In contrast to our first trip to Bracklesham Bay, our second trip could not have been more different. Taking place on the Sunday of the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, the weather forecast was decidedly unsettled all weekend. Saturday was better than promised with sunshine for most of the day but with rising strong winds. When I heard that the dives would take place the following day, I was frankly sceptical but decided to go with it. A very early start proved painful: the heavy rain and fog on the journey to the coast reinforced my impression that I was driving a long way to have a cup of tea whilst watching the stormy waves beat on the beach.

[In between dives - well we had the space, why not use it!! Bob looking very fetching in his underpants too]

Our surface time was leisurely in the sunshine and we kitted up in good time for our second dive of the day. The Rib was on time waiting for us and only half full. The ride out was longer but the sea calmer. The dive site was The Brigette, the second dive of our last trip where we had experienced such poor viz. This time it was much improved being much lighter and with 3 – 4 metres of visibility. This wreck had been in its present location for a long time and is mostly collapsed with the highest part that Rob and I saw being 2 metres above the seabed. There were perhaps the most fish that we had seen on a UK wreck. We completed, I think? a circular tour of part of the wreck and I’m sure we saw the same lobster twice.

[Fantastic weather at Bracklesham - who would have thought it that day?]

An early start this Sunday morning saw our team consisting of Dave, Les, Philippa, Rob and me arriving at the Bracklesham launching slip in good time. This allowed us to visit the shop and then re-locate to the revised site at Selsey East. Dave, as Dive Manager of the day gave a good dive brief of what we might expect to see underwater.

The weather was best earlier in the day but stayed mostly dry.

Our first dive was on one of the concrete units that were to have been part of the WW11 Mulberry harbour of the D Day landings. The armed forces were practising with it prior to D Day and must have been a bit rough as they managed to permanently break it! It was the first time I had dived this site. The depth was 11 metres with variable viz of between 2 and 5 metres. It was quite warm with the temperature varying between 14 and 11 degrees. I was most careful not to become impaled on the many protruding steel rods. I enjoyed seeing the “chickens”, Lumpsucker fish that, guarding their nests, just hovered and stared back at you.

A quick return to shore and turnaround saw us off on our second dive. This was the “Brigette” This wreck had been my first UK sea dive just two years ago under the guidance of Dave. We had enjoyed a good dive on that occasion, seeing much of the wreck with 10 m visibility and filling me with enthusiasm. Unfortunately, today showed the other side of the coin. The viz soon diminished and then disappeared entirely before Philippa and I had reached the bottom of the shot. We quickly agreed that viz of less than half a metre did not make for a good dive and agreed to abort the dive. All other divers appeared to be of the same opinion and we were soon heading back to the shore for our journey home.

Leaving work early on Friday. Always a good move! Les and I attempted to escape the weekend rush hour traffic but of course, enjoyed its full potential. We met up with Jason and Lisa en route and when we reached Lyme Regis easily found our weekend accommodation just over the county border in Devon. Les and I settled into our bunkhouse accommodation and noticed the two inch gap over the door. This was either missed snagging from its previous life as a building housing livestock or evidence of how warm the weekend would be! Time would tell!

All divers arrived safely at the farm. Enjoyed a night’s sleep and breakfasted according to their needs. The following morning proved reasonable weather wise. We made a trip to the harbour where we met our skipper for the weekend. The dive kit needed to be assembled on the adjacent quay before being handed down onto the boat.  We went along the coast to the site of the “St Dunstan” My logbook records the weather as being cold, windy, sunny and overcast. 
The depth was 29 m with a slight current and viz of 1 to 2m and quite a dark dive. No wonder I don’t remember much of it although we did stay down for 30 minutes. Back along the coast to just outside Lyme Regis harbour. This was a slow journey to allow sufficient surface time to elapse and also to enjoy a Cornish pasty and baked beans. Unfortunately, the rising wind and long surface interval meant that some divers rightly felt that they were too cold for a second dive. I was fortunate in that I did dive on the “Bayitano” and thoroughly enjoyed it. There was a slight current here also, the temperature had risen to 10 degrees and at 19m was lighter than the previous dive with better viz at 2w to 3m. And there was a lot more wreckage to see as well.

