Diving Belles - Portland on MayDay Weekend
A few weeks ago Fiona reminded me that we didn’t have anything planned for the May Day Bank Holiday weekend. This would never do, so after a scout around and some advice from YD I booked up a series of four dives for Saturday and Sunday with Breakwater Diving at Portland (www.divedorset.com).
Reports of outstanding viz the weekend before had us on the edge of our seats all week, and fingers, toes and anything else we could were crossed in hope that it held out and that the May bloom didn’t beat us to Dorset.
Saturday 29th April
We had to drop the cats into the cattery on Saturday morning so the dives weren’t booked until late. A phone call from Dave Applin the day before explaining that the boat we were booked on, Top Gun, had failed sea trials had led to some last minute shuffling around and instead of the landing craft followed by the countess we were now doing Balaclava Bay, but still had the Countess.
Unfortunately Saturday dawned with Caroline feeling ill with a cold or virus. Her throat was sore and she had a cough, but luckily no mucus so we decided to head down and see how she felt before deciding if she would dive or not.We had to drop the cats into the cattery on Saturday morning so the dives weren’t booked until late. A phone call from Dave Applin the day before explaining that the boat we were booked on, Top Gun, had failed sea trials had led to some last minute shuffling around and instead of the landing craft followed by the countess we were now doing Balaclava Bay, but still had the Countess.Unfortunately Saturday dawned with Caroline feeling ill with a cold or virus. Her throat was sore and she had a cough, but luckily no mucus so we decided to head down and see how she felt before deciding if she would dive or not.
Balaclava Bay 15.00 Maverick
Caroline felt well or brave enough to try a dive so a very full Maverick left Portland to Balaclava bay. This is the area formed just outside the harbour wall, between the wall and Portland itself. It is a sandy bottom with rocky bommies and slopes down from around 9m to 22m. If you want scallops you head further out, for cuttlefish you head in. We wanted cuttlefish so waited until last to kit up and headed in slightly shallower.
We were diving as a loose three as it was a drift dive and Fiona had her camera – never an ideal combination. The current was running at 0.8knots at the start and picked up during the dive. To be honest this is a little fast for me to enjoy as it is beyond the point where you can realistically stop and look in more detail at wildlife – especially when your buddies volunteer you to be “blob-man”.
The viz was about 6-8m, with fine particles in the water, but the white sandy bottom meant it was lovely and bright, and the torches were definitely not required. There were lots of small fry in the 9m region, ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse and dozens, upon dozens of snakelocks anemones. I tried to stop and see if any of these had their tiny spider crabs that enjoy a symbiotic relationship with these amazing green and purple tentacled beasts, but the drag on the blob was too much. We saw no cuttlefish at all. Typical, I appear to have a cuttlefish jinx.
After about 15m Caroline had a small problem that caused her to stop on a lobster pot line. I made my way back to her by letting out line on the blob, rather than try and tow it against the current, but we had already lost Fiona as she hadn’t noticed. Fiona and I had discussed up front and Fiona had said hse would happily continue alone. Caroline had missed this conversation however and I spent the next 10 minutes of the dive repeatedly trying to tell her that Fiona would continue and not to worry! I hadn’t worn my slate as I find it a bit of a pain and only wear it when I have deco plans to follow so the finer details were lost…on Sunday I bought wetnotes from Underwater Explorers to stop it happening again!
We surfaced after about 35 mins as it was getting a little chilly – the downside of a drift where you don’t have to expend any energy finning yourself. Unfortunately any idea of being back on the boat and warming in the sun was short-lived. The boat was miles away doing pick-up and it took over 20 minutes to make it back to us and get us in. It appears that we didn’t hit the very fast part as the current rounds a point and so the group had got very spread out. We floated on our backs with lots of air in the suit and our faces to the sun to try and keep warm whilst we waited, so it wasn’t all that bad. What was bad was that the lift had been broken by some hefty lumps of divers the day before and we had an awkward sit and dekit on the back of the baot to get itn.
Once aboard we met Fiona and I was vindicated by her – this saved me from the surface earache!
Countess of Erne 18:00 Maverick
A quick fill and we went back out on Maverick. In contrast to the last dive we were the only three on the boat and it was bliss! The sun was getting low but was still bright and the sea was flat within the harbour. Despite the average viz outside the harbour reports had been that it was still excellent inside the harbour and when we stood on the lift ready to jump and I could see the Countess from the surface this was confirmed.
Once on the wreck the range of viz was confirmed as at least 15m, if not more. We could see two hold lengths clearly. It was truly fantastic. Caroline and I have dived the faithful old Countess several times in the past, in viz that ranged from “ok” to “awful”. Fiona had never dived her. Now you could see what a brilliant little wreck she is. Given the viz we all did our own thing – you could see where everyone was by bubbles, just like being abroad. We checked up on each other every couple of minutes but it was wonderful to just be able to potter around. No other divers, no worries about losing your buddy, and so much to see!
