Report on our trip to Lyme Regis on the 17^th / 18^th June.

In fact we travelled down to our B & B on the Friday (16^th), which was a rather “smart” idea, because we had to leave the Quay at 7-30 a.m. to catch the early (morning) “slack”, which meant being at the quay at 7 a.m., breakfast at 6-15 etc. But well worth getting up early. This is a very good dive (for experienced Divers) which we have done several times before and on which we have had exceptional.

“Viz” in the past, 10 metres or more back in September. This time there was a late Plankton “bloom” and I doubt the “Viz” was much more than 3 mtrs and it was quite dark. We hit 50 mtrs under the rudder and then swam up on to the rear quarters, where my buddy Graham W had a good “rummage” around.  We had 23 minutes on the wreck, with a total dive time of 75 minutes.  Plenty of decompression as usual, but Graham and I have got “deco” stops off to a fine art now and we both take a magazine to read. The second dive that day was on “Pinhay Settle”, where I teamed up with John W. and filled my “goodie” bag with Scallops. He had “baled out” of the early dive, something to do with not feeling very “happy” at that depth on his first dive.

We had decided to dive the “Empress of India” on the Sunday, and this time we managed to “lay in” until 6-45 a.m. with breakfast at 7-15 a.m. and away at 8 a.m. We had much better “Viz” this time, 7 / 8 metres or more, and we swam inside the hull where the “Salvors” have blown a big hole, (she sits upside-down, as do must of the first world war “Dreadnoughts”). We swam around the boilers which were massive, and of course upside-down, and then along the keel to the stern where we saw the prop-shafts as they emerged from the hull and the “stabilisers”. Unfortunately I had left my Computer in the car that morning and although I had written details of my “deco stops” on my dive “slate”, and still had my “back-up” dive timer with me, I nevertheless kept quite close to Graham. Total bottom time 25 minutes, maximum depth 41 metres with total dive time of 70 minutes. An excellent dive. Later that afternoon, we dived (as usual) on the Bay Gitano, which is only 1 mile approximately off shore, in 20 metres of water, but this time I swam towards the stern, and managed to gather a few more scallops at the end of the dive.

The dive boat was “Miss Pattie”, skippered by John W. (not the John W. I had dived with earlier, I doubt whether anything could “faze” this man!) who really made the trip enjoyable and of course got the timing “spot on”.

Eastleigh Divers on the weekend included Pete S. Karen B. with 4 members of Fareham and Gosport club, and two others. Ten divers in total, with Sally M. as my “dresser” and companion for the day.

The next Lyme Regis weekend is in September, this time with 6 Eastleigh B.S.A.C. members, 2 ex. members, and two others.

See you at the pool on Tuesday. Regards Pete A.