We arrived back in the harbour and unloaded the boat of all our kit. It was not safe to leave it on board overnight.  When we arrived back at the farm; the weather was sunny and calm with sunshine which enabled us to mostly dry our kit. During this quiet period, Les and I sat in the field, in the sunshine to enjoy our mugs of tea. The owner came along to chat, “what about the forecast of heavy snow overnight/” we asked, “Think nothing of it” was the response, “we are too far south”,  Believing him we enjoyed the rest of the afternoon and evening in the company of our companions with a splendid stomach stretching take-away evening meal.

It never really got over warm in the bunkhouse that night, it was that gap above the door, but it was comfortable. The following morning as we organised out kit and ate breakfast, we admired the picture postcard snowy scene out of the window. The wind had also risen and when later down on the harbour wall viewing the indeterminate horizon between sky and sea, much muttering were heard amongst us. The skipper announced diving was possible but so was a good chance of hypothermia! It was with some relief that we mutually agreed that diving would not take place that day.  

A quick trip back to our overnight lodgings to collect the remainder of our belongings
saw the start of the journey home.

Diving is our sport and we should enjoy it; there is always another day to go diving.

Leaving work early on Friday. Always a good move! Les and I drove to Weymouth and on to Portland where we met up with Lisa and Jason for supper in a pub near to our weekend accommodation.  We were to return to the same pub the following evening as the food was good, plenty of it and good value for money. Afterwards we settled into the rather small bedrooms of The Bunker, our accommodation for the weekend and met late arriving participants. These were Alan, Jackie and Dave, all from SASAC and Nick and Rob from BATSAC.
Communal tea was enjoyed in the upstairs lounge before all left to gain as much beauty sleep as possible.

The following morning’s breakfast in the lounge was a subdued affair with comments on the thinness of the bedroom walls and of other divers audible sleep patterns amongst the topics of conversation.

Gear was prepared and all travelled to the harbour. We set up on the boat and soon began our short journey to the Outer Harbour where our first dive was on the Countess of Erne. It was a shallow dive at 13 m with poor visibility of 2 m. I think it would be more interesting on another occasion. The second dive of the day was nearby on the Bombardment Unit.  This was another shallow dive at 16 m and with the same visibility. It was sufficiently poor for me not to locate the connecting line to the adjacent landing craft. Rob and I wandered off the wreck and were unable to find it again so a short dive for us! On the way back to the inner harbour moorings we were buzzed by the Coastguard helicopter. Great Fun!

With the day’s diving completed we washed and prettied ourselves for a visit to the local cinema to see the latest Rambo film. It passed a pleasant couple of hours before dinner and drinks in the pub near to our accommodation. Once again we retired for tea in the lounge before bed.

I awoke early the following (Sunday) morning; organised my possessions for our later departure and went for a walk on Chesil Beach which was literally just across the road. The items the sea washes up are many and invariably broken. Breakfast with colleagues was again an interesting affair before setting off for the boat.

This time we travelled along the coast for about half an hour until we arrived at Worborrow Bay. The view from the boat showed the lovely countryside and coast that Dorset possesses. The wreck, the Blackhawk, was not easily located by the skipper and when dived, Rob and I found nothing on the seabed to get excited about. I don’t think the other teams found much, if anything, more than us. 

A slow journey back into the Outer Harbour of Weymouth gave us our last dive of the weekend. This was on the Bottlebank at 17 m. Rob and I did not find any bottles, although others did, but we did find plenty of scallops of which Rob generously donated his share to me. This proved to be a satisfying end to our weekends diving. A return to the accommodation to collect of our possessions: a parting from friends and a tired drive home saw the completion of the weekend.

As you may know, club members Lisa, Jason, Steve and Bob joined with some members from St Albans Sub Aqua Club; Pete, Cat and Becky to visit Scapa Flow.

