Diving - The adventure continues!

UK diving in 2019

Diving in August 2019

The next outing was to NDAC near Chepstow.

We often make the trip across the Severn Bridge to do training, but Ria and Rohit had decided they wanted to do a couple of deeper dives, ahead of our upcoming trip to Swanage and I joined them Paul, Olly and Geoff (who drove me there).

The day turned out a very long one as we took a while to get going and weren't in the water until around 11.

I did my first dive with Geoff, where we swam down to around 25 metres and visited the double decker bus and Wessex helicopter on the far side of the lake during a 30 minute dive.

It was fairly uneventful, but curtailed by Geoff only having a 12 litre cylinder of air. On the positive side, the vis was fairly good (especially at short range, it was a little cloudier beyond 5M or so), but it was around 11C at depth, so I was glad of my new drysuit and the new, thinner, fleece Lomo undersuit that I was trying out. I had planned to experiment with a bit less weight, but in the end stuck to the 6 kg I regularly dive with in freshwater with a single cylinder and, to be honest, I didn't feel unduly heavy.

The delays were compounded by a long, long wait to get our cylinders filled as the, rather strange, bloke who fills cylinders at NDAC seemed to be prioritising people he knew (at least that's the way it seemed to us) over those who'd arrive earlier.

Eventually, we got back in the water just after 3PM, this time I was diving with Rohit while Ria, his wife, completed some drills with Paul (so much for 'just doing some dives'!)

We dived down to the other Wessex, which is now falling to pieces. On previous trips, it's been pretty devoid of skin, with just the skeleton showing, but now the tail has fallen off and lies on the lake bed.

From there we headed up to the tug sunk a couple of years ago and had a good old poke around inside, before heading back up to pass the Abbot, Saracen and Stalwart military vehicles and then the small plane and containers, before carrying out our safety stop on the Land Rover, which is also falling apart now, but had four large Perch sitting in and around it, who seemed totally unworried by the odd creatures sharing their bit of lake.

We both had a bit of air left, so rather than exiting via the ramp, we swam under the pontoon and climbed out via the ladder exactly where our equipment had been left, a couple of successful navigations of the lake!

Our next trip was to be to Swanage for the final weekend of the Swanage Lifeboat Week in August.

This had proved very popular the previous year, although we'd been blown out (exceptionally for 2018) on the Sunday the previous year, but we were hoping for better weather in 2019 and I'd filled a boat with 12 divers over the two day and we planned some new and slightly more challenging dives for most of us, on the Borgny and Firth Fisher, along wit the Valentine Tanks and Peverill Ledges.

Along with live bands and a barbecue on Friday and Saturday nights everyone was really looking forward to it.

Unfortunately, August 2019 was proving to be a horrible month for diving and as the date loomed, the forecasts were consistently for winds far to strong to dive in, gusting to 45-50MPH!

Until the Friday we were due to depart, we kept hoping that the weather would change, but just before lunchtime the skipper made the inevitable call and cancelled the weekend.

That evening the live music and BBQ event was cancelled due to the bad weather and the weekend proved to be just as bad as the forecasters had predicted on the coast, although at home in East Hampshire, the wind seemed pretty gentle...

So, a very disappointing outcome to what I'd hoped (as the organiser) was going to be one of the highlight UK diving weekends of the year, but, as ever with diving in the ocean, you are very much at the will of the elements and this time, we lost convincingly.

It was rather bitter-sweet then when the following weekend, the bank holiday forecast calm weather and sunshine, but a few of us decided to head to Swanage for a day, diving the Firth Fisher and the Valentine Tanks.

There were just the 4 of us, Dawn, Julian, Geoff and myself, on the first dive boat out to the Firth Fisher.

Julian and Dawn went in first with a small float as the skipper wasn't certain he'd got the shot on the wreck, but when we dropped in it was right on the wreck.

