Dive Reports

Current season 2009

January, February, April, May, June

(2007, 2008, 2009 seasons)

June

Friday 4th June 2010 - Lariston

Rufty tufty Canterbury divers Debs, Matthew Drinkwater and I met in Dover to dive the Lariston and the Denbighshire from the Neptune on a lovely Friday afternoon (though any day when I’m not working is lovely in my opinion).  The weather was perfect, another blue almost cloudless sky and only a gentle breeze to keep us from overheating.  This time I took the unusual step of bringing ALL my dive kit (and even managed to not leave it behind afterwards).  I think it made for a much more relaxed dive and plan to try and do this in all my future dives.

Matthew and I decided to stick with the same plan as last time - a lobster for my increasingly emaciated children. 

After kitting up and dropping in once slack was upon us we descended the shotline to be met by a good 6 to 8 metres viz and a nice sandy bed to reflect the sunlight.  To be honest as a relative newbie I had no idea which of the two ship we were on but it was a lovely wreck with all sorts of recognisable bits and plenty of nooks and crannies to rummage around in for things that could be eaten or cleaned up and displayed as trophies.

Matthew and I came very close to our planned lobster but at the last moment he scuttled back in and refused to budge (we have a cunning plan involving crowbars for our next dive) so we made do with a fine sized edible crab as our consolation prize.  I was responsible for the reeling off and goody bag handling so I left the easy bit (grabbing the crab) to Matthew.  He dealt with this task with admirable ease though manhandling the bugger into the goody bag was a little more complicated that we’d first envisaged.

Debs very kindly tagged along behind like my guardian angel helping me disentangle myself from a bit of line as my intrepid buddy buggered off in front to scout the way as I tried to hold my torch, reel off and manage a wriggling goody bag.  Every now and again she disappeared to gather treasures for her goody bag.

The water was an amazing 12 degrees and we dived a squarish profile to about 30 metres before returning to the shot for our obligatory safety stop at a very crowded 6 metres.  Just before we ascended the shotline Matthew saw a second edible crab sitting out in the open begging to be collected so he was duly scooped up and thrown in the goody bag. 

We arrived back on the Neptune very pleased with ourselves, dumped the goody bag in a crate and started to de-kit, chatter about the dive and wipe the snot and bits of krill from our faces. In fact we were so busy doing this that we ignored the ominous crunching sounds coming from the general vicinity of the goody bag for a couple of minutes til Debs reminded us of our catch.  Matthew and I looked into the top of said bag to discover a crustacean version of Robot Wars underway at the bottom.  The slightly smaller (but obviously considerably harder) of the two (Rocky) had successfully won the battle.  This was clearly evidenced by the fact that the legs and claws of the bigger one had been ripped from his carapace and the crunching sound we heard was Rocky’s claws as the crushed their way into his poor opponents shell.  Needless to say we kicked them apart (whilst squealing like girls) and put them into separate bags.  I took Rocky home for my starving brats and Matthew took the loser back for a dignified funeral involving boiling water, mayonnaise and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Deb’s proudly showed us her collection of treasure which included a sort of manky clay dish thing, a manky clay lid thing and a plastic tub with a screw top.  Matthew and I were suitably impressed and didn’t take the piss all that much.

Nik

May

Saturday 22nd May - MV Flashee

Three hardy (should that be foolhardy) Canterbury Divers, Simon Woollett, Matthew Drinkwater and myself met on a nice sunny Saturday afternoon for a dive arranged by Paul Oliver on the MV Flachsee.  Unfortunately Paul himself was unable to make the dive but, as always, everything was immaculately planned insofar as Dave Batchelor and the Neptune were waiting at Dover for us all to turn up.

Cleverly (and for the second time this year eejit that I am), in my rush to get away from my family and off to Dover I arranged to leave my computer behind at home.  Fortunately Simon has the habit of not just bringing his own kit with him when he is diving, but also a complete additional set of kit just in case.  Not only did he have an old computer knocking around, he also had a brand new battery for it thereby saving my bacon once again.  Crisis averted we set forth from Dover to the edge of the shipping lanes to kit up and jump into the plankton bloomed slop masquerading as the Channel.

The MV Flachsee, built in 1945 is a freighter with a general cargo that sank following a collision in 1963, upright and very intact in 32m she stands 7m proud with her decks at 25m, damage at both ends and the superstructure blown off, the distinctive masts are prominently laying across the deck (I shamelessly nicked this bit of the report from Paul’s YD post organising the trip).

