Drift dives for me have been very much a ‘pot luck’ thing, until this year, I would have nornally said dull and boring, the minutes dragging by looking at a muddy bottom!
This drift dive was really very nice and the Anchor Reef off Bracklesham has a varied bottom, without the mud, to keep any diver interested. When I mean any diver I have to restrict that to a ‘non blue water’ diver or especially a Solent diver.
The visibility was about 3 metres; the fish were about but usually kept their distance (I must remember to shower before a dive). The tide, for the diver, was a bit odd as it felt at times it was less of a drift but more of an eddy, surge, and wash about. The skipper Simon reckons both sets of divers were moving against the tide, which gives you some indication of the situation.
The depth varied from 8 metres to one point at 4.8 metres, in itself not a problem but maintaining my buoyancy was a constant effort, as was clearing my ears!
Dan, my buddy, has a strange affinity with the underwater life! How he gets hold of crabs and lobsters without getting his fingers pinched or nipped when he shoves his hand in their ‘hidey hole’ I never will know. This time he grabs hold of a dogfish!!
Dan let it go, I think that it is his way of keeping his animal grabbing skills honed, for those more important lobsters. I have since been checking out the skinning and cooking of dogfish!
This dive has been my longest to date at 75 minutes long with still 100 Bar in the cylinder. We really only stopped the dive as Simon was giving us a recall by revving his boat engine! We knew he had a pick up for the next set of divers after us.
Check out the video of the dive. The opening sequences have been taken from Google Earth and I believe the boat is in fact Simon’s boat.
Here is the link to the video Anchor Reef Drift 22nd May 2010
Monday 31 May 2010
Sunday 16 May 2010
Camberwell and the Luis 9th May 2010
This dive was scheduled to be the U1195 & drift. Roy the skipper was not happy with the weather/sea surface over the U1195 area. In his opinion that type of sea surface would be very lumpy and the resulting diving viz very poor. So his recommendation was dive the Camberwell followed by a Drift starting at the Luis.
The viz on the Camberwell was great I would guess about 10+m. It was so good I got the camera out during the descent. Dan caught a very large lobster that put up a real fight not to go in his goody bag. Sadly it was a female with eggs so it was let go.
The other lobsters were too small. There was a very large edible crab but it was a long way down in the wreck and neither Dan nor I were interested in him. Dan and I were on air so we were dive time limited but moved to the higher parts of the wreck to increase our dive time when the bottom time got to 7 minutes left.
There was a lot of life on this wreck and other divers had fun picking up bottles!
The second dive was to be dropped off on the Luis and then drift off. Dan and I stayed on the wreck using the old hand over hand technique and the tide running kept the viz good at about 5m. Dan was again in lobster hunting mood but all the lobster were far too small to be taken.
The boat ride back to Eastney was rather rough in places, which told all the divers how rough the sea could have been. Truly excellent diving with the best viz ever for a dive that deep and the second dive was great as well.
Don’t just believe me check out the dive video Camberwell and the Luis
The viz on the Camberwell was great I would guess about 10+m. It was so good I got the camera out during the descent. Dan caught a very large lobster that put up a real fight not to go in his goody bag. Sadly it was a female with eggs so it was let go.
The other lobsters were too small. There was a very large edible crab but it was a long way down in the wreck and neither Dan nor I were interested in him. Dan and I were on air so we were dive time limited but moved to the higher parts of the wreck to increase our dive time when the bottom time got to 7 minutes left.
There was a lot of life on this wreck and other divers had fun picking up bottles!
The second dive was to be dropped off on the Luis and then drift off. Dan and I stayed on the wreck using the old hand over hand technique and the tide running kept the viz good at about 5m. Dan was again in lobster hunting mood but all the lobster were far too small to be taken.
The boat ride back to Eastney was rather rough in places, which told all the divers how rough the sea could have been. Truly excellent diving with the best viz ever for a dive that deep and the second dive was great as well.
Don’t just believe me check out the dive video Camberwell and the Luis
Saturday 15 May 2010
The Luis & Drift 3rd May 2010
Another blown out dive! I had been watching the weather websites and it was not looking good and at best it would have been a very rough ride out into the Solent with a very dodgy pick up with the wind at F4~5. As it was, Skipper Roy for the Wightdiver had been watching it very closely then the wind moved up to F5~6 which scrubbed it.
Babbacombe Bay, Devon, shore dive 1st May
An unplanned bit of diving, sort of courtesy of my wife. A trip to Devon to visit my mother-in-law in hospital but my wife decided it would be better if she took the train from her mother’s house to the hospital and I would go off diving. Yippee!
So I contacted JC Diving in Exmouth and tagged along with one of their training dives. I met up with Nick who I have dived with before on trips with JC diving. Drove down to Babbacombe Bay and then met up with Tony who bypassed the whole meeting up at the dive centre thing. Babbacombe is a great place for a shore dive with the one exception of the limited parking, so the advice is to get there early!!
There is a very nice café that can supply all those hot post diving food and drinks also the table & chair to do the shore cover while you eat and drink. Entry and exit is fine, there are just a few slippery stones around to take care of or I should say avoid.
I am what you would call a slow diver, which is great as my air consumption that shoots through the roof if I do any serious finning. Nick and Tony really taught me how slow one can really dive we sort of had a drift dive in the bay with just the eddies moving us around. Sadly the effect was that Nick got very cold with his lack of movement. I was all toasty in my dry suit compared to Nick and Tony in their wet suits (brave souls with a water temperature of 10 °C).
Just after Nick gave me the universal divers sign that he was totally frozen and should make our way back we saw a cuttlefish about 18 inches to 2ft long. It appeared to enjoy the attention of being photographed. Always a good sign that water is getting warmer.
