Past Dive Trips

This page gives a brief resume of recent dive trips.

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Saturday 30th August - Swanage Pier

Another great turn out, with 14 members in total making it down to the pier on the only day of the summer this year.

We got really lucky being able to park the van, with everyones gear inside, on the Pier even though we only got there at 10am!

The diving around the pier was (I am told) very good first thing but an easterly breeze blew up and it deteriorated to around 1m by about 10am.

So we all buddied up and dived the pier, some did some boat diving including the Fleur de Lys, and a fast drift dive - fabulous!

One or two did not have such a good day with the poor viz and some equipment problems, but although the diving for them was not brilliant the weather went some way to making up for that.

We finished the day with a few beers and some excellent Fish and Chips and headed for home getting back to Divercity at about 9.30pm.

In all a great day - to be repeated!



   


    


   


   

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Sunday 17th August 2008 - Chesil (sort of!)

Well the plan was to dive Chesil Beach, we set off at 7 AM in good spirits. 8 of us in a van and 1 car and made good time to Portland.



Back L-R - Paddy Green, Michael Brown, Bobby McCallion, Steve Field, Martyn Dunn, Robert Payce.
Kneeling - Ray Dunne. Behind the Camera - Michael Parks.

As we came down the hill towards Weymouth, the sea looked pretty calm and inviting so we parked up in the Car park just past the Ferrybridge Inn (£5.50 bit steep for parking I think) and had a discussion about going over the shingle ridge (or K2 as it became with dive gear on!) to look at the sea first.

Paddy decided he couldnt be bothered and made the call to kit up and hike ofer K2 which we all did.

Well the tide had only just turned and the waves were crashing into the vertical face of one of the many shelves formed on the beach!

So with much muttering, (think Mutley from Wacky Races) we made like sherpas and takled the south face of K2 to get back to the carpark!

Paddy and Steve went off and scouted for an alternative and secured places on the Fathom and Blues Rib leaving at 1PM so as we were all kitted up this just left lunch to organise (Ferrybridge Inn has a wet room bar that you can go in in diving gear which is great, they serve food and drinks which were not! made Stoney's "Lard Bar" seem gormet!)

We borded the Rib and took a trip out of the harbour to do a small Drift dive (not mutch drifting happening though!) not much to see but Paddy and Martyn did come across a "mini aquarium" with 3 mins to go before coming up!

We all returned to the boat and back to F&B where we changed and packed the gear away, then stopped athe The Worlds End pub on the way back to cash up and disect the diving.

A good day eventually but would have been better without tackling both faces of K2 before the dive!

A special thanks to new member Mike Brown who as an un-qualified diver came along to see what was happening and helped out with gear lugging and shore cover.

Diving Buddy Pairs
Paddy Green & Martyn Dunn
Ray Dunne & Bobby McCallion
Steve Field & Robert Payce

Some pictures were taken and are below

    
         Base camp K2                          Errr No Thanks!               Getting ready for North Face!

 
Scuba Hut (AKA Paddys Van)            Robert Payce

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Sunday 10th August 2008 - Vobster Quay

So this was meant to be the trip out on the Rib for some training! But at 8pm on the Saturday night we decided to pull the plug as the wind was running at a force 5 to 7 and sea state rough! Not fun!

So hastily we regrouped and decided on Vobster Quay near Frome in Somerset.

We had a good day that was mainly sunny with the occasional heavy rain, but that didnt dampen spirits.

It was good to visit this site again as this is such a friendly site, there are a few new attractions including some concrete tubes to swim through and another sunken boat over near the platform.

Tony, Ray, Steve and Nick tried out most of the features the site has to offer but the Viz was poor after all the recent rain. Nic and Paddy tackled the 20m tunnel - which was interesting in such poor viz!

Worth noting - gloves and hood are needed if going below 10m as there are 2 Thermoclines that reduce the surface temperature by 13 degrees at only 20m!

After a couple of good dives we packed up and stopped for a deco beer in Bradford on Avon on the way back.

      

Pictures not taken on the day! These are from earlier this year with better viz!