Scapa Flow is a large, shallow anchorage in the Orkney Islands, us by the Royal Navy in both world wars. We travelled there to dive the wrecks of the German Imperial navy of the First World War. We were joined by Andy, previously without a club but whom I persuaded to join BATSAC on the taxi ride from Kirkwall airport to our base in Stromness.

Steve, Andy and I flew from Heathrow airport with the flight being delayed by an hour, to Aberdeen. Here we caught our connecting flight with minimum time to spare to Kirkwall. This flight from Aberdeen, over the northeast of Scotland gave us a splendid panoramic view of the Orkneys. I have to mention that the best days of the visit, weather wise, were the day that we arrived and the day that we left. The intervening days were varying shades of overcast cloud mixed in with sunshine and blue sky. An expensive taxi ride deposited us at The Ferry Inn, Stromness, and our home for the week. We soon met up with Lisa and Jason, settled in and met our fellow divers, soon to be come friends, (as divers do). That same evening we arranged our kit on the boat, left in the open, on an unguarded boat all week, (we were not in London), settled into our rooms, met up for dinner and retired for the night.

It was common practise to mostly all meet for dinner then retire to the pub for an appropriate amount of decompression fluid before returning to our rooms. The first couple of days that we were there coincided with the Orkney Blues Festival. One has to pity those of our party who had rooms in the main hotel building above the dining room/bar. They may have gone to bed but did not sleep until the early hours of the morning.

Sunday: Our first dive of the week. After an approximate journey time of half and hour on the MV Karin, a decommissioned Norwegian trawler, Jason and I were the first pair in the water, descending the shot line, to see the SMS Karlsruhe at 28 metres. A mostly intact cruiser of WW1. It was lying on its port side with us starting our dive approximately mid ships, swimming forward above the hull, falling away to our left, with the deck effectively a wall beneath us.  We came over the rear of the forward armament, a single gun to each turret, shielded to the front, sides and top but open to the rear. Proceeding further, we reached the bow then followed it down to the keel of the ship. I took a moment to reflect on the grace of its lines, reaching ahead of me into the darkness before me and rising away to me left where we had just swam from. An impressive and unforgettable sight on our first dive.

It was on this first morning that we all met Manfred and Andreas from Germany. They became firm friends over the course of the week. Naturally they both spoke excellent English, putting me to shame and both enjoyed the evenings with us in the pub at the end of the day. 

Our second, shallow, dive of the day, once we had all completed an appropriate surface interval was on the Gobernador Bories, an ex whaling ship, much broken up. It had been sunk as a block ship between islands, to protect British ships in the main anchorage. Initially this seemed a boring dive but this changed when we found the machinery and other interesting parts of the ship. Two good dives in one day. This is what a holiday is all about.!

Monday: Once again Jason and I were first into the water, it was a consistently warm 12 degrees all week, this time onto the SMS Brummer, another cruiser. This ship was again very impressive but salvage work had broken up much of the ship in the mid ships area. Jason and I swam along the ship almost to the very stern to again see the intact guns and rudder. We had just gone into deco and deployed the dsmb when my right hand, primary regulator became hard to breathe on. I switched to my left hand,alternative air supply instantly enjoying full breaths of air. We ascended normally to surface fulfilling our deco obligations. Once back on the boat, we checked the valves on my manifolded twinset. I had not opened the isolating value sufficiently to allow the cylinders to equalize, although I had used this setting previously. Evidently I had been breathing down one cylinder faster than it could replenish. It was a lesson learnt but I could not recommend it at 34 metres.

Our afternoon dive was on the Tarbarka. Another block ship with no deployed shot line. The strong downwards current assisted our rapid descent. The up turned hull was covered in kelp which Jason and I slammed into, just like cartoon characters, at 6 metres. We quickly and un-ceremoniously  crawled over the hull into the lee where we continued our dive. The kelp at the end of the wreck streamed six foot horizontally from it. This should have fore-warned us as when we deployed the dsmb it went away like a kite in a similar fashion. Our ascent was equally exciting.

I could continue in a similar vein of narrating our dives day by day. I think it would be boring so I will just round up and say that we dived all week on a many wrecks as we could. They were all interesting. There was something different on every one.

