Dive Trip Report – Reg S writes:
I had grand plans to dive submarines this weekend. HMS Sidon on Saturday and the UB74 on Sunday - both wrecks I hadn't dived before. Both quite deep and challenging targets. And both on the far side of Portland Bill.
The forecast was a bit changeable, but looked do-able. On both days the wind picked up in the afternoon - which, of course, was when slack was. But that was fine. We were all experienced divers after all.
And, because of that, I made plan B’s. And C’s... just in case.
Of course, no-one told the weather any of this. So we watched and fretted and fretted.
Saturday Dive 1:
David B wasn't feeling too well so he decided to skip the first dive, but we still had 4 divers and Thanos as cox so we were Ok! We set off on time! I quietly gave myself Extra Dive Manager points!
Balaclava Bay Drift - just a quick warm up before...Well, we had already switched to plan B for the afternoon - the Binnendijk - a lovely wreck that didn't involve having to get around the Bill.... And the Drift. Well, it was fun. Breezy on the way out. We got in, saw a few fish. My computer decided to be in Rebreather Mode... But no worries I had a dive timer and a buddy... and it wasn't terribly deep. My suit leaked, but the water was warm. It was fine. A fun dive. We headed back to the marina and watched the whitecaps.
Being doubly damned by the cruel misfortune of equipment failure, I decided to skip the second dive, lubricate zips, factory reset my computer and take a shower.
I returned to the marina later that afternoon with the sunny but slightly uncomfortable look of someone who has had too much Lucozade and far too many Haribo... but my undersuit and was drying in my room and I had even remembered to pack spare dive socks - so that was good.
I arrived on the pontoon at the same time as the intrepid crew of the Richmond Explorer including David B who had gone along for the ride but chosen not to dive. I quickly learned that they had poked the boat's nose out of the southern entrance but decided to dive The Spaniard in the harbour... which wasn't on my list of targets at all - Minus Dive Manger Points!! As Paul Robinson, officially voted Britain's most positive person, tells it, it was a really lovely dive, so that was good!
That evening we had a rather nice dinner at Billy Winters and Sam P. lent me his old dive computer. We also resolved to set off super early in the morning, get around the Bill and just do the James Fennell and Gertrude in the lee and head back before the wind picked up rather than risk the later slack on the '74.
Sunday - Dive 1.
Now, I may have mentioned that we had been doing some fretting over the weather. This reached collective fever pitch on Sunday morning - which was also misty. So, in this quiet, I hazy moment, we collectively decided to chuck our plans and hug the coast East of the Bill - and dive The British Inventor and White Nothe - rather than risking wind against tide coming back.
So that's what we did. Not on the plan. Minus DM points!
Still, the life on the British Inventor was amazing - we hovered in place watching walls of silver fish hover back and regard us like aliens descended from above shining bright lights down on them. All too soon we surfaced, clambered soggily back into the boat and found some shelter from the very mild chop...
During the surface interval I discovered that Niall didn't want any of his thoughtfully purchased corner shop 'not actually his birthday' cake. It was worse than my computer not working.
Dive 2 - White Nothe
Not very deep. Quite a lot of kelp moving back and forth... back and forth... back and forth... Kwells... that was what I hadn't packed...hadn't packed. I managed to distract myself by finding a few small fish and watching them dart about. Later, Paul described the dive as "Like Wisley under water" so that was fine.
We headed back to the marina and beat the traffic back to London.
So, all in all, a fun dive weekend on Richmond Explorer with a cracking bunch.
Looking forward to the next one!