We descended through plenty of plankton and krill and it got progressively darker – at about 20 metres it got ‘quite’ dark but the viz at the bottom of the shot was a very reasonable 4 to 5 metres.

Matt and I had a simple dive plan, to get a lobster for me to take home to my starving children (I’d spent the weeks grocery shopping money on diving).  We had planned the dive and were fully intending to dive the plan.  Sadly the only lobster we saw was clearly an old hand (claw?) when it came to dealing with foraging divers and was entirely prepared for our cunning plan.  He backed himself into a very deep hole and refused to come out til we’d buggered off.  Afterwards Matthew said that he could have sworn he’d seen the glint of a watch in there with the lobster.  His theory was that the clever crustacean had been clock-watching til he was sure we’d be going into deco and would have no option but to leave him alone so he could venture out again.

Plan thwarted, we mooched around for a bit just about touching 30 metres in 8 degrees of balmy UK waters before reeling back to the shotline and ascending for a safety stop after a 30 minute dive just in time for tea, biscuits and a return to Dover. 

Upon returning home I discovered that my lads couldn’t have been that hungry as they declined my offer to scrape the krill from my kit to make a nice tasty soup so all’s well that ends well.

Nik

April

Saturday 24th April

Dive 1 - HMS Flirt - 3m of dark viz with a LOT of plankton.

Dive 2 - HMS Unity - 6-8m of light viz and a little bit of plankton - what a cracking dive dropping through the decks into the wreck with some stunningly clear viz when we expected a plankton wipe out - fabtastic

Paul Oliver

February

Sunday 14th February - Non Dive Report

Happy to report that all Canterbury Divers returned safe from today's clay pigeon shooting trip at Martin Gorse Wood, near Dover.

For several members it was their first time at shooting anything more powerful than a cap gun, but it didn't show, and instead of getting a refund for all the missed clays, as was had expected, we actually got some encouraging remarks from the instructors. I even heard a comment of 'nice shooting' for a couple of Canterbury members, of which more later.

The day began with an early 9am meet (not bad for Valentines Day) in the snow covered carpark of the venue, which actually was a rather lovely picture postcard scene; even better if you had 4x4 capacity (hopefully Paul O is able to read this if he did get his vehicle back up the track).   In time honoured diving fashion though we could not get started straight away as the draw of the canteen and the bacon butties lured as in until Chris Read, one of the instructors, managed to prise us away, with still steaming mugs.

After some initial instruction in the practise area, which involved H&S and the correct use of the guns, we were split into two groups and luckily the Abbats (who had brought their old poaching rifles) were separated. Jon B was first up in his group and promptly missed with the first shot but after that there appeared to be more hits than misses from everyone, except perhaps in the overhead clay category. Terry 'from the hips Greenan' even managed to bag a clay while contesting that the stock worked better when placed nearer the chest line.

On average scores seemed to hover around the 16 hits out of 30 shots mark, except for 3 folks. The first, John 'why use one barrel on each clay when you have two' Abbat had about 50 shots so we must discount but Paul and Terry showed there x military training with scores in the mid twenties, had 9 out of 10 scores in some disciplines and both headed their respective groups. Good to know that all our tax payers money was not completely wasted in training these two. Next time a handicap will be placed on anyone who has worn a uniform (excluding nurses, maids etc, so Phil B. and Chris W. will be OK).

After we had finished terrorising the instructors Chris Read showed us round more of the venue, where divers from other BSAC clubs were found lurking in the bushes - so now we know what they do in the winter season - and of course it was then back for more butties and tea before home.

All this for £13 per head, a really good morning - cheers everyone.

Many thanks to the instructors at the venue, they were both excellent and I see us returning here again for more socials in the future if they will have us.

Jon Bramley

Sunday 7th January - HMS Hermes

“You’ve got to dive the Hermes…” said Rob a couple of weeks ago.   “…it’s one of my favourite wrecks” he continued rambling on about spidge to be collected; cracking vis to rival the Red Sea; a light sandy seabed reflecting brilliant sunlight to bathe the entire area with ethereal light; mermaids galore and other rash promises.

Me, being a fresh out of the box newbie Sports Diver, listened eagerly believing practically every word insisting that I be included on the next dive he organised to this wondrous wreck.  True to his word Rob got his act together and a few texts on Friday and Saturday and the kind offer to sort me out a 35% Nitrox fill and we were good to go for Sunday morning.

