With Ken in charge, we made our way down to Lyme Regis, through the dense fog, which amazingly cleared in time for us to go diving. With fog in the distance, a hand held GPS with no one quite sure how to drive it, we switched sites from West Tenants Reef to the Baggi. Of course we hit the wreck (but the current drifted the shot away) although luckily everyone still managed to find there way on to the wreck. The visibility was not too special with the water being very green, and as the weather worsened in the afternoon we opted for an easy drift dive west of the Cobb.
Once again an intrepid few ventured back to everyone's favourite dive site for a pleasant shore dive. With the sea flat, calm and for a change visibility not too bad everyone had a couple of hour long dives, with lots of life to see especially a plethora of Cuttle fish. But as per usual Chesil beach had the last word, and all sense of dignity was lost on exit from each dive.
For the first time this season we set off down to Plymouth for a mid week special, to see what all the fuss is about the newly sunk wreck, the Scylla. With an early start from home, we managed a leisurely launch in the morning and headed out to find the Scylla, arriving nicely on slack water with only one other RIB on the wreck and not a hard boat in sight. Within the first five minutes of getting down the shot line, Ken managed to loose us, so we spent the next few obligatory minutes hiding behind the anchor chain, but as is the way, Ken eventually found us and we continued. Amazing to all; is that there is actually some life on the wreck, although the biggest thrill seemed to be the novelty of being able to swim from one room to another in relative ease. So much so, that Pete and Martin even found some basement rooms, leading to the James Egan Layne no doubt!!!.
Once again we set off down to Kimmeridge, but with westerly winds, options were limited for Ed today's dive marshal. With a good number of divers to cater for and only one club boat practically available, Pete F organised with his friend Keith to bring his boat along, which was much appreciated. With already a few dives on the Black Hawk this season Tony attempted to shot two parts of the wreck some 80 metres apart. With one boat going with the known site, we had a 45-minute dive in good visibility, lots of fish, crab, and lobster on slack water too. The other boat however, decided to try the other shot line, which was strategically placed for a drift dive, although Tony and Caroline managed to stumble onto an interesting wreck site of their own. So purely for the purpose of identification, Tony looted the newly found site, which will no doubt be available on ebay in a few weeks for all to see. (once the house burglars are back that is ) As we returned back for lunch it was clear that the weather was changing for the worse, after a gentle lunch waiting and hoping for better weather we attempted to go back out. But on this occasion it was decided that conditions were just not up to it and we retired to the pub, to here even more tales about "Tony's Yacht" . Please note; no fish were harmed in the looting of this site
This week Tony provided (as only he can) the organised chaos that we call diving to Kimmeridge. With a selection of dive options for the morning dive, we decided to dive the Black Hawk (especially as Bob was not there). Within 2 minutes of arriving at the GPS mark we had the shot into the wreck, ready for the first divers. The current was still running a little during the dive and the wreck offers little to no protection from the current (as Bob knows only too well) but still worth the effort. Ken managed to find and catch a nice size lobster, only for it to turn on him, resulting in an annoyed one-claw lobster and a startled Ken left holding the other. After lunch the weather turned northwest to west so we sought shelter around Mute Rocks. This provided a shallow, colourful dive, but very little in the way of life. With the diving over we rounded the day off with a pint at the George on the way home.
First trip down to Lyme Regis for the club this season, a pleasant surprise on arrival was the "Ken friendly" size slipway that is now complete. With light northerly winds and Caroline as our dedicated Cox, we decided to dive the Baygitano. Once we managed to get the shot on the wreck, the first set of divers went in and placed the shot on the boilers for the rest of us. As usual there was lots of fish life, lobster, crabs and more than enough conger eels to shake a snorkel at. With reasonable viz and time on our side we decided to leave the shot for our second dive and returned to Lyme Regis for lunch. After a healthy salad we all returned back to the "baggy" for our second dive, to see the conger eels in the boilers once more. Thanks to Caroline "the club Cox" we all had an early finish to the day. Ps Despite the rumours Phil is not changing his web nickname from "Fatboy" to "Potboy", speak to Phil for more... Kimmeridge 06/06/04 - in search of the Black Hawk Once again we set off to find the Black Hawk, with Bob taking on the role as dive marshal, determined to dive the BH. We got off to a false start during Bob's brief, as it became apparent that the boat electrics were down. However, with conditions looking pretty good we decided to opt for a drift dive as near to the wreck as possible, hoping some may be lucky. The two pairs had little luck finding the wreck, but found lots of life although the second wave of diver had more luck, (they used another boats shot line) and found the wreck. With a leisurely lunch we all returned in the afternoon to dive along the nature trail, which all managed to find successfully. So once again ...it may be next time Bob.....
Saw 7 intrepid divers, plus Caroline as cox do one new and one old site from launches at Kimmeridge. Buddy pairs were Richard H & Emrys, Ian L and Paul W, plus a 3-some comprising Richard V, Paul M and Peter F. First site was a ledge running due West from Warbarrow Tout. Depth at top was 8m and the bottom was at 17M. drifted fairly close to the Black Hawk with 4-5M viz and 12degrees water temp. Good dive had by all and certainly worth another visit. Second site was the Sea Caves near Chapmans Pool. This was a mixed bag as Only Richard & Emrys actually got to the correct site and were rewarded with a range of sea life but got dragged off once they sent up the deco marker. The other two sticks dropped in short and the tide was running like an express train so it turned into another, rather faster, drift. Not memorable though there were a lot of Pollock trying to pretend they were Barracuda. Worse viz and only 12m b****r. Excellent weather, very quick turnaround thanks to our dedicated cox and we left the beach by 1600. Good day. Peter F
Flat calm, no rain, what more could we want? Water temp a bit higher would've been nice! Still 9 degrees wasn't too bad. Everyone arrived on time so a quick carry of the kit and we were ready, apart from Tony who had forgotten his gloves, so two waves was the order of the day! Steve, Mark and myself went first for a check out dive to a max of 11m for 30 mins, no probs apart from Marks tendency to head for the surface occasionally! Nothing an extra weight didn't fix. After the glove handover Tony took Joe for his first dive and managed to find the wreck off of Chesil! Probably the only wreck he'll find this year! After a quick swig of Tony's bile flavoured soup and kit swapping Steve and Mark made the only second dive. After a coffee and watching Erica eating the car friendly beans on toast we all had an early start home. IAN
A bit late I know...... So after planning to start the season off with a quick dive at Chesil beach, we had to use the alternative of Newtons Cove due to changing weather. So with our kit dusted off from the winter storage, we put the new steps at Newtons cove to the test, the water was a tropical 6oC (7oC if you believe that Sunnto stuff) and a maximum depth of 3m. In fact i'm sure the SMB stuck out of the water, even when we sent it up.... So it was a bit cold but the water was pretty clear, with about 4m viz and a few bits of life to see..