We found Julian and Dawn about to ascend, but we were atop the two cylinder engine (looked like two engines end to end) and explored that a little, before moving back to the stern, where I swam over the back, but the vis was too poor to get a descent shot of it, so we moved forward over the large boiler and dropped off to the starboard side, looking for a fisherman's lost anchor, but we didn't find it.

We turned back onto the wreck and headed forward. In the poor vis I'm not sure if we reached the bow, but Geoff indicated he was close to his no deco limit and we'd agreed a no-deco dive, so I launched my DSMB and we ascended.

It was dark and quite murky on the wreck, but we'd seen enough to know that the Castlereagh/Firth Fisher is a wreck well worth returning to, this time with a deco plan to allow more time to explore it.

We'd been lucky to get places on the Pier despite arriving at 8:30, so we changed out of our dry suits (having left most of our kit on the boat) and wandered down to Gee White's for a pleasant lunch and then around to the Forte's coffee shop for one of their excellent ice creams, in 30C heat!

The beach at Swanage was heaving and we relaxed back at the pier for a few hours as our second dive wasn't until 15:40.

On the second dive, to the Valentine Tanks, I dived with Dawn.

Again, I was the second group in, but having been told the permanent shot was on the tank, the skipper reported the tanks were either side of the only buoy visible (It transpired that since being protected, the tanks can no longer be directly shotted, so there is now a shot on an anchor between the two with ropes leading to them).

We dropped in and decided to swim right (not knowing the above at that point) and passed Julian and Geoff heading back - They gave us the OK signal and pointed back along the line, so we figured a tank must be there.

Sure enough, a few moments later we came to the tank with its turret lying upside down on the sea bed.

We explored the chassis and turret for a while, spotting cleaner shrimps and a number of Conger Eels, plus large numbers of Bib and other fish.

We then swam back along the rope, passing the anchor and found the second tank, which still has its turret attached.

There was a really large Conger inside, but when I tried to show it to Dawn a couple of other divers stirred up so much silt, we couldn't see it!

This tank is more recognisable, having its turret and gun in place, but both seemed somewhat more battered than a couple of years earlier when Ria and I had dived them.

The vis was a bit murky, but this was still an enjoyable dive and we returned happy with our day, but still a little sad it hadn't been the previous week as, as we packed, the warm evening sunset was very tempting to stay and enjoy.

Oh well, there's always next year...

Diving in September 2019

Diving continued in September with a couple of dives off the club RHIB in Portland, as part of Paul and Emma's Dive Leader training.

They planned and dive managed the weekend, with the Saturday some shallower dives (the Black Hawk bow and Countess of Erne) and Sunday the Binnendyk (at around 28M) and we decided to do the Spaniard in the afternoon.

The trip out to the Binnendyk from Portland Harbour isn't far, but it was a little choppy and kept the speed down to 10-12 knots. We took a little while for the tide to slacken, by which time another RHIB and then two hard boats arrived!

Although there were a lot of divers on the wreck, it's pretty big and spread out, so we didn't constantly run into other divers.

I dived with Emma and Nicole, as Paul T decided to sit this dive out.

We descended through fairly clear water to the wreck and the light was still reasonable, with 5M or so of vis on the wreck.

It's hard to work out what you're looking at (moreso even than, say, the Kyarra), but there's plenty to explore and lots of life, including Crabs, Lobsters, a decent sized Conger Eel and big shoals of fish.

We had a good dive and came out without deco having been incurred (as agreed) after a 30 minute dive - Most of us agreed another dive, with planned deco would be a good idea.

We had left my car, with a 12L cylinder for everyone, in Castletown, so motored back there, grabbed a quick lunch and then swapped cylinders.

Over lunch we decided we would try to find the 'Spaniard' (Or Enecuri, to give it its correct name) as we'd only done it once before, to my knowledge, and I suspected we'd actually dived a different wreck!

