After yesterdays stunning viz, I was looking forward to some equally good viz when diving the Mixon Hole. The Mixon Hole is an interesting underwater feature that is worth exploring for that alone. It is also a haven for wildlife crabs, lobsters, flatfish, dogfish, and tope.
Simon the skipper dropped us off at the 7m edge and we swam along towards the edge. Amazingly we saw a cuttlefish on the way. The edge is rather interesting as there is just this sharp drop. I cannot say I carry out my descent in any elegant way at all.
I want to see the mud wall as I go down but the wall is not vertical but at a 60 degree angle. Therefore I have to keep backing away from the wall by using my hands to shove myself away. This tends to make for a rather messy decent and I tried several techniques on the way down and all were not good.
Sadly the Viz was not so good at about 3 metres, mainly due to lots of bit of seaweed. The dive plan was to keep to the edge of the Mixon Hole as we felt that there would be more life and indeed it was a haven for crabs and even a few lobsters.
I sent up my SMB after we got to the bottom and it was a struggle with it working against the tide. It took Dan’s help to reel it back in as it eventually was dragging me backwards. I think that the next time I send up an SMB from the bottom of the Mixon Hole we will swim with the tide.
Dan final found and caught a suitable large crab followed by a dogfish which both ended up in his goody bag. The crab found the dogfish and decided not to let it go when we were on the boat and it took a lot of effort to separate the two!
On the assent to the top of the hole I came across a cuttlefish trying to blend in with the mud walls. Also we just caught a glimpse of a tope on the way up and a very brief view of it on video.
One of the nice features about diving on the Mixon Hole is that the 5 metre safety stop is just a couple of metres above the bottom outside the hole so there is still a lot to see!
Simon the Skipper of Stormforce enjoys the driving of the boat and so we had a speedy trip back to shore. This was a great day and a very nice dive.
Here is the link to the videoDiving the Mixon Hole 20th June 2010
Tuesday 29 June 2010
Diving the Far Mulberry 19th June 2010
I had great hopes for today’s dive. The plankton was supposed to be dieing the wind has not been high for the last couple of weeks and neither has there been any heavy rain. That for me in my untutored technique of underwater condition forecasting was the mixture for GREAT VIZ!!!!
Down on the East Beach at Selsey met some incoming divers for a chat who reckoned the viz in the Mixon hole was over 15 m!! Yeah right, were these divers narked or what, over 15 m in the Solent? Even if it was over exaggerated that still meant the viz will be good.
At the Mulberry Divers shop we were warned that the wind was playing around and Steve, the skipper, may have to re-site the dive to the other side of Selsey Bill for some shelter.
As it happened Steve felt that the wind was ok to dive on the Far Mulberry, it was getting a bit bumpy on the way there but was fine as we were dropped off.
The dive was listed as a Mulberry Drift, the plan being to drive to the wreck then as a point when the tide felt strong send up an SMB and drift off the wreck. It was a nice dive plan, with a controlled start to the dive with things to see. The drift part of the dive gives a different view of the bottom with minimal effort.
This dive on the Mulberry was the first trip of the day to the Far Mulberry with my son Will. Yes viz was great, as were the panoramic views when the sunlight came out. I saw Will a number of times just looking into the distance across the rolling swaths of golden sand and plant life that surround the Mulberry just taking it all in. Looking at the Mulberry for sea life it was lobster, edible crab, and spider crabs were there. Pollock and some wrasse were around. Lots of juveniles of bib and pollock were there. It was a lovely dive, where we could move against the tide in the shelter of the wreck by crawling on the bottom then had the luxury of ‘drifting’ the long lengths of the Mulberry. Therefore we stayed on the Mulberry and did not drift off. A 61 minute dive that could have gone on for longer apart from Will, in his wetsuit, getting cold and that we had specified a max dive time of 65 minutes.
It was nice to be at the bottom and see the buoy at the top or at the buoy and see the bottom. The safety stop was equally nice for a change with the view, where you could see the fish taking an interest in us. The only down side was the lack of large shoals of fish that occurs from time to time at the Mulberry, which when they occur is absolutely stunning. This was a cracking dive with the Mulberry being everything one expects from it.
Here is the link to the video: The Far Mulberry 19th June 2010
or just click on the window:
Down on the East Beach at Selsey met some incoming divers for a chat who reckoned the viz in the Mixon hole was over 15 m!! Yeah right, were these divers narked or what, over 15 m in the Solent? Even if it was over exaggerated that still meant the viz will be good.
At the Mulberry Divers shop we were warned that the wind was playing around and Steve, the skipper, may have to re-site the dive to the other side of Selsey Bill for some shelter.