A 7.30am meet for 8 o’clock ropes off on the Neptune was order of the day.  We met on an unpromising, cold and grey clouded morning.  Paid a fiver in coins for the dubious honour of parking at Dover Marina (yeah they’ve sussed that the ‘cheap’ ticket machine wasn’t working properly so be warned for future meets) and loaded our stuff.

Hardcore (foolhardly might me a more appropriate word) Canterbury Divers Rob, Nik, Nigel and Ian turned up at that ungodly hour. Obviously being early birds we were there in plenty of time but had to wait an extra few minutes for Chris from Shorncliffe to bring up the rear (insert your own Carry On line here). In total there were ten divers.

Our spirits soared as, despite the dull skies the vis changed from brown to blue as we crossed the Channel.  They then plummeted as it turned back to brown again the closer we got to the French side and our intended target.  The journey out is perhaps best described as ‘interestingly lumpy’ but we made it without anyone bringing up whatever breakfast they may have had earlier that morning.

It was already slack when we arrived on site so we kitted up as quickly as possible.  Nigel hit the water almost as the engines stopped he was that eager to get wet.  Rob and I dropped in, descended the shot pausing for a quick 6 metre bubble check before carrying on down to clip on and reel off.  The shot was at the bow so we reeled off down the starboard side until Rob ran out of line.  I then clipped on my reel and we continued, finning against the current all the way.  When we reached the stern we turned and Rob took over my reel for the return journey.

We took a short while to find the shotline again before ascending to about 12 metres at which point Rob stopped, looked at me sheepishly, and handed me the double ender boltsnap that had been attached to my reel.  He then looked apologetically at me as he clipped his spare reel onto one of my D rings.

We ascended to 6 metres for a safety stop whilst Rob went through a few drills and messed around with his stages before returning to the surface and the Neptune where hot tea and sausage rolls awaited.  We’d done a total of 36 mins – which was plenty long enough in 6 degrees with a max depth of 29.9 metres and an average of 20.1m.  Vis was about 5 metres or so.  When all were safely back on board all that remained was for us to undergo the bumpy journey back to Blighty.

I’m very keen to return and dive Hermes again.  It’s a lovely wreck with a great deal of recognisable stuff to see, plenty of life and loads to explore.  More importantly though, there’s a dirty great, bright yellow McMahon reel with my name carefully written on it somewhere on the bloody wreck.

Nik

January

Sunday 24th January - The Brazen

I'd decided I wasn't going to go on the following day's dive. However the target changed to the Brazen and even though the meet was at 5.30am (ugg!) I was up for doing the wreck as hopefully the winter weather might have moved some of the silt/sand from it and we might find something interesting.

Carl, Debs, Kay, Nik and Rob were on this one. The early morning start was not good for Kay, she forgot her undersuit and had to rush back home to get it, she belted back to Dover and just made it in time before ropes off. In all the excitement Nik then left his computer in his car; luckily he had the same mix as Kay with whom he was diving with for his final SD qualification dive. Off we went and underwater it was much the same story as the day before with fairly low vis. Rob came back with a crab and Nik got his SD - well done to him.

All ready 2 dives of the year and it's still January.

Debs

Saturday 23rd January - The Unity

Paul organised this one through Yorkshire divers - Carl, Debs, Gerry, John and Rob signed up for it. I arrived at a murky foggy Dover to find that Paul was suffering from the sniffles (he claims its a chest infection) so he couldn't go on the dive he organised so new boy John (Scubahippo) got his first trip on Neptune. As I lugged all my kit onto the boat Gerry and Nigel Ingram went off to find breakfast and the rest of us contemplated whether or not we would be able to dive The Unity in the fog. Rob, ever the laughing boy, was not impressed. So off we went and, much to Rob's delight, as we got closer to the target the weather cleared enough for us to dive it.

We all started to kit up, well except for Gerry who's unwise choice of a sausage sandwich was causing him to look very pale and queasy (nothing could damage Nigel's guts - he eats pickled eggs for goodness sake) and so decided to bin the dive. The rest of us dropped in for a low vis (2-3m) low temp (8oC) dive at 37-38m. Most came back with large bags of scallops including Rob with a bag full that he'd left back on the wreck in November. John, just to demonstrate the fact that Scots are 'well 'ard' went in without gloves, though did remark afterwards that he'd wear them next time.

So not the most exciting of dives but the first one of the year so we were all happy.

Debs