We ran up and down along the harbour wall, seeing the sonar say 5M, 8M, 5M and couldn't work out if we were going over wrecks or large rocks from the harbour construction.

In the end, John and Ria went in at the more southerly 5M point, with the plan of launching a DSMB anchored to the wreck, if they found one. Very quickly it popped up and Nicole and I dropped down.

Sure enough we were on a large, reasonably intact, bow section, rising up 5M or more.

We explored around this and then swam north only the wreck, finding it increasingly broken until nothing was visible, partly do to reducing wreckage and partly as it got siltier and the vis poorer.

Ria got a photo of a Cuttlefish on this dive, but we didn't see it, but there were plenty of fish and crabs around the wreck, including Cuckoo Wrasse.

Our dive lasted about 40 minutes, but it most certainly wasn't the same wreck we'd dived on a couple of years before as the Enecuri and it seems that the northerly 5M sonar hit is another wreck called the Cragside.

So, now we know and can explore both sites separately on future trips.

The next outing was to Vobster Quay, the inland site we often use.

The aim of the day was to get a couple of Dive Leader trainees through their final dives and drills and advance another towards it.

My responsibility on our first dive (on a pleasantly bright and warm day) was to carry out D04 for Paul and Emma. This, mainly, consists of working with a lift bag to relocate and lift a shot weight, with a mid-water DSMB deployment to finish off.

We jumped in near the sunken aircraft and swam a short way away from it, taking the shot weight and lifting bag with us.

Conscious that the weight could drop from the lift bag on the surface, where we planned to leave it, I didn't want it over the plane, where I knew a lot of divers would pass under it.

I showed Paul and Emma how to put enough air into the lift bag to just make the weight neutrally buoyant and easy to move and then they both carried out the exercise. They then launched the lift bag to the surface, being sure to move away from under it, in case the weight slipped on the ascent.

We then intended to move over the crushing works and north to visit the Sea King helicopter sunk in the lake a couple of years ago. However, when we got to the lower end of the tunnel, beneath the crushing works Paul indicated he wasn't happy to descend any further, so I indicated to Emma and Rohit (who was just diving with us on this occasion) to continue north and try and find the helicopter, while Paul and I returned to the plane to carry out his DSMB mid water launch and recover the lift bag.

Paul's DSMB launch passed without incident, but when we finished our safety stop, there was no sign of the lift bag on the surface! At first we worried it had rolled over (or was punctured) and had sunk, but then Paul pointed hundreds of yards down the lake and said "That's not it, is it?"

At first, it seemed unlikely and looked not unlike floats some open water swimmers were using, but it wasn't moving, so we headed towards and, sure enough, it was! The wind across the lake had obviously taken the lift bag and the weight about 1/2 way down the lake from the point at which we'd launched it!

We recovered it and swam in and Emma and Rohit arrived shortly after, happily reporting that they had found the Sea King by swimming directly north from where we separated.

All through this dive my air pressure gauge had been leaking badly, but back on the surface it stopped! However, as a precaution, I swapped the gauge from a club set of regs Paul had brought along onto mine and had no further issues all day.

After a bacon roll and cup of tea, and about an hour, Emma and I set off from in front of the shop. One of her aims this day was to do a 25M+ dive as you need to complete a certain number for Dive Leader and it's a surprisingly had barrier to break as everyone was finding and I had when doing my Dive Leader training.

We descended quite quickly down past the various platforms at different depths and started into a pit which goes down beyond 30M. Very soon Emma indicated she had 25.3M on her computer, but I decided we'd drop a bit deeper and record a 30M+ dive, for me as much as her.

Down at this depth the water was chilly, below 8C, and we didn't stay long, but somewhere I swam too far along the wall of the pit and turned around. Trusting my gut (and having a slope on my right) I carried on, but the landscape got more and more unfamililar and by the time we surfaced, we were back at the Western extreme of the lake with another longish surface swim to get back to the exit point.