As it happened Steve felt that the wind was ok to dive on the Far Mulberry, it was getting a bit bumpy on the way there but was fine as we were dropped off.
The dive was listed as a Mulberry Drift, the plan being to drive to the wreck then as a point when the tide felt strong send up an SMB and drift off the wreck. It was a nice dive plan, with a controlled start to the dive with things to see. The drift part of the dive gives a different view of the bottom with minimal effort.
This dive on the Mulberry was the first trip of the day to the Far Mulberry with my son Will. Yes viz was great, as were the panoramic views when the sunlight came out. I saw Will a number of times just looking into the distance across the rolling swaths of golden sand and plant life that surround the Mulberry just taking it all in. Looking at the Mulberry for sea life it was lobster, edible crab, and spider crabs were there. Pollock and some wrasse were around. Lots of juveniles of bib and pollock were there. It was a lovely dive, where we could move against the tide in the shelter of the wreck by crawling on the bottom then had the luxury of ‘drifting’ the long lengths of the Mulberry. Therefore we stayed on the Mulberry and did not drift off. A 61 minute dive that could have gone on for longer apart from Will, in his wetsuit, getting cold and that we had specified a max dive time of 65 minutes.
It was nice to be at the bottom and see the buoy at the top or at the buoy and see the bottom. The safety stop was equally nice for a change with the view, where you could see the fish taking an interest in us. The only down side was the lack of large shoals of fish that occurs from time to time at the Mulberry, which when they occur is absolutely stunning. This was a cracking dive with the Mulberry being everything one expects from it.
Here is the link to the video: The Far Mulberry 19th June 2010
or just click on the window:
Wednesday 16 June 2010
Diving on the Far Mulberry 12th June 2010
This was my first dive with Mulberry Divers this year and it was my son Will’s first dive on the Far Mulberry. The weather today was great with a flat calm sea.
Sadly there was an incident as our dive boat approached the Far Mulberry and I was kitted ready to drop off the boat. Another diver appeared in the water and started screaming; sadly my first reaction was that it was a diving drill. Tone our skipper moved our boat toward the diver and I was able to grab her hand and hold her to our rib.
Tone was then able to get to the diver while her boat’s skipper came along side to pick her up. During the period we were holding her we learnt that it seemed that she dived off the boat early while her boat was manoeuvring and was hit by the prop. Her suit was cut but not her skin just badly bruised.
It appears that there was a misunderstanding between the skipper and the diver that resulted in the diver thinking that she had an instruction to dive off the boat.
Will and I went down the shot line but Will had problems with his ears and it took a bit of time to get to the bottom. At the bottom I realised that my cylinder has slip somehow and Will had to give it a shove back into the right place. I later found out this was the result of a rather cheap cylinder mesh that I had just fitted, it just would slip even with the BCD clip set up to be tight.
The viz was rather poor at the bottom of the chain about a meter, we followed the chain around the sea floor and then the rope to the Mulberry.
The viz at the bottom of the chain was just over a metre but the viz varied across the Far Mulberry 0.5m at its worst to 2.0 m at best. The plankton was the main culprit for the poor viz. A very popular site with 4 boats when I was there at 15:30, but I only came across two other diver pairs.
Will and I enjoyed our dive around the Mulberry, coming across dogfish, lobsters and looking into the hidey-holes, loads of bib and wrasse. We then came back up the chain at the end of the dive. It was a lovely dive as always with the Far Mulberry.
Watch the video via this link: Diving on the Far Mulberry 12th June 2010
a quiz? who can see the joke with the long intro music?
Sadly there was an incident as our dive boat approached the Far Mulberry and I was kitted ready to drop off the boat. Another diver appeared in the water and started screaming; sadly my first reaction was that it was a diving drill. Tone our skipper moved our boat toward the diver and I was able to grab her hand and hold her to our rib.
Tone was then able to get to the diver while her boat’s skipper came along side to pick her up. During the period we were holding her we learnt that it seemed that she dived off the boat early while her boat was manoeuvring and was hit by the prop. Her suit was cut but not her skin just badly bruised.
It appears that there was a misunderstanding between the skipper and the diver that resulted in the diver thinking that she had an instruction to dive off the boat.
Will and I went down the shot line but Will had problems with his ears and it took a bit of time to get to the bottom. At the bottom I realised that my cylinder has slip somehow and Will had to give it a shove back into the right place. I later found out this was the result of a rather cheap cylinder mesh that I had just fitted, it just would slip even with the BCD clip set up to be tight.
The viz was rather poor at the bottom of the chain about a meter, we followed the chain around the sea floor and then the rope to the Mulberry.