I swam the full length of the wreck inside, without the use of my torch, before turning back through the hold and going to find Fiona and gesticulate to her how nice it was inside. I then made my way along the deck to the stern. I decided to take advantage of the viz and swam off the stern at a three-quarters angle to look at he wreck as a whole. It was so odd to see most of her in one go!
Back to the sterna and look at the rudder before I thought I would see if I could see the red band fish. No luck there but I did find a shrimp occupying one of their holes!
I decided to finish up by hunting out the black-faced blennies (Tripterygion delaisi). These are very pretty little fish that are just in their breeding colours of orange/yellow bodies with the tell-tale black face at the moment. There is a photo on here
http://www.glaucus.org.uk/Tripterygion.htm
The strange thing is that they are found hardly anywhere in the UK. Portland harbour and especially the Countess is a great place to find them though. True to form I found several in the area of the deck at the stern. I pointed out some for Fiona to photograph but they seem to have a sixth sense and sit very still until the shutter is about to be released, at which point they dash off!
Also in this area were a pin-striped flatworm, tompot blennies galore, velvet swimming crabs and, to my surprise, a squat lobster. I have never seen one of those in this area before – they are something that I associated more with Cornwall and the west coast of Scotland.
Sitting on the stern, looking up at the boat above and the promised bottom looming I kicked myself for not saying we would be down longer. I could have spent twice as long there….
The evening
As Canterbury Divers were on the Bill for their annual “get the newbies in the sea” weekend we met up with some of them in the Breakwater for a drink and some food. Their ebullient DO – Mr Paul Oliver was the man who, along with his partner-in-crime Howard “Dude” Tomkins” had broken Maverick’s lift the day before. You would thin, this being the case, he would have made up for it with drinks for the ladies, but no. Instead Paul and I entered a heated debate on the use of force. I, obviously, disagree with it. Paul doesn’t. Fiona and Caroline separated us and took me home before I hit him 
Sunday 30th April
Salsette 11.30 Goose
After a night tossing and turning with a fever it was no surprise when Caroline decided to call the dive and so a few texts over breakfast persuade Paul to ditch coxing for newbies in Lulworth Cove and to join Fiona and I on Goose to dive the Salsette.
I have wanted to dive the Salsette for a couple of years but lacked what I considered to be the necessary experience for it until last year. This was our first shot at it and the reports fromt hose who had dived it in stunning viz the weekend before only heightened my anticipation.
The news that Caroline wasn’t going to do it threw me though. I have never dived without her. We always dive together and have the comfort of knowing exactly what each other would do, what we mean by certain signals and natural rhythm to who leads, who follows and all the little jobs. It made me feel quite nervous to leave all that behind.
Anyway, Fiona and I say down over coffee at the Café Aqua and planned out the dive. The wreck is on a P&O steamer sunk by torpedo in the First World War and rates as one of the best wrecks that is accessible to your average diver on the south coast. Details can be found here http://www.divernet.com/wrecks/wtour110100.htm, but in summary she lies on her port side, in 45m, with her starboard rail rising to about 35m. She is mainly intact and had portholes in place – a rare sight!
(pics from www.shipwrecksofscotland.com)
Given her layout we decided on a maximum depth of 40m and a bottom time of 25 mins. I have a stage of 50%, but Fiona’s analyses out at a little over 42% so we plan for 28% bottom gas and 40% deco. Fiona dives twin 7’s and the lost gas plan is very tight on her gas but she decided that she would run off her Aladdin if she did have lost gas as our average depth would have been less than 40m anyway. When Paul joined us we talked through the plan and he copied it into his wetnotes, happy to go with what we decided, but confident to do his own ascent depending on his bottom profile.
Fills complete we pack onto the boat and Caroline comes down to take photos and wave us off. I feel even worse as I wave goodbye from the boat as we back away from the jetty.
The run out is about 50 minutes on Goose and the sea is not entirely flat which means that Goose bounces a bit as she gets up on the plane. This doesn’t help me forget that I neglected to take my seasick pills.
On site there are already two other boats, Blue turtle and Outrage. There is a bit of a faff over where we are going to put our shot as Dougie from Blue Turtle wants lots of room around his to manoeuvre. This means that Andy has to drop our shot twice, but given that slack is later than expected it doesn’t cause any problems.
We kit up after about ½ hour on site and I have a few green moments during this so I am glad that we are the first ready and get to jump in with no more faffing. Once on the shot we descend immediately and it is immediately obvious that we don’t have the viz we had hoped for. Plankton is all around, but there is still about 6-7m of line visible. This seems to degrade as we get deeper though and on the wreck I would say we had maybe 5-6m. Our torches were required, but it was not black, just very green.
