Eastbourne Club Dive on 8th May 2010-05-09
Early morning start was picked up at 4.30am, and travelled down to the location of the boat the journey was good no traffic holdups and a free travel on the Dartford Bridge. The weather was overcast and threatened rain, but it held off for loading the boat and quite a bit of the day.
We loaded the boat and met two people from another club Sarah and Paul very nice people diving on rebreathers who know Dave the skipper and Sylvie. The conversation of the day flowed well and was lighthearted,
On the journey to our first wreck the sea was fairly calm and we were surprised and thankful for that.
First dive – The unknown wreck (known as Sink Wreck) 30 meters.
Viz for this dive wasn’t great couple of meters if that, we had a fin round it and there were plenty of fish, and dead mens fingers. It was quite silty too, even when above the bottom the fin stroke movement displaced the water which in turn displaced the sand beneath, made the Viz worse. But even for that the dive was interesting everywhere we went there where shoals of fish which sometimes got very close. Loads of Crabs all over the wreck, Alan could not resist picking a couple up to show me. A least I think he was showing me…… I signalled at the boiler to Alan that I needed to surface due to air consumption and we set of my delayed signal marker buoy and set of on our ascent. We got safely to our first deco stop and completed one min then on to the second stop all went according to plan. Nice dive shame about the Viz but nothing new for UK diving.
On the boat we changed and got warm in the boat cabin and ate our lunch with a cup of tea provided by Sylvie, nice one. We chatted about the dive and all were happy with the experience, Alan and Allan both dropped off to sleep to recharge their batteries. Next dive at 2pm plenty of time to relax.
Second Dive = The Brauton (30 mtrs) Click here for details of wreck
The sea was perfect for the second dive so flat it was lovely couldn’t wait to get in. We prepared for the dive and entered off the lift as normal with stride entry. As we went down we could see that the Viz was excellent to 10 meters. The marine life was plentiful loads to see and the clarity on the wreck was brilliant. We saw the bow of the ship very clearly it was amazing how intact it was. Looking up we could see the masts. Large sections of the metal work was ideal for marine life to hide under so we had a little mouch around with our torches. We saw Sylvie fin past searching for scallops for her and Dave’s dinner, enjoying the wreck at the same time. We missed a huge Lobster apparently which Paul and Sarah saw on their dive shame. This is one wreck I will definitely revisit.
On the journey home the drizzle started but as the sea was calm the journey was relaxing, we got to the lock for the 5pm. Unloaded and made our way home chatting about the days diving. Looking forward to Weymouth next weekend, hopefully the Viz will be as good as on The Braugton.
