Eastbourne 8th April 2018

My first sea dive after becoming an ocean diver!

The first thing that hit me when I jumped into the water was how cold it was , despite all the kit I was wearing!(7 degrees)

My goal from the start was to remain focused and put all the skills that I learnt in the pool to good use in the sea!

I held on to the shot line and eased my way down, keeping my buddy insight at all times, until we met the sunken wreck!

Finally, it was now time to let go of the shot line and begin an experience of a lifetime !

By this time, I had forgotten how cold the water was…………….

It was nice to swim about and gaze at the star fish, the crabs and little fishes that all seemed to be asleep in the home they made from the wreck.

It was also good to implement the skills that I learnt to meet the challenges that came on the dive.

For instance, like having to purging my regulator as water enter my mouth triggering a panic but remembering to try to keep calm! Also, maintaining focus at different depths to keep my buoyancy and monitoring my air supply, as the dive progressed.

When we surfaced, we were all cold but no one was detered by this as we sat eating sandwiches with a hot drink and looking forward to the new top dive!

“sorry for the long narrative but I could not restrain myself in the confines of just one paragraph with an enormous experience like that!

Thanks again for being there for me and helping me to take that first step or leap forward in my quest to be a better and safer scuba diver.

My journey has just begun but I can see why we maintain regular practices and how we can never stop learning as we known what challenges lay ahead of us!!!!

Many thanks.

Stephen”

Weymouth September 2017

By Jeremy Swann

In 2016 after another May with cold water and poor viz the decision was taken to move our Weymouth week to September, the result was warmer water and excellent viz. The weather was as capricious as ever.

On Saturday, our first day, we dived the Alex Van Opstel a Belgium passenger liner sunk in September 1939 by a mine while en route to Antwerp. Our drift dive was scalloping on Lulworth Banks. To our delight the scallops were very plentiful with the young snapping around in front of us like a flock of demented dentures.

Sunday we dived the James Fennel and a scalloping drift on Cannonball Run.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday the weather allowed us to dive west of Portland Bill and we enjoyed three stunning wrecks, the Landrail and the submarines the Sidon and M2. The Landrail was a beautiful wreck, very much intact and home to lobsters, conger eels and pollock. The Sidon was sunk about 1955 to be used as an underwater sonar target, a beautiful wreck with the viz so good we could sit on the conning tower and view the whole length of the wreck. The M2 also had viz good enough to explore the hanger and observe the huge conger eels that have made it their home.

Thursday the strong winds that had been threatening us finally arrived, no diving in the morning but we managed the British Inventor in the afternoon. Thursday morning off gave us the opportunity to visit Portland Castle and the Castletown D-Day Centre. The Portland Castle was constructed by Henry V111 as one of a number of forts to protect Weymouth. The D-Day Centre was created to remember the part Weymouth played in the D-Day landings and the Americans troops who sailed from Portland Bill.

Friday we dived the Binnendijk, a Dutch steamship that was sunk by a mine in 1939. Our drift dive was again on Cannonball Run and another haul of scallops to add to the full goody bags hanging from the pontoon in the harbour. 

Weymouth was a fun week of diving, the wrecks were full of crabs and lobsters and lots ended up in goody bags after each dive. Our surface interval time was spent fishing, not as successful as other years. It is amazing how the smallest of mackerel can get themselves hooked. Jim managed to catch 4 or 5 of them at a time all about 3 inches long. Gi had better luck and hooked some large enough to fillet and have for supper. I hooked a cuttlefish but on reaching the surface it spat out a jet of water, unhooked itself and disappeared under the waves. Kevin caught a red gurnard, much too cute to keep and it was carefully taken off the hook and returned to the sea.