It was a hard week for me as I had never done so many taxing dives over a continuous period previously. One day on the boat I registered the air temperature at 7 degrees. Some of us visited the 5,000 year old village at Skara Brae. It has in-door toilets and a sewage system. This was the day that the wind made it so cold that I thought my face had fallen off. The photographers amongst us were in their element with all the new sights.

We saw seals and porpoises on our boat journeys, visited the museum at Lyness, spent our money in the two dive shops in Stromness, enjoyed some good meals and drinks in the evenings and talked a lot. All in all a very memorable week.!

Leaving central London at midday after a mega busy morning at work was such a relief. I finished packing and was ready to leave home at the exact moment that Les rang the door bell. I had already phoned him during the morning to advise that Pip, suffering from a bad cold, would not be travelling with us or joining the other members of Batsac and Sasac, Lisa and Jason, Rob, Wanda, Alan, Steve Greenham, Steve Gore and non diving Teresa, for what would turn out to be a great weekend. Pip also missed riding in Les’s new van, as we all know, only SERIOUS divers have vans. Les has a NEW VAN! The rest of us will just have to make do as best we can.
Les and his new van, which is an excellent vehicle, took us safely and efficiently to Fort Bovisand, Plymouth which was our base for the weekend.

A sound night’s sleep, although initially cold, prepared us for a leisurely breakfast and first briefing about the days dives. Kit preparation and then assembly at the quayside, only 150 metres away, saw all on board the RIB Dive Eclipse. A 20 minute ride over flat seas and we were above our first dive of the day, HMS Scylla. A final briefing and buddy pairs were away on our latest adventure.

Sitting upright on the seabed with a very slight list to starboard at 26 metre depth, tide dependant, HMS Scylla is a purpose sunk shipwreck/artificial reef. Holes had been cut into her sides to allow easy access and exit from all parts of her. I enjoyed my dive with Les on the Scylla. It was different: even from the dives I have completed on other purposely sunk ships. This morning’s dive enjoyed 10 metres of visibility and 15 degrees warmth. As always, everyone has their own opinion and I will leave you to form your own, when you make this dive.

All divers were collected safely with the journey back to base cox’n’d by Teresa, who made a superb job of it. In fact, she carried out a good proportion of the boat work during the weekend, which must have been great practise for the boat driving course she is currently undertaking.

Our return to harbour and lunch preceded another boat ride for our afternoon dive to almost the same place. The Scylla and James Eagan Layne lie on the same heading approximately 200 metres from each other. The same buddy pairs went into the water; this time on what must be everyone’s idea of a shipwreck. The JEL sits upright at a similar depth to the Scylla. The bow section is still mostly complete and whole and presents itself as a big ship. Swimming along either side does not detract from this impression. Even where the plates have fallen from the ships framework, and you can swim between, it’s still a big ship. Although part salvaged soon after the she sunk, some of the recognisable cargo is still in situ.
I’m sure one could repeatedly dive on this ship and never get tired of it. All of our divers’ opinions appeared to be similar of the JEL. We had been privileged to make such a dive!

On Saturday evening most of our party drove into Plymouth for an early meal at a curry house. It was an easy, friendly, casually stylish affair with constant chatter on a variety of subjects, jokes and laughter. Surely the epitome of the aspired social side of club membership. A detour on our return via a local supermarket to buy ice cream and fireworks preceded the revelation of two pyhro maniacs, Les and Rob amongst our numbers. Their take over of the fireworks and improvisation of their use was noted by their appreciative audience. Unfortunately it could not last for ever and eventually sleep called to all. 

A nights rest and an earlier start than on Saturday saw a subdued party collected for breakfast. The dive plan for the previous day was repeated, first the Scylla; a return to base for a short break then back to the JEL. 

The boat ride out to the Scylla was smooth even though there was more surface water movement than the previous day. Once again a good dive with Les and me exploring much of the Scylla including the engine room in the lower part of the ship. Other pairs reported similarly satisfying dives. Again Teresa impressed us all with her boat driving skills on the journey back to Fort Bovisand.