May Bank Holiday

Saturday we drove to Swanage to dive the Pier & Old Pier. Jason Cox, who was only down for the day, joined Ivor & Ivana, Pat & Paula, Damian & Alan, with Cheryl along for the DM work & PeakDog along for the bubble watching. The first dive went well, most teams managing 4m or so with a 40-50 minute dive time. There were plenty of crabs to annoy, a good few fish & some interesting ‘wreckage’ to poke around in.

After a considerable Surface Interval which seemed to consist of everyone consuming large quantities of food & drink, we kitted up ready for the second dive, this time the Old Pier. Jason & Damian went in first, followed by Ivor, Ivana & Alan, & then by Pat & Paula, who sadly had to abort as a result of some buoyancy issues. The rest of the day was spent eating & drinking both in Swanage & at the camp site where the BBQ was lit, the wine opened & the kebabs prepared.

Sunday saw a fine day & the team headed for Kimmeridge, having been told that this was a good dive site. On arrival, we wandered around checking it out, before heading for the Marine Centre for some good local knowledge. The Centre has some excellent wardens, all of whom are extremely well informed & we soon ascertained that it was possible to dive straight out into the bay, although we were warned that it would be quite a swim to deep water & the viz may not be too good. Undeterred, we kitted up & headed out. The girls of course, were not so foolish & all three offered to DM! Ivor & Alan took a direct route out &100m out to sea were still walking!

200m out were floating, but only just! Bored with this, they decided to descend & continue underwater. This they did for their planned 25 minutes before turning to return, finally achieving a record 5.1m depth! Ivor was starting to feel a little unwell due to the swell, but managed to avoid any chunder action. On their return, the swell was causing them to move at separate rates & it wasn’t long before they inevitably lost contact. Ivor was particularly annoyed by this because he knew just how far out they were. Sure enough, after a one minute search, gave up & exited to be met by Alan. They looked towards the shore, the girls looked very small, it was going to be a long surface swim! 17 minutes later, they emerged! Damian & Pat took a different route & were so shallow that, when they decided to launch their DSMB, Pat simply held it above his head!

That, they decided, would do for the day, even Ivor wasn’t interested in a second dive! A picnic was called for, followed by some rest & a stroll before returning to the camp site to get changed for an evening in the pub.

Monday, we packed up, some headed straight off home, others planned a little site seeing. The ‘Peaks’ went climbing to Dancing Ledge for the day & had a interesting time ‘persuading’ the PeakDog down the cliff, eventually resorting to a sling harness to lower him down – he was not happy! All in all, a good weekends diving, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, well, apart from Paula of course. I am sure if you ask, she will let you know all the things that were wrong ;-)

Oh yes, Woodyhyde camp site is rubbish!