by Daniel
Another visit to Weymouth for Bermondsey BSAC. The weather for the weekend was reasonable but with a constant Westerly wind whipping up a 4/5, so we did the logical thing for our first dive on Woody's RW Two (our skipper this time was Paul as Woody was temporarily out of action) and headed round Portland Bill and into the wind. After about an hour of lumpy sailing sense started to creep in and we decided to head east and for more sheltered water. I had brought my twinset down this weekend to practice using it and as such I was buddied up with Ken for the Saturday. We were joined by a few of Pat's friends from another club to fill the boat – everyone was in a reasonably jovial mood despite the darkness looming over us all given the recent political storm in the UK.
The first dive, a wreck, went reasonably well – apart from my usual buoyancy troubles. There was a bit of a current running over the wreck so moving around it in some orientations became challenging. Lots of life moving around – saw plenty of shoals of different fish as well as the usual lobsters and crabs and other smaller critters.
The second dive, the Black Hawk wreck, was basically a disaster for me. My buoyancy control worsened to the point where I abandoned my safety stop and just went up the DSMB line and waited for Ken and Pat at the surface. So I didn't see much, spending all my time over-correcting. But I was told by my buddies that there was some nice life on the wreck.
Saturday evening saw the group head out to a local Italian restaurant for dinner – not the greatest of experiences. Confusion over whether two wines, that were clearly different colours (one clearly a rosé, the other white), were actually different, and a lesson delivered by Ken for the benefit of the waiting staff over whether or not mushrooms were vegetables.
Sunday was much better – I re-routed some hoses on my twinset and removed a couple of kilos of lead from my belt and went in with Lee. We decided to dive the Black Hawk a second time as the tide was more favourable this time. Lee and I had a great dive – though there was still some running current that couldn't make up its mind which way it was pulling us. But it meant that we kept circling the wreck and seeing the vast array of life swimming all around it. I topped up for the second dive from a 15 litre I'd brought with me so Lee and I would have more bottom time. Another wreck, again covered with life. My buoyancy finally under control I was able to just enjoy the dive and at the end I successfully completed a mid-water DSMB deployment – something I'd been trying to do for months. A great end to a packed weekend.
Another visit to Weymouth for Bermondsey BSAC. The weather for the weekend was reasonable but with a constant Westerly wind whipping up a 4/5, so we did the logical thing for our first dive on Woody's RW Two (our skipper this time was Paul as Woody was temporarily out of action) and headed round Portland Bill and into the wind. After about an hour of lumpy sailing sense started to creep in and we decided to head east and for more sheltered water. I had brought my twinset down this weekend to practice using it and as such I was buddied up with Ken for the Saturday. We were joined by a few of Pat's friends from another club to fill the boat – everyone was in a reasonably jovial mood despite the darkness looming over us all given the recent political storm in the UK.
The first dive, a wreck, went reasonably well – apart from my usual buoyancy troubles. There was a bit of a current running over the wreck so moving around it in some orientations became challenging. Lots of life moving around – saw plenty of shoals of different fish as well as the usual lobsters and crabs and other smaller critters.
The second dive, the Black Hawk wreck, was basically a disaster for me. My buoyancy control worsened to the point where I abandoned my safety stop and just went up the DSMB line and waited for Ken and Pat at the surface. So I didn't see much, spending all my time over-correcting. But I was told by my buddies that there was some nice life on the wreck.
Saturday evening saw the group head out to a local Italian restaurant for dinner – not the greatest of experiences. Confusion over whether two wines, that were clearly different colours (one clearly a rosé, the other white), were actually different, and a lesson delivered by Ken for the benefit of the waiting staff over whether or not mushrooms were vegetables.
Sunday was much better – I re-routed some hoses on my twinset and removed a couple of kilos of lead from my belt and went in with Lee. We decided to dive the Black Hawk a second time as the tide was more favourable this time. Lee and I had a great dive – though there was still some running current that couldn't make up its mind which way it was pulling us. But it meant that we kept circling the wreck and seeing the vast array of life swimming all around it. I topped up for the second dive from a 15 litre I'd brought with me so Lee and I would have more bottom time. Another wreck, again covered with life. My buoyancy finally under control I was able to just enjoy the dive and at the end I successfully completed a mid-water DSMB deployment – something I'd been trying to do for months. A great end to a packed weekend.
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