After that we finned back to shore. I was rather chuffed that my navigation back to the shore was impressively good this time, as we routed straight back to the mushroom rock and then right back to the slipway. Actually I think that it was more fluke than skill, but it was impressive.
After we de-kitted we had some hot drinks and food from the café while we carried out the shore cover for JC Diving. It was a bit wet by now with the rain. I don’t know about you but I do go off diving in the rain, cold wind fine, it is just something about the rain.
Nick had lost his core body temperature and called off the second dive. I also called off the second dive as I appear to have a slight dry suit leak and had got rather cold by now so packed up to meet up with my wife.
A great days diving and great company and the cuttlefish was a real plus!
Here is the link to the video Babbacombe Bay shore dive
So I contacted JC Diving in Exmouth and tagged along with one of their training dives. I met up with Nick who I have dived with before on trips with JC diving. Drove down to Babbacombe Bay and then met up with Tony who bypassed the whole meeting up at the dive centre thing. Babbacombe is a great place for a shore dive with the one exception of the limited parking, so the advice is to get there early!!
There is a very nice café that can supply all those hot post diving food and drinks also the table & chair to do the shore cover while you eat and drink. Entry and exit is fine, there are just a few slippery stones around to take care of or I should say avoid.
I am what you would call a slow diver, which is great as my air consumption that shoots through the roof if I do any serious finning. Nick and Tony really taught me how slow one can really dive we sort of had a drift dive in the bay with just the eddies moving us around. Sadly the effect was that Nick got very cold with his lack of movement. I was all toasty in my dry suit compared to Nick and Tony in their wet suits (brave souls with a water temperature of 10 °C).
Just after Nick gave me the universal divers sign that he was totally frozen and should make our way back we saw a cuttlefish about 18 inches to 2ft long. It appeared to enjoy the attention of being photographed. Always a good sign that water is getting warmer.
After that we finned back to shore. I was rather chuffed that my navigation back to the shore was impressively good this time, as we routed straight back to the mushroom rock and then right back to the slipway. Actually I think that it was more fluke than skill, but it was impressive.
After we de-kitted we had some hot drinks and food from the café while we carried out the shore cover for JC Diving. It was a bit wet by now with the rain. I don’t know about you but I do go off diving in the rain, cold wind fine, it is just something about the rain.
Nick had lost his core body temperature and called off the second dive. I also called off the second dive as I appear to have a slight dry suit leak and had got rather cold by now so packed up to meet up with my wife.
A great days diving and great company and the cuttlefish was a real plus!
Here is the link to the video Babbacombe Bay shore dive
Monday 3 May 2010
Camswain and the Bembridge Ledges Drift 25th April 2010
Finally a chance to be back in the water!
Normally I really don’t like to dive in a threesome, but diving with Dan and Roy it was so easy. To be honest the conditions on the Camswain were not the best. There was too much muck which blanked out the sunlight. I think that was a plankton layer that killed the light, with the traditional green sea.
So credit all round for staying together and seeing the life that we did on the wreck. I stopped being a watchful diver at one point as it appears that I shouldered Roy into a bulkhead, so it is the 'naughty step' for me!
All that being said it was a good dive albeit rather dark, UK divers can handle that sort of dive.
The second dive was a drift dive over the Bembridge ledges again Dan, Roy and myself. There was a seriously low stress dive that turned into a scallop picking session. Dan and I both caught large edible crabs. Then I came across a large flat fish,a Turbot I thought at the time just lying there some 18inches to 2 foot long. I dumped air as I turned over it and got out my trusty divers knife and stabbed straight down. I got the fish but I bounced as I struck the fish and so the fish just shot away leaving me alone in a cloud of silt!!
After collecting my bearings I had lost the other two. So it was a quick follow, as best I could for a minute then I deployed the SMB and then a slow drift assent. Mind you with all the exertion of the fish stabbing, I had used up a lot of air so it was close to me having to ascend anyway.
A very good days diving and a lot of fun.
Just one incident where Rich, the Wightdiver skipper, had to manoeuvre Wightdiver to block a power boat from passing over some of our divers. Wightdiver was flying the ‘divers down’ flag and the guys had a big red SMB, but they were blind to that.
Here is the link to the video of the dive of Camswain and the Bembridge Ledges Drift
Normally I really don’t like to dive in a threesome, but diving with Dan and Roy it was so easy. To be honest the conditions on the Camswain were not the best. There was too much muck which blanked out the sunlight. I think that was a plankton layer that killed the light, with the traditional green sea.
So credit all round for staying together and seeing the life that we did on the wreck. I stopped being a watchful diver at one point as it appears that I shouldered Roy into a bulkhead, so it is the 'naughty step' for me!
All that being said it was a good dive albeit rather dark, UK divers can handle that sort of dive.
The second dive was a drift dive over the Bembridge ledges again Dan, Roy and myself. There was a seriously low stress dive that turned into a scallop picking session. Dan and I both caught large edible crabs. Then I came across a large flat fish,a Turbot I thought at the time just lying there some 18inches to 2 foot long. I dumped air as I turned over it and got out my trusty divers knife and stabbed straight down. I got the fish but I bounced as I struck the fish and so the fish just shot away leaving me alone in a cloud of silt!!
After collecting my bearings I had lost the other two. So it was a quick follow, as best I could for a minute then I deployed the SMB and then a slow drift assent. Mind you with all the exertion of the fish stabbing, I had used up a lot of air so it was close to me having to ascend anyway.
A very good days diving and a lot of fun.
Just one incident where Rich, the Wightdiver skipper, had to manoeuvre Wightdiver to block a power boat from passing over some of our divers. Wightdiver was flying the ‘divers down’ flag and the guys had a big red SMB, but they were blind to that.
Here is the link to the video of the dive of Camswain and the Bembridge Ledges Drift
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