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

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