The viz at the bottom of the chain was just over a metre but the viz varied across the Far Mulberry 0.5m at its worst to 2.0 m at best. The plankton was the main culprit for the poor viz. A very popular site with 4 boats when I was there at 15:30, but I only came across two other diver pairs.
Will and I enjoyed our dive around the Mulberry, coming across dogfish, lobsters and looking into the hidey-holes, loads of bib and wrasse. We then came back up the chain at the end of the dive. It was a lovely dive as always with the Far Mulberry.
Watch the video via this link: Diving on the Far Mulberry 12th June 2010
a quiz? who can see the joke with the long intro music?
Wednesday 9 June 2010
Diving the Bomber 7th June 2010
This was by far the best dive of the year! I could not take general views of the wreckage as all the fish got in the way. So sadly the dive video is less of a record of the wreck and more of the overall dive.
Hellen the skipper took her time before dropping the shot line and it was right in the middle of the wreck area. The wreckage is not that high in places but the shot was right next to the largest piece.
The viz was very good maybe 3-4 m even with the 6 of us ‘stirring up’ the bottom and especially with the weather being so overcast. The bottom is mostly gravel with some silt but not much of that.
The wreck is only over some 30 feet diameter and needs a lot of work to work out what one is looking at. In hindsight I should have tried to float some 3 m above parts of the wreck to get better pictures but there was too much drift for that. The amount of material in the water prevented, with my little camera, using the flash.
From what we can work out, it had two engines, it would appear that the engines are ‘face down’ in the sea bed and so it is difficult to see or count the number of blades each engine had. It is a radial engine and the video clearly show two of the engine cowlings, well that is what I think they are.
There was a large solid object within the wreckage field that needs further investigation to make sense of what it was. At first sight I thought that it was another engine with struts on it but it did not appear to have the same symmetry as the engines
There was a large panel that was ellipse in shape that contained two large circular sub-panels each about 4 feet in diameter. That did not make sense to me, and still does not even after the dive.
This is the first dive that I have been trying to use my brain to seriously work out puzzles underwater, apart from the arithmetic during my training. It just goes to show that one has to be focus on just the one aspect of a task during this sort of investigate dive to make headway. Well in my case at least.
Roy and I moved north to a point beyond the wreck and then tried to get back to the wreck and failed to find it again. At Roy’s suggestion we moved to a drift dive and floated back onto the wreck. I can honestly say I am in awe of Roy dive diving navigation skills!
We joined Adrian and Simon another buddy pair filming a cuttlefish who was enjoying the limelight. I always have a sense of pride in the way divers just enjoy looking at the underwater creatures it is a simple pleasure.
Next time I dive on it I will have to take a lot more time around each piece. I think that I will have to be selective of my dive buddy, who will be happy to spend most of the dive around just one or two objects while we measure and examining the bits. This will entail a lot more of pre-dive planning.
As a dive it has it all, interesting objects and loads of life around.
Hellen the skipper took her time before dropping the shot line and it was right in the middle of the wreck area. The wreckage is not that high in places but the shot was right next to the largest piece.
The viz was very good maybe 3-4 m even with the 6 of us ‘stirring up’ the bottom and especially with the weather being so overcast. The bottom is mostly gravel with some silt but not much of that.
The wreck is only over some 30 feet diameter and needs a lot of work to work out what one is looking at. In hindsight I should have tried to float some 3 m above parts of the wreck to get better pictures but there was too much drift for that. The amount of material in the water prevented, with my little camera, using the flash.
From what we can work out, it had two engines, it would appear that the engines are ‘face down’ in the sea bed and so it is difficult to see or count the number of blades each engine had. It is a radial engine and the video clearly show two of the engine cowlings, well that is what I think they are.
There was a large solid object within the wreckage field that needs further investigation to make sense of what it was. At first sight I thought that it was another engine with struts on it but it did not appear to have the same symmetry as the engines
There was a large panel that was ellipse in shape that contained two large circular sub-panels each about 4 feet in diameter. That did not make sense to me, and still does not even after the dive.
This is the first dive that I have been trying to use my brain to seriously work out puzzles underwater, apart from the arithmetic during my training. It just goes to show that one has to be focus on just the one aspect of a task during this sort of investigate dive to make headway. Well in my case at least.
Roy and I moved north to a point beyond the wreck and then tried to get back to the wreck and failed to find it again. At Roy’s suggestion we moved to a drift dive and floated back onto the wreck. I can honestly say I am in awe of Roy dive diving navigation skills!
We joined Adrian and Simon another buddy pair filming a cuttlefish who was enjoying the limelight. I always have a sense of pride in the way divers just enjoy looking at the underwater creatures it is a simple pleasure.