The shot had been laid at around about midships so the first choice we had to make was whether we went left to the bow, or right to the stern. Paul headed left – so that was that decision made! We dropped down the decking to about 38m, but Paul continued deeper. I refused to follow and Fiona stayed with me. We could see Paul and the three of us moved in parallel. The deck is broken and you can see through the rotted wooden slatting to areas below. Moving forward we crossed over an open hole in the deck. Beneath it is a large area and a cautious poke in revealed a glow at the other end. In better viz this would have been a tempting swimthrough but not today.
Paul moved up behind us and came to my right, putting him above us now. Shortly after this Fiona flashed for my attention and pulled me back to look at an enormous tompot blenny sat on the deck. We think that at this point Paul followed the wrong pair of blue fins as he separated from us and we didn’t see him for the rest of the dive!
Fiona and I continued forward, and there was another hole, with what looked (to my non-shipwrecky mind) like a companionway running forward from it. There were also railing running across the deck along the edge of this hole – I wonder what it was in the ship’s glory days? We had to move off the wreck to go around these railings and as we came back to the deck again there was a small kerfuffle in front of us as one diver pulled another up the wreck. The diver doing the pulling signalled the ok to me so we continued. Discussions later revealed Paul had seen this from the other side so he could only have been about 10m in front of us.
Reaching the bow there is a very large winch mechanism that I assume wass for the anchors as one of these is still visible on the starboard side of the hull, its chains running down from the deck past a pair of bollards. The anchor itself is still very recognisable, despite one side of it being entirely shrouded in fishing net. It is worth noting that there was a lot of net and fishing line over the wreck, another reason to be very wary of attempting a swimthrough on a whim.
We circled back up the hull side of the bow and spotted the first pair of many flabellina nudibranchs that we saw. I am having a little difficulty identifying the exact type at the moment so I hope that Fiona’s photos come out!
We moved along the hull at about the level of the portholes for maybe 10m before beginning to rise to the rail. The edge of the wreck is not completely intact here but breaks away in sections so you have to watch ahead of you and your depth to avoid following a drooping section downwards. As the dive time reached 20 minutes I began to prepare the SMB for launch. I had a small issue when the line got caught around the handle but Fiona pulled some slack and we freed it before letting the SMB go. For some reason Fiona then decided to deploy her SMB – as it turned out this was a contribution to a decision later on that should be made differently next time.
The plan was to ascend to 21m and then switch to stages. We to 21m slightly behind schedule and I switched straight off before signalling to Fiona. Now, because we both had SMB’s up it became more difficult to manoeuvre as we wanted to avoid tangling the lines. This meant that as I was I had a limited view of Fiona’s stage and whilst I could see her fiddling, I couldn’t see the exact issue. Suddenly Fiona turned to me, gave me a chopping signal that at first I thought was OOA, but then realised she meant “it’s dead”. She then signalled she was going up to deco at 6m, as per her computer.
This is where a lot of post-mortem has taken place. My plan gave me stops at 15, 12 and 9, before reaching 6m. Fiona left quickly and I had to decide whether to follow her or do my plan. The choice I made was to do my plan and as I ascended I could still see her going up, so I was hopeful that I would be able to keep an eye on her. However, during my 12m stop I lost contact and couldn’t see her any more. The sensible thing would have been if she had ascended my line so that we could have met again at 6m, but as it happened I had 20 minutes of stops at 6m (15 planned, plus 5 that I added for running late into the gas switch) all alone. I tried gently finning with the current o see if I could catch her up and find her, but to no avail. I was concerned during this time as the identified risk was gas volume for Fiona in a lost gas situation, but then I also knew that our average had been significantly less than the 40m we had planned for so her Aladdin should have cut the stops down from the V-planner lost gas plan.
I was also kicking myself for not stopping her, especially as we had also had the conversation during the planning that sticking with me in a lost gas situation would be a good plan too as I had stacks for both of us. I was there, on my 50% stage with 150b of 28% in my twin 12’s! It would have been the simplest thing for her to have gone onto my long hose whilst I used the 50%, and then I could have stayed down with her whilst she deco-ed out on 28%, or even taken the rest of the 50%.
As soon as I surfaced I saw her head about 20m away from me and Goose was already moving in to pick her up. She had been so close that by the time she was on board on the lift I had swum to Goose rather than wait for Andy to drive her over! Back on the boat and I found out what had happened. Her gauge was blowing off badly when she switched the gas on, so she went to lost gas and wanted to get as shallow as the computer would let her to increase the gas time she had. The stage was useable in an emergency as although the clouds of bubbles were quite impressive it would take a few minutes to empty the tank even with the losses through the gauge I suspect.
Overall it was an enjoyable dive. I missed Caroline more than I thought I would. She is my buddy in every way. We work together well and I just missed her face when I found the nudibranchs, or the way she understands but rolls her eyes when I point out capstans, winches and bollards – the only bit on ships I can recognise! I found out I am not that comfortable about continuing a dive when you have split up as I did worry what had happened, and finally a lot of lessons were learned.
AN excellent report Lou, nice and frank as ever.