Brighton 28th & 29th May 2003

This was the first time that I had dived out of Brighton and the trip was organised by Daniel Taylor who had booked us aboard Girl Grey, which is an Aquastar 43 powered by twin Caterpillar turbo charged diesels and skippered by Mike Snelling. Great boat with a very large kitting up area, essential on UKRS trips. 

The divers booked onto the trip included, Daniel Taylor, Steve Jones, Chris Bell, Louise Thompson, Nigel Hewitt, Adrian Smith, Keiron Frazer, Danny Burchett, Dave Jones and Roger.

Neil Weller was booked onto the trip but had to pull out due to work commitments, also booked on was Robert Smith, who didn’t turn up. 

Those staying were booked into the Windhaven Hotel in Rottingdean. Dan and I got the twin room while the rest were shoe horned into the other “family room” 

We arrived at the mooring point at 9am on the Saturday morning and we were able to drive our cars through the security barrier right to the back of the boat, this certainly beats hauling huge amounts of kit. 

Mike’s briefings are very thorough and cover every aspect of safety and the proposed dives. One of the nice features on the boat was the underwater recall system that Mike uses, apart from thunder flashes (used as a last resort) he has an underwater PA system. He plays the sound of a police siren for a recall. In addition on a drift dive if a pair are drifting off course he give 3 short blasts, followed by 2 long blasts for North, or one for South. On the first drive dive Dan and I heard the signal for “go North” and wondered if this meant us. We were left in no doubt when we heard a loud voice say “Steve, go North”, a very unusual experience while underwater. 

Prior to the first dive we had the only entrant for the kit damage award. Daniel failed to strap his twin set to the bench and it fell onto the deck and broke one of the knobs, and damaged the spindle of the pillar valve. To compound matters it wasn’t actually his twin set, but Maria’s (his girlfriend). Not sure if he has confessed yet, but if not then if she reads this Daniel has some explaining to do.

Once again Adrain had with him his home made housing for his video camera. he is currently working on an underwater torch. There is a strong rumour that the next project is to be a home made rebreather. place your orders now to avoid disappointment.

Dive 1, City of Waterford, Max depth 33.2 metres, viz 5 metres, Run time 54 mins

The Waterford was a 1,338 tonnes ship and was sunk in 1949. I was diving with Nigel and Daniel and although the viz was quite good as we went down the shot it was difficult to see the wreck, mainly due to the fact that it was obscured by a huge shoal of bib. On the wreck itself it seemed that we were always having to avoid fish, this is no exaggeration as anyone who had dived the Waterford will confirm. This wreck probably has more Tompot Blennies than any other that I have seen.

Daniel had decided not to do any deco, due to the damaged pillar valve so when he and Nigel went up I stayed on until I had run up 15 minutes of stops. As I bagged off I managed to drift into some fishing line, which as soon as I hit it, realised that it was still attached to a fisherman at the other end. I saw the weight move and the next thing it hit me on the hand and narrowly missed my face. So I started to reel up, making sure that there was no more line close to me. There was some current and so I was not too surprised to see my line at a considerable angle from the vertical. However when I got to 10 metres, and about to switch to my 80% deco gas the line was still not vertical. I decided not to switch gases unless I acted like a pendulum and swung vertical, and therefore deeper. At 6.5 metres this finally happened and I was back at 10.5 metres. Looking up I finally realised what happened as I saw the hull of a fishing boat, and a diver (Daniel as it turned out) who was removing and anglers line from my DSMB line. Problem sorted and able to switch gases and complete my deco time in comfort. Apparently the anglers found the situation amusing and I was described as their biggest catch of the day. 

Dive 2, Looe gate Drift, Max depth 13.1 metres, viz 3 metres, Run time 33 minutes

Not the most interesting dive. The reef itself was OK but due to the current you could not settle long enough to have a good look at any one part. We found a conger and tried to get it to pose for Daniel’s camera but it didn’t want to play. It was on this dive that Mike’s underwater PA called out “Steve go North”. Thisa was a very useful piece of information. It would have been even more useful had I been wearing a compass. How did he know it was me…by the name on my DSMB which I was towing. 

Dive 3, Fortuna, Max depth 31.1 metres, viz 5 metres, Run time 44 minutes

Our initial dive plan had to be changed due to sea conditions so we ended up on the Fortuna instead. The Fortuna was 1,254 tonnes and was sunk in 1916 and was carrying a cargo of cement. The evidence of which can be seen in the holds with many bags of it still neatly stacked. This was another wreck which was teeming with fish, again mainly bib but also some Pollack, and again lots of Tompot Blennies. I also saw approx 5 congers. 

Dive 4, South Western Rock, Max depth 14 metres, viz 3 metres, Run time 35 mins

A much better reef than the previous day, but unfortunately due to the current it was a case or “sit back and enjoy the ride” rather than actually look at anything. 

For some pics of this trip see Chris’ web site.