Still, we saw some different sites, including a large Perch nursery on a level area covered in weed and a copse of dead, but still rooted trees.

More importantly, Emma had passed 25M and with her DSMB launch completed was a fully trained Dive Leader!

On the same day, Ria also completed her D07 drills (and her 100th dive, a big day) to qualify as well.

With Paul getting a few drills signed off, too, it had been a successful morning, but after a break I suggested we do a 3rd dive (as it still wasn't 1PM).

Paul and Emma decided to head off, but the rest of us went back in and set off with me leading, hoping to see the Sea King (everyone else already had!). Sadly the vis wasn't so good and my navigation by compass a bit off and we missed it (not by far, I don't think), but did reach the caravan, which was our next target.

We headed back up the rope from there to the wheelhouse and then onto the cabin cruiser, which wasn't visible from the wheelhouse on this dive.

We headed back towards the slip after that and bimbled around in the warmer, shallower water around some platforms for a while before we reached 30 minutes dive time and then completed a safety stop and exited by the shop again.

We were back on the road by 2:30 and home in good time for dinner. Overall, a successful and enjoyable day's outing to Vobster.

Sadly, the poor weather continued for the rest of September and hopes of getting out on the RHIB or a shuttle remained unfulfilled.

October was fairly quiet too, a group of us went down to Chepstow to do some training/experience building diving on the 12th and had a pretty enjoyable day.

On the first dive, I dived with Lewis, who was carrying out on his Sports Diver training, doing the line laying exercise with him in the shallows and then progressing on down past the various vehicles to the tugboat which we explored the deck of, before swimming back to the wall and carrying out a simulated deco stop on one of the buoy lines under the pontoon. Vis was pretty good, at around 5-10M and there were a fair number of fish (Perch mostly) around.

After lunch, I did an experience dive with Olly, with him leading the dive. We did much the same route as I'd done with Lewis to start with, but spent longer on the tug and explored inside as well. Then we headed on along the wall and found the diving bell and the maze/box that replicates the interior of a wreck pretty well, before ascending under the pontoon again after a 45 minute dive.

With less to do in terms of drills it was more of a leisurely day's diving and everyone had a good time.

The following Wednesday, Dave Twyford and I decided to do the last night dive of the year at Wraysbury.

We met at 5PM and, with the clocks still on Summer Time, got a 40 minute dive in dimming light. Sadly I'd left the mask I have with reading lenses in at home, so had to rely on the mask I use as an emergency spare which not only has no reading lenses, but also, I found, steams up repeatedly! The dive was a bit chaotic, with a mix of a constantly steaming up mask, poor eyesight and pretty dreadful vis generally, leading us to go north to the 'caves', rather than south!

Still, we did see some things and 40 minutes wasn't a terrible dive duration - Enough, certainly, in the conditions.

I treated myself to a portion of nachos for dinner and then we started our true night dive.

We decided to enter from the pier away from the shop and go straight across the lake (more or less East) in the hope of better vis and finding some of the wrecks over there.

As soon as we got in, it was clear the vis was no better, but we swam ahead for a while, reasonably hopeful of finding something.

After about 10 minutes we saw lights coming towards us, but soon they were so bright as to total dazzle us (I presume it was a videographer with two movie lights, but it was hard to tell as the light reflected off all the silt in the water).

Pretty unsurprisingly we got disorientated and I think Dave lost his bearings and after 20 minutes of seeing next to nothing (execept, I think, a VW Camper - It was orange and white with windows, but I couldn't swear that's what it was, so poor was the vis), we decided to can the dive and surface, finding ourselves withe a fairly long swim back to the pier to exit.

It was probably fortuitous timing, though, as my new torch switched itself off somewhere on our ascent and was dead on the surface, although revived fully after a charge.

So, an experience for sure, but not one I think either of us will rush to repeat!

Luckily my next diving was to be of an altogether different and far more enjoyable nature...

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