be a real shame. Its a good venue for training and the burger van was better than we had been lead to believe. We will go again I'm sure. Hopefully some more snow can be laid on as that really was entertaining. Snow and southern English drivers really don't mix do they?

Chris