After two days in quarries Fraser is feeling a bit more dived up after his absence in New York so it was time to head for some fun dives in the sea.
Friday night found us heading for Portland where we met up with Al at Breakwater. Getting there late we set straight for the bar, and the all important weather report which was showing 4s and rain – but most importantly – the dives looked to be on
We watched some vids and talked until the small hours again, but as the start was a relaxed 1 pm one it really didn’t matter. Unfortunately, I was woken about an hour after we did get to sleep by screeching brakes, slamming door and the sound of running feet. I looked out of the window and saw a man running right past it – he had dumped a car which had obviously been involved in an accident.
I woke Al and we decided to call the police – who appeared very pleased that we did. Giving them all the details, we then went back to sleep – only to be woken a little while later by police units and the dog unit in the car park. More worryingly though the wind was picking up… Oh boy!
We woke eventually though to bright sunshine, and light winds. It was looking good. Al put the sets in (as Fraser was still asleep – having slept through the events of the night as well!) and we turfed him out of bed and went for breakfast. Examining the car brought the pleasant news that whatever it had hit had clearly been paint covered rather than human – so not quite as bad as it could have been.
Goose
A 1pm start meant that there was no rush – this one dive a day lark is something I could get used to. We were heading out over calm blue seas which promised a great dive – and Fraser was beaming like a Cheshire cat to be back.
HMS Boadicea
This WWII destroyer is a war grave in 52 metres. She was lost to German aircraft torpedo attack in June 1944 with 150 souls on board. She stands 6 metres high in some places. There are items of unexploded ammunition on her including depth charges.
We had been travelling about 40 minutes and were thinking about discussing our dive plan when Andy the skipper came out of the wheelhouse and said “Sorry boys, Top Gun has put out a Mayday – she has a fire and we must go to assist”.
Bugger.
We set off at top speed to get to Top Gun who was no longer on fire but had been advised that the Lifeboat would tow her back to port. Her divers who were due to dive the M2 would kit up and join us on Goose – that was it – dive off.
Loosing a dive due to weather is one thing – but at least you can look at the sea and say ‘well I’d rather not be out in that’. Loosing it for these reasons is a bit sickening….I wasn’t the only one off either boat tempted to just jump in But life is like that sometimes, and the wrecks will still be there tomorrow.
It was fun to see the lifeboat in action though – and hear the coastguard co-ordinate the rescue. Nice to know that they are there for all of us.
Andy tried to cheer up 12 pissed off divers on the way back by offering them a dive – but as we had missed slack everywhere – all he could offer was the harbour. We thought about it for a bit and then thought “What the hell, why not” so mindful that we weren’t going to waste a fill of 18/45 diving the Countess in 12 meters planned to dive stages.
This is when I got my silly idea
I have been concerned for a while about the prospect of diving three stages off a boat – which I will have to do later this year. I’m OK with them in the water, but the weight of standing anywhere with twin 12s, an Ali 80, a 7ltr and a 40 clipped off to me is daunting to say the least – let alone on a rocking platform waiting for the shot to come round.
Now, I already had two stages on the boat, the 7 which I was intending to use for the dive and an O2 stage, so I hopped up to Breakwater and picked up my 80 of 32 per cent. That was it then – I’d have a go on a 12 metre dive in the harbour – doesn’t get much easier than that for a first attempt.
Al helped me clip everything off as we were a bit tight for space, and I had to enter the water alone due to the order of divers on the boat – to then hang around on the surface to wait for Al and Frase. It was less a giant stride and more a controlled fall – but you know what – it was OK – and I’m going to stop worrying about having to do it now.
Viz on the Countess was incredibly patchy, and we’ve dived it loads of times so we just did skills and annoyed some fish for a while. Fraser laid some line, Al took it up and I just swam around feeling like an aircraft carrier with all those bottles – but we got wet rather than sulking back at Breakwater – and got an hours dive in.
Back at Breakwater we played on the beach with Al’s Gavin – to get it weighted for sea. Dinner at the Weymouth curry house was fun and we started looking forward to the Salsette which we would dive the next day.
Salsette
British steamship in 48 metres, torpedoed and sunk July 1917, fifteen miles SW of Portland Bill. Intact and lying on its side.
The Salsette was the last wreck that we dived as a team before Fraser left to go to the States. We had a great dive that day although the viz was not that good, and when we surfaced – not knowing if he would ever be coming back – he said “well ladies and gentlement, thank you. It doesn’t get any better than that”.
Now we would do it again.
Thank God the weather looked even better when we woke up on Sunday. With a 1:30 pm start and no fills to get we had the morning on our hands. We wandered into Portland Oceanering which we had never visited before and bought a few small bits and pieces. There was a picture on the wall of the Salsette – which studying it showed us that we had actually swam around the least interesting side of it before – peering through holes in the side rather than over the decks.
Unbelievably, with 5 hours to get ready, the skipper is revving the engine waiting for Fraser to get on board and Al’s blood pressure is rising again! But then we get off – with sea state looking even better than the day before.
Al finding that Fraser intends to be late again
First team in we descend quite slowly, Fraser taking number one position to ensure that he is comfortable. Checks made at 6 and then down to the wreck which we hit in about 38 metres of water. A bit of a shake out and then we descend to the bottom – over the decks this time…. Wow!
We see the port rail buried in the sand and the sheer size of this ship is apparent and magnificent she is too. Viz is a stunning 7 or 8 metres and we are going to have a great dive!
We spot a fish which must be a rainbow wrasse (although I can’t find an image which looks like it on google) but it is huge and really colourful – almost like being in the red sea – but with better wrecks Moving along I spot what must be a bunch of eggs inside the wreck – like large teardrop shaped bunch of grapes – no idea what they are either.
Move forward to the bow, past a huge mast lying on the sea bed – stretching as far as we can see – which is quite a long way today. We swim past a small boiler, and Fraser spots the anchor which doesn’t look quite what I expect one to look like. The bow of the ship shows clearly quite how huge it is – we then turn and swim back a little more shallow.
I’m looking for congers, but don’t see any (Al does) but the wreck is just impressive in every way. There is a lot of machinery around, and I have fun trying to work out what much of it is. Not much in the way of life really – a few shoals of bib in the holds, couple of crabs and one or two large wrasse. Bit too early I suppose – if I’m cold they must be too.
I turn to question Al on deco, if he is running 45 average then we have hit max bottom time – if a 42 then we have a bit more time to go. He indicates that he is happy with a 42 average – a decision I agree with and we agree to swim on for 5 more minutes – but as we turn Fraser thumbs the dive. We were heading towards a 75 minute runtime at this point, in 7 degrees, so wise move
We had a nice ascent – although I’ll be pleased when the sea warms up a bit in the shallows – it does make deco a lot more pleasant. One little issue, my stage reg was bubbling air out each time I finished exhaling – which made my breathing pattern interesting.
When we had reached the end of our 6 metre stop and had 5 minutes to go on deco I started to cough and for a minute could not stop. I put a hand on Fraser to steady myself and whilst I was pretty comfortable that the cough was caused by a dry throat due to the reg breathing decided to take myself off my deco gas and go back to back gas – just in case the higher O2 content was acting as an irritant.
I went to unclip my reg and, on the ball as always, Al saw this and donated to me – thinking that I had a problem with the reg. I used this for a few breaths and handed it back to him switching to my back gas and restowing the stage whilst Frase took over the bag. Problem over – and we hadn’t budged from 3 metres throughout.
Thinking back to Fraser’s statement in October last year, I thought to myself, yup - it does get better – and it just did
If this is diving in April - I can’t wait for the rest of the year….
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