Next time I dive on it I will have to take a lot more time around each piece. I think that I will have to be selective of my dive buddy, who will be happy to spend most of the dive around just one or two objects while we measure and examining the bits. This will entail a lot more of pre-dive planning.
As a dive it has it all, interesting objects and loads of life around.
Monday 7 June 2010
Diving the Mixon Hole 5th June 2010
The last time I dived the Mixon Hole it was 26th June 1988! It was part of my snorkelling test where I had to ‘free dive’ to the edge of the Mixon and pick up some weeds to prove I could snorkel to 7m. Dan my dive buddy also dived it a couple of decades ago.
Dan and I have been trying for over a year to dive the Mixon Hole but with the bad weather we were ‘blown out’ some 4 times. So finally we did!
Simon who runs Southern Coastal Charters picked us up from the East Beach at Selsey.
We got to the Mixon Hole a bit later than planned and we did find there was a current running at the bottom. There did not appear to be any current at the surface so that was a bit odd.
The north wall appeared to be less steep than I remembered it but there was more life. The descent is a little tricky as you are descending a slope, so we tended to bump a lot on the way down. Next time we will face into the Hole and gently swim forward. As soon as we got to the bottom a dogfish swam between us, which I think was pretty cool.
We came across an active spider crab of a reasonable size. Dan and I both caught a dogfish with our bare hands, which we both ate later. I did catch a lobster but it was too small so let it go.
The main event was me trying to catch a flatfish and failing. With all my air out of my dry suit and BCD I used my diver’s knife to stab him. He was strong enough to lift me up off the bottom a few inches which enabled him to move down as Dan tried to put him in the bag.
I never realized the adrenaline would get to me with that sort event. Afterwards my heart was pumping as was my breathing down at 26m. I made a conscious effort to calm down but I did use a lot of air.
Score so far: Flatfish 2, Percy 0
We left the bottom with 4 minutes of bottom time left and had a very steady assent. Lovely dive and we are planned to dive it again in two weeks time.
Link to video Mixon Hole 5th June 2010
Dan and I have been trying for over a year to dive the Mixon Hole but with the bad weather we were ‘blown out’ some 4 times. So finally we did!
Simon who runs Southern Coastal Charters picked us up from the East Beach at Selsey.
We got to the Mixon Hole a bit later than planned and we did find there was a current running at the bottom. There did not appear to be any current at the surface so that was a bit odd.
The north wall appeared to be less steep than I remembered it but there was more life. The descent is a little tricky as you are descending a slope, so we tended to bump a lot on the way down. Next time we will face into the Hole and gently swim forward. As soon as we got to the bottom a dogfish swam between us, which I think was pretty cool.
We came across an active spider crab of a reasonable size. Dan and I both caught a dogfish with our bare hands, which we both ate later. I did catch a lobster but it was too small so let it go.
The main event was me trying to catch a flatfish and failing. With all my air out of my dry suit and BCD I used my diver’s knife to stab him. He was strong enough to lift me up off the bottom a few inches which enabled him to move down as Dan tried to put him in the bag.
I never realized the adrenaline would get to me with that sort event. Afterwards my heart was pumping as was my breathing down at 26m. I made a conscious effort to calm down but I did use a lot of air.
Score so far: Flatfish 2, Percy 0
We left the bottom with 4 minutes of bottom time left and had a very steady assent. Lovely dive and we are planned to dive it again in two weeks time.
Link to video Mixon Hole 5th June 2010
Wednesday 2 June 2010
Nab Tower Evening dive 26th May 2010
This was the best dive ever on the Nab Tower and to be honest the video just does not do it justice. It does show it looking darker than it really is, I guess that is the difference between the ‘mark one’ eyeball and the CCD camera.
We had a rather rapid descent to the lowest tier around the Nab Tower. Within minutes Dan, my buddy, snatches a lobster, which was too small so had to be released.
We slowly progressed up from tier to tier. We were able to see shoals of Pollock, which stayed around the divers. The real highlight was that we saw two cuttlefish in two different locations.
Of course it was full of other life gobies, wrasse and crabs. The link to the video is Nab Tower Evening dive May 2010
We had a rather rapid descent to the lowest tier around the Nab Tower. Within minutes Dan, my buddy, snatches a lobster, which was too small so had to be released.
We slowly progressed up from tier to tier. We were able to see shoals of Pollock, which stayed around the divers. The real highlight was that we saw two cuttlefish in two different locations.
Of course it was full of other life gobies, wrasse and crabs. The link to the video is Nab Tower Evening dive May 2010
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