Purbeck Week 2003

August 2003, the weather is breaking all time temperature records. It’s exactly the time you don’t need to be donning thermal suits and neoprene dry suits. Despite that the intrepid divers from Newbury dunked themselves in the sea to cool off and set about some of the more interesting sites on the eastern Jurassic Coast.

Seven days diving based at Swanage, followed by two days from West Bay so altogether nine days of diving without an interruption from the weather, good visibility and good company - perfect!

Saturday saw us bright and early at a slipway new to NSAC in Swanage, and it’s one we shall use again. The first dive was exciting. An easterly flowing fast current on springs over Pevril Ledges left little time to stop and take in the sights, but it was the closest thing to flying most of us had encountered, positively exhilarating.

One of the nice things about diving from Swanage is that we can take the boat close in to the pier (avoiding the swarms of divers) and unload cylinders leaving them to be filled whilst the divers stroll into the town for a leisurely lunch.

Saturday afternoon saw a more relaxed dive. During WW2 the army experimented with floating tanks, which hung in the water exactly the way a brick doesn’t! There are seven of these obstructions in Poole Bay, only one has a turret and gun still on top and its companion which is about 50 meters away has its turret is lying by itside. The navy who have 'dispersed' most of them, couldn’t find these two, but we could. Special mention should be made of the navigation skills exhibited by an intrepid pair who managed to swim between the two. It was a superb dive in 12 meters. Full of life including very friendly prawns which crawled onto divers’ hands, congers, lobsters and a school of bib & pollock which welcomed divers joining them. Positively a fish tank dive!

Saturday evening was eventful! Taking the equipment officer is one way of avoiding boat problems, but when you break an engine it’s in a spectacular fashion. Arrangements were made for the other boat to be shipped on Monday, but that was scuppered when the holder of the keys insisted on bringing the replacement down on Saturday night. This was much appreciated.

Needless to say a certain club member who shall remain nameless, but everyone will guess who, managed to find a pretty girl to keep him warm:-) He also managed to astonish the other occupants of the caravan with his ingenuity in turning a twin room into a double!

Sunday dawned. At 8.30 we were at the slip putting the replacement boat into the water. Hot sunshine and one of the divers mentioned that he had forgotten to put a hat on his birthday list. Durleston Head is just round the corner from Swanage and another exciting dive, a fast drift over many squidgie things and with fish, everyone enjoyed it, especially the hatless one because he found a stone bottle believed to be Victorian. The plan in the afternoon was to dive a site new to the club, the wreck of the Leny. This, we had been told by a very reliable source, was full of life with a lobster under every plate. When we arrived there was a fishing boat sitting straight on top of it dangling nasty hooky things into the water we wanted to be in. The alternative was a visit to Conger City, or the Wreck of the Betsy Anna, a favourite of the Marshal & his assistant. Yes a fishing boat was sat plum on top of her.

There is a rumour that the Valentine tanks are periodically picked up by the SBS and moved as a training exercise. This is why many divers have dived the vicinity of the tank without ever seeing them. When we arrived to dive the tanks as our 3rd choice another rib had obviously fallen foul of the Special Boat Service’s malicious joke, still we enjoyed the fish tanks a second day, but decided doing them a 3rd time would be a little too much.

On the way back to Swanage it was obviously a birthday because an engine picked up some flotsam, on closer inspection it turned out to be just the hat that the diver coveted!

Sunday evening saw us in the pub with probably the best view in England. Perched on top of the Purbeck Ridge the Garden of the Scott Arms looks out over the valley taking in Corfe Castle and the Swanage Steam Railway. The food is plentiful & good and the beer well kept.

On the way back to the caravan a hare ran out into the road, the lady who was driving, has a thing about hares and refused to do anything which could hurt it. The hare proceeded to run a wavy line down the middle of the road in front of the car, every time the car stopped the hare stopped. A car came up behind and followed at a discrete distance, a second car came up and tried to overtake, the second car pulled out and drove in a wavy line to prevent the hare being killed. One of the divers got out and ran down the road trying to head the hare off down a side road.

So you have the picture: hare serpentining down road, diver following, car following diver, second car serpentining behind first car (by now flashing hazard lights) and frustrated driver bringing up the rear. This continued for a distance of 2 ½ miles - who says narcosis only happens underwater?

Monday 7.30am 8 divers were at Kimmeridge wondering if a psychiatrist was going to come & discuss why they were there. This intrepid crew were determined to see if the Alex Van Opstal was in Weymouth Bay. It hadn’t been dived by NSAC for a number of years, an attempt had been made last year, but the SBS were up to their tricks and had moved it!

Using a fix that had been given to the club by a club member now retired from diving which he had had on the old decca system the cox navigated straight to the wreck! Even though it was almost spring tides slack water was perfect and 2 waves of divers enjoyed their dives. A fish which looked like a cross between a whale & a pollock surprised all of them, lobsters danced for their delight a topknot glided across the plates and bib swam around as if divers were a welcome distraction.

Lunch was supplemented by fresh sea bass cooked in one diver’s VW camper van better known as “duck”. The water which accompanied the meal was so welcome because of the brilliant sunshine.

A club favourite is to dive the Seabed caves on Kimmeridge Ledges. Much research has gone into working out tides for this area and looking for the best bits of this site. It’s like an adventure playground for divers. Limestone pavements with caves eroded to make swimthroughs, fantastic rock formations that have to be seen to be enjoyed.

The long day was rounded off by a trip to the Golden Bengal Curry house in Swanage. Last year the club had found this restaurant and thought it well worth a return trip - we were not disappointed.

Tuesday was a little better for times, but we had reckoned without the curse. One member of the trip has been diving for er er, well quite a while and has always wanted to dive a submarine. The plan was to dive the A3 which is a small, but intact pre WW1 submarine in 37 meters. Before we even left the bay a boat engine overheated, the equipment officer diagnosed a broken engine so the marshal decided a quick trip to the Black Hawk before heading back to the caravan to see if the rest of the week could be salvaged.

The Black Hawk was at her best. Visibility was outstanding 5 lobsters were spotted and a very friendly conger. One diver was spotted within 2 inches of a bib who was gazing into her eyes, much to the disgust of the large male cuckoo wrasse who had been kissing her mask a minute earlier! One member of the team had spotted what he thought was the rare coral carrophillia inornata on that part of the wreck a few weeks earlier, the assistant marshal