Diving - The adventure continues!
2021 Diving
Expedition Diving - Weymouth
I got a call from Cameron, our diving officer, saying that someone had dropped out of the expedition weekend to Weymouth the week after Swanage and that, if I wanted to, I could split the diving cost with that person, giving home some money back and getting me two cheap days' diving.
Having lost the second day in Swanage, I couldn't really lose (aside from the accommodation costs in the Hotel Aqua in Portland, but they were quite modest) and the forecast was for great diving weather, so I signed up.
While the weekend was pleasant enough, I kind of wish I hadn't bothered.
Firstly, the drive to Portland was a taster of what COVID coastal trips were going to be like all summer long. It took John Taylor and I 4 hours to make the, usually 1.5 hour, trip.
We had an enjoyable meal at the Cove House Inn, overlooking Chesil Beach, got a good cooked breakfast at the Aqua and a civilised meeting time of 9AM.
On the surface, it promised to be a perfect weekend for diving
The plan was to dive and survey the wreck of HMS Landrail, to assess its condition against earlier surveys.
The run out to the west of Portland Bill was leisurely and pleasant, but sadly the diving was not to be very rewarding this weekend.
For the first dive, Cameron I had a task of trying to locate, photograph and/or measure the boilers and engine.
We descended shot and then moved off, finding other wreckage, but between snot and back scatter from torches it was very disorientating and we struggled to put things into any context until near the end of the dive.
We did find a cylindrical object, but we suspect it may have been the collapsed funnel snd further investigation, post dives supports this.
I got some video (surprisingly clear!) of this and we continued on, passing the capstan and many deck bollards unto a large section of hull that lead us up a couple of meters.
After around 38 minutes, Cameron deployed his DSMB and we ascended with around 5 minutes deco incurred.
Dive time was 47 minutes on a 45 minute target, so pretty decent in that respect.
I'd only once tried to dive the Landrail before and failed to find it after drifting off the shot line on the descent as other divers coming up it resolutely stuck to it!
The wreck looked pretty interesting, but vis ruined the dive overall, but it was, sadly, to be the best of the weekend!
Video of the 'tube' on the Landrail
On the way back to Weymouth, we stopped to dive the James Fennel, a wreck I'd tried to dive a couple of times before, but not seen for various reasons.
This was to be another!
Joined in a 3 with Chris Howells from our club and another diver, the third diver was thrashing about on the shot in a little current and I had to swim around him.
As soon as I did, I started to drift away from the shot - I quickly dumped air, in the hope that the current was just on the surface, but as I descended, the shot drifted out of my sight.
I figured I couldn't be far away, so swam forward on the seabed, but all I saw were the huge boulders that surround the wreck and after a short while I gave up and surfaced, finding myself a long way from the entry point, the current obviously stronger than it felt!
Sadly neither of the other divers surfaced to find me (so much for separation practices...), but I went back on the boat and helped Cameron swap a neck seal on his suit.
As an even more absurd finale, it seemed the other two divers also separated from each other, but decided to do a 30 minute solo dive!
We had a curry in Weymouth that evening, but everyone moaned about the terrrible vis. Little did we know!
The next morning we started even later (tides are like that!), which meant a leisurely breakfast and check out, but when we reached the Landrail, we had even worse vis than the previous day.
I dived with the day's Dive Manager, Jacob, and we landed in the same spot as the previous day, but with all the torches reflecting back off 'snot' and divers kicking up silt we couldn't see any more than the stern post where the shot was.
We swam a short distance at random and found nothing, so turned back and refound the shot.
Jacob tied off a line and we attempted a circular search, but we saw nothing at all that was wreckage.
Back at the shot, I suddenly heard a rush of air and looked around to see if something on my kit had failed. Fortunately, a DSMB appeared out of the gloom from beneath me, launched by one of the other pairs who, I presume, hadn't seen us even a few feet away.
Looking back it was lucky that I didn't move at that point or I could have become entangled in it and heading unexpectedly fast for the surface!
After that, we headed for the surface.
Jacob had air and a 50% stage, so we waited for his deco to clear and I was very cold (my Lomo undersuit proving a little thin for the conditions) by the end.
It had been, frankly, a horrible dive, shading the previous day's for 'snottiest dive ever' although the weather had been nice, I'd done a few dives with my twinset (It felt incredibly heavy that weekend!) and I had enjoyed being on a boat (Richard and Sue are always good to go out with) for the weekend, but I wasn't really interested in diving until the vis improved.
Dolphins at the Bill on the way back from Saturday's diving were the highlight!
RHIB Diving in June
A couple of week's later, I'd seen suggestions that the vis had improved around Portland and 4 of us took the club RHIB out for a couple of dives.
Cameron and Chris had plotted a lot of new marks into our navigation and Cameron reckoned he could put us on the British Inventor, a much salvaged and nearly flat wreck site, but one that is usually abundant in life and well worth a visit.
When Geoff and I dropped in we saw the shot was clearly right by a piece of wreckage (probablty a winch of some sort), but it wasn't right on the main expanse of wreckage which I knew was mostly flattened plate from my dive the previous Autumn.
Geoff lays a line as we search for the main wreck
Geoff started to run a line out and, suddenly, the water was filled with a huge shoal of Bib and there was the wreckage.
Dogfish/Sandshark, whatever you like to call them
Best not prodded! Probably an inert training shell from WW2 era, but who knows for sure!
Bib are always a good indicator of a wreck!
We swam around and over the wreckage, taking in the multitude of life, crabs (mostly spider ones), congers, Bib and a variety of Wrasse for around 30 minutes, before back tracking along the line which found us going back up a slight slope in an easterly direction.
Lots of crab on the British Inventor
Geoff had a bit of trouble with his DSMB unravelling as we went to surface, but once resolved we surfaced on my DSMB and rejoined the RHIB, suggesting to Cameron and Tim that they head West/South-West to find the wreck from the shot and they returned reporting a successful dive too.
Jellyfish on the safety stop
Geoff got a photo of me on the British Inventor
We pulled into Castletown for a gas refill and lunch and then decided we had time to dive the James Fennel again, as the weather was kind and made a trip to West side of the Bill a practical proposition.
The run down the East Side was a little bumpy with an Easterly wind, but we found the west side sheltered as expected and found another dive boat (Skin Deep, I think) waiting to dive the James Fennel.
They suggested we could shot it and so Cameron dropped the shot where he believed the boiler was .
On entering the water, we found he was spot on, with the shot resting directly alongside a boiler.
Cameron put the shot right on the boilers
Vis was good, but very quickly we were joined by divers from the other dive boat, using our shot line.
There was a slight current running by the end of the dive, but generally we were able to explore the wreck, the first time I'd actually seen it in 3 attempts.
Lobster just one of the creatures living here
Engine
2nd boiler
Not sure what this is! Deck house? Coal bunker?
At this point we'd just reached the agreed 20 minute bottom time, so surfaced to let Cameron and Tim have a dive and still make it back in reasonable time.
Steering Quadrant
We had to reshot the site as Cameron had forgotten he was going in with Tim after the other boat's divers had used it, but it was quickly done and then they dropped in and had a decent dive too.
Traffic was again very heavy heading home, taking Tim and I 2.5 hours via Blandford and Salisbury, but Cameron and Geoff around 4 hours via the A30, M27 and M3, so we made the right choice as it turned out!
