A weekend on the south coast

[MonkeyPony]

Well, due to the Foggys thread regarding the lack of diving talk on the boards I thought I’d have a go at writing a little trip report so here goes.

With the prospect of good weather and low winds we decided to get the rib in the water for a couple of days diving. I don’t usually do rib diving if I’m using twins but with only 4 of us on an 8 meter rib there was ample space for kitting up.

After slipping the boat at the sailing academy the skipper and I set off to Castletown to pick up the other divers. The weekend started badly with a bollocking from the harbor patrol for speeding in the 6 knot zone!

With the other divers on board and fried food eaten we set off for the first dive of the weekend, the M2. Ben has recently done his fundies and was entertaining us with stories of how great Claire was, how much his diving had improved and how he was looking forward to upgrading his ‘rec’ pass for a ‘tech’ one. The rest of us discussed how long we’d need to hold his head underwater before his body stopped twitching.

We arrived on site early to give us plenty of time to get the shot in but before we had a chance we were joined by Scimitar and Cutlass who offered to let us use their shot. With the knowledge that this was going to be a diver soup dive we kitted up and waited or turn for the shot.

The sea was soon full of bobbing divers as people either couldn’t get down or got down and promptly binned the dive and came back up. Funny to watch but I was starting to feel a touch ‘tom and dick’ from all the bobbing about in the boat so was glad to get in the water and head down the shot line anxious to see if the vis was as good as the weather.

It Wasn’t.

Black dark and Very silty we had about a meter a best. But set off from the shot in the hopes of finding some clear water.

After a minute or so I realized I was no longer with my buddy so went back to the shot to collect him.

So again we set off with both of us following my torch light as Ben had discovered that 2 mini q40s weren’t really up to the job on this dive (very DIR mate ).

The M2 is a great place to be and as usual was teeming with life. I was thoroughly enjoying the dive until we separated slightly to go round another group of divers and once again Ben was nowhere to be seen. After a quick search for him proved unsuccessful (get a proper torch you Muppet) I decided that 30 minutes was long enough down there so bagged up and did my stops. We eventually surfaced no more than 40 seconds and 2 meters apart!!

The second dive was a scolly run in equally bad vis but was fairly uneventful.

With the diving done it was off to the smugglers Inn for food beer and to decide who had got the best sunburn (I won that one).
There was some enjoyable diving on the Sunday as well but I’m too exhausted from typing to tell you about it!

[Ding Dang Doo]

Great little report...

shame about the viz.

Thanks for sharing.

Pete

[MonkeyPony]

So Sunday morning dawns and my sunburn feels a lot worse.
The skipper and I collected the boat from the marina and once again headed to Castletown to pick up the other three (keeping at a steady 6 knots). This day started badly as I vaulted of the side of the rib to put the anchor on the shore and promptly slipped of the tube due to an excess of KY on my hands and went face first into the water, and I hadn’t quite got round to zipping my suit up…..

Fortunately I only suffered a wet arm and a lot of embarassment.
The plan for today was to do the Aeolian Sky but with the vis as bad as it was we decided there was not much point so set off do dive the sea caves at Lulworth.

As we headed out the fog rolled in and a decision was made that drifting the caves wasn’t going to be too clever either so we decided to do the Black Hawk bow instead.

We arrived on site just as another boat was pulling its divers out. The skipper informed us that he’d managed to jam his shot in the wreck so we said we’d free it and send it up when we got down.

Ben and I reached the bottom to find a well jammed shot and a very large wrasse, who was presumably not too happy have a dirty great weight in his house. I bagged up the shot and we set off on our bimble when what should we come across but a very familiar looking shot weight with no sign of the lift bag (apparently the strap had broken on the way up). Glad that neither one of us had caught it on the noggin on its way back down we pulled out a couple of spare smbs and sent it on its way again. Our task finally completed we set off again enjoying some nice scenery and some fairly good vis (5 meters ish).

The second dive was non-eventful apart from seeing a ray and the largest damn spider crab I’ve ever seen.

With the boat out of the water the skipper and I headed home in the van only to discover that the turbo seems to have stopped working so every time there was the slightest hint of a hill our speed dropped to 25mph. The 147 mile trip back to Aylesbury took nearly 5 hours!!

All in all an enjoyable weekend although the nice vis of Scapa in September seems a long way off..

Lessons learnt from the weekend:

1) Use more suntan lotion

2) The little DIR knife makes an excellent hot chocolate stirring device

3) Ben, for gods sake buy a decent torch

4) Remove excess ky before leaping off boats carrying anchors

5) Ensure dry suit is zipped before leaping off boats carrying anchors

6) The fundies course sounds like a lot of fun and is something I may consider next year

[Wii]

Hi mate glad u told everyone how funny it was to see your leap of faith. Thought i would show my face on here to see how much Ben had kicked up the crud looks like he doing a good job of it. The Bloody van not fixed yet But Adam bringing his computer home from work to sort the bloody thing out but dont hold your breath.

[MonkeyPony]

I'm really starting to think that it is me thats jinxing the poor old van.

[robertsT]

Originally Posted by MonkeyPony

The weekend started badly with a bollocking from the harbor patrol for speeding in the 6 knot zone!

They seem to be getting quite strickt, happened to us last weekend. Nice report

[lostdiver]

Originally Posted by MonkeyPony

The weekend started badly with a bollocking from the harbor patrol for speeding in the 6 knot zone!

With the other divers on board and fried food eaten

The sea was soon full of bobbing divers

So again we set off with both of us following my torch light as Ben had discovered that 2 mini q40s weren’t really up to the job on this dive (very DIR mate ).
We eventually surfaced no more than 40 seconds and 2 meters apart!!

With the diving done it was off to the smugglers Inn for food beer and to decide who had got the best sunburn (I won that one).!

Thats not a bad start to the weekend, I have yet to have been on Paul's boat where he hasn't been told off!!

Shame my best mid water SMB deployment was done completely on my own, lol.

I didn't get any fried food as was running a lil bit late.....

Still an awesome dive and def good exp!!!!

[lostdiver]

Originally Posted by MonkeyPony

2) The little DIR knife makes an excellent hot chocolate stirring device

3) Ben, for gods sake buy a decent torch

6) The fundies course sounds like a lot of fun and is something I may consider next year

Ha you all laughed at my stupidly small knife, then tea stirring time comes around and you come crawling back, lol!!

Decent torch nearlly sorted, nearlly.....

And yes 1 more nearlly converted............

[Howard Payne]

x2 Q40's you say? Mwah ha ha

[lostdiver]

Originally Posted by Howard Payne

x2 Q40's you say? Mwah ha ha

Hell yeah 35m's down in the pitch black, in 1metre vis (yeah right 25cm's) with two mini Q40's lol. Dark isn't the word .