Skiving from work to go diving? Never!
11 June 2003
Trip report by James Astrop
First published in London Diver, July 2003
James Astrop proves that life beneath the waves in Brighton is just as varied as that above them as he reports on the first of this year's skive dives…
What were you doing on Wednesday 11th June? Did you struggle to work on an over hot tube train, spend the day looking out of the office window, wishing you were somewhere else? Did your van get stuck in traffic on the way to the job and you spent your day inside some ducting cursing the heat and the fact the delivery parts had not turned up. Well just to make you jealous four of us went diving.
Okay, so to get on the wreck for slack we had to leave London at quarter to six, but that was the day's only hardship. Nell, Jane, Tobias and I arrived, bright eyed and bushy tailed, well okay then half asleep and in need of coffee, on the harbour in Brighton at 7.30 am to join the hard boat Nauticat for a days diving.
Steve Johnson, the skipper, got us away as soon as our kit was on board and steamed at full speed to the wreck site and hit slack perfectly. The wreck was that of the Fortuna, a 1,200 ton Dutch steamer that was sunk after striking a mine in 1916, lying at 50 41 38N; 00 02 16W, that's about five miles due south of Newhaven. Only one of us was sea sick on that leg of the journey and I'm not telling who.
The pairs were Jane and I then Tobias and Nell. As non of us had done any diving this year we kept to a fairly conservative profile, planning not to go below 30 m and not to rack up any deco. The wreck lies upright at 35 m with the deck rails at about 30 m; Steve got the shot line almost on the prow so our dive was restricted to the fore sections on the boat. Jane and arrived on the wreck to be greeted with about 3 m viz and a mass of tompot blenny. Tompots just have this "what are you looking at" face and it was like walking into a pub where only locals ever go, I'm sure I heard one say "stick to the path lads, don't go on t' moor".
We worked our way sternward keeping to a depth of about 30 m but this was fine as the Fortuna is relatively intact and is awash with wild life. We saw all of the normal wreck species, bib, poor cod, balleen wrasse, goldskinny wrasse, edible crab etc. We also saw some more unusual gubbins such as leopard spot goby and a flat fish, unusual on a wreck. I think it was a top knot though Jane thought it was a lemon sole as we cannot agree on which side it eyes were.
One of the holds had a cargo of bags of cement, which have hardened into rounded square rock like structures. The view reminded me of Fingles Cave or the Giant's Causeway in that they looked natural but also man made and repetitive.
As we were readying ourselves to return up the shot, I tried to waft some detritus from my arm and it started to walk sideways. It was a decorator crab, a gubbins which is about 5 cm across and rather spider like in appearance. The decorator crab is so called because it disguises it self by sticking bits of algae about its body and hence looking like flotsam or jetsam in the water.
Before the second dive another of our group succumbed to mal de mer: it takes a day to get your sea legs. The second was a drift dive about a mile off Brighton beach. It was fun but unremarkable. The viz was only about 3 m and it was running at about 1.5 knots, so one did have the occasional surprise. Jane and I did the biggest conga in Christendom, it was about five feet long and ten inches wide near its pectoral fins; honest it was a sea monster.
The next skive dive is on Friday 29th August, see advert on the following page, so book early to avoid disappointment.
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Labels: brighton, trip report
Plymouth – The Truth…
21 April 2003
Trip report by Megan Peat
First published in London Diver, May 2003
Easter weekend saw some twenty-odd of us, plus Percy, Percy Too and the majority of the populace of greater London heading down the A303 to Plymouth where, back in the dark ages, TJ had taken the far-sighted precaution of booking accommodation at the Mount Batten water sports centre.
Contrary to the rest of the UK, we had good weather and reasonably calm seas, although some may argue the (pitch and) toss over the latter—special thanks go to Chris Cole for running through the list of the greasiest foods he could think of on the way back from Darren's first open water dive (aka OW fish feeding).
Dives were made on the Mew Stone, Hillsea Point, the Mew Stone, the breakwater, the Mew Stone and then, for a change, the Mew Stone. That said, we saw lots of starfish, kelp, anemones, crabs, wrasse, cuttlefish and even a thorny-backed ray (or maybe not!).
The viz was good, the water wasn't too cold, the accommodation was clean, with plentiful hot water and friendly staff, the beer was plentiful and the Easter eggs most welcome (thanks Sarah, Gillian and Nicky!). Many thanks to the marshals for managing to see that everyone got the option of two dives a day and, as ever, the instructors were ready, willing and able to ensure that buddies were available for the less experienced. Some quick turnarounds were made and there were some interesting techniques adopted for pulling the trolley from the pontoon back to the centre—suffice it to say that I wouldn't want to be in the car with certain people if that's an example of their driving technique! [guess who had to share with one of the culprits…only kidding Alex - Ed]
Richard and Morgan formed a team to strike terror into all sea life—amazing how the enthusiasm grows with the prospect of hands-on marine biology and a demonstration of 'dogfish darts'. Percy, in best Plymouth tradition, broke down at sea with remarkably similar problems to last time and limped back to shore to be tenderly looked after by Nigel and TJ—we appreciate it, guys! Alex tried to imitate the Michelin man on the surface when his drysuit dump valve reversed and filled the suit with a mixture of air and water. Morals: don't let Richard drive the boat (when it breaks down twice when you're driving it begins to look too suspicious to be an accident…) and don't let Tobias fix your dump valve!
Having kindly volunteered to tie my reel to my SMB, Bernie then undertook to demonstrate how to tie a bowline—rabbits, holes, trees, etc.—a knot which he proudly claimed, "could hold the Queen Mary". Much amusement then when I took the SMB out to find that the knot had come undone!
After the stories from prior years, a visit to the fish and chip shop on the Barbican had to be made to check out the waistline and toupee of the proprietor—one had obviously grown and one was just obvious. Valiant efforts were made to eat things seen on the dives, although top marks have to go to anyone who consumed the hideous 'Nepalese cocktail' we were given at the Indian… great idea to pour it into the flower vase, Alex, shame someone else had thought of it first!
The Plymouth scene lived up to reputation (think Goth come Rocky Horror) although the drag queens didn't seem to pose a deterrent to returning into town after the girl with the pierced belly-button, improbable clothes and open-toed sandals ("Sandals…? I hadn't made it past the midriff!") got off the ferry as we were getting on to return back to base…
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Labels: plymouth, trip report
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