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Sunday 20th April 2008 - Portland

So there has been other little dive trips between Christmas and now but this was the first big organised event of the year.
Some traveled down on Saturday to have a few beers with Lee on his Birthday while the rest of us upped early on Sunday to meet the bleary eyed ones for breakfast at the Breakwater Hotel opposite the carpark at the Aqua Sports Hotel.
The first dive organised was  a drift dive approx 2 miles out of the harbour under the shadow of the jurassic Portland coastline.
It was soon apparent that this was an early season dive as nearly all buddies experienced some minor problems through the dive and the Viz was only 1.5m and thats being generous!
So back to port and some light lunch and a kip on the warm tarmac by at least one member of the dive team and it was back out for the second dive, the wind however had come up and after being airborne a couple of times trying to get around The Bill it was abandoned and the backup dive of The Countess was settled on within the sheltered confines of the harbour.
All seemed to have better dives even though the viz was at best (some say even optimistically) 0.3M!!
Still a good turn out with 10 divers its a good start to the season.

Scubaducks Spring Dive No1 Portland April 20th 2008 Some of the usuals and 3 newcomers, a good mix on a great day New to scuba diving? Why not join us for at least 1 of this crew it was their first sea dive after their PADI open water, its never too soon to take the plunge!

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Sunday 6th April 2008 - Solent

Skippers day on RIB Arrow Flight
Well this was probably the coldest day of the year to try this, having taken the Rib down on the Saturday Night I was woken by a call from Tony C expecting the day to be called off, having asked why, Tony explained that there was 6" (150mm for the more metric amongst you!) of snow overnight!
I checked out of the hoel window to find blue skies and dry conditions, so everyone set off from Buckinghamshire for the coast and I rolled over and went back to sleep for an hour.
When woken again by Tony reporting better conditions I looked out the hotel window to find 4" of snow and a viz of approx 6 yards due to the quantity of the white stuff falling!

Anyway around 11AM after a herty Breakfast and having shovelled the snow out of the RIB (now thats a first) we launched at Mercury Marina up the Hamble and then blasted over to Yarmouth on the Isle of Wight to lunch at Saltys Bar (fantastic food, sullen service ;-{) ) We then blasted back getting "ice cream head" going directly into the northerly snow strewn wind (I'm not selling this to the non boaties am I !!!)
Everyone had a turn at skippering and the award of the day goes to Steve Field for getting us completly airborne on more than one occasion!

In all it was a great day out and great practice for future trips using Arrow Flight

PICTURE TO FOLLOW SOON

Skippers Day Solent April 6th 2008 Good crowd of hearty souls! A great day with on the coldest day of the year yet!

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Thursday 27th December 2007 - Stoney Cove

The Christmas Splash In - Well a fresh and breezy day greeted us as about 10 of us met in the car park at about 08.30 (what luxury, no 3AM start) followed by the added bonus of a cock up by the Stoney management which resulted in most of us getting in for free when the chap in the yellow coat waved us all in before the cash collectors had been round!
The Vis was amazing, the best we had ever seen at stoney 20+ Mts which enabled many of us to explore areas of the cove that we had never seen before.
The Bus was visable from the Stangarth and the Stangarth Visable (just!) from the Wessex Helicopter.
The APC was easy to find and some of us explored the far left hand and far wall uncovering some superb pike in the process.
Water Temp was about 9 degrees so 30 mins was about maximum that was comfortable.
2 excellent dives resulted in an excellent days diving.
A swift couple of pints in the Mill on the Soar finished the day off before we headed homeward.
All in all a great day and a good way to work off all those mince pies!

MORE PICTURES FROM THE DAY ARE ON THE PICTURES PAGE

The Christmas Splash In Stoney Cove December 27th 2007 Some of the "Usual Suspects" A great day with great Viz and great company, a tradition has started I fear!

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Saturday 10th November 2007 - Vobster Quay

A bright and breezy morning greeted us just after dawn at about 30 miles from Vobster, a few quick phone calls established that 6 of us were in the queue (of about 30).
A warm and genuine welcome by the gate staff reminded me just how friendly this dive site is.
Easy parking beside the water made for a really enjoyable day.
The Viz was great generally 6m / 8m but there were reports from Kev that the diving to the West side of the site had Viz of 20m+!
Water temprature at 13 deg C meant that it was even comfortable in the water, without the usual winter sharp intake of breath as your face hits the water!
Food from the Burger Bar is excellent, fresh cooked, quickly while you wait and with cups of tea & coffee served in proper china mugs - excellent!
After 2 dives we repaired to the Vobster Inn in Upper Vobster for a quick beer before returning home, in all a great days diving!

VOBSTER QUAY November 10th 2007 From Right to Left Steve Kevin Mark Paddy Steve Tony A cracking day with great weather, great diving and great company, why not join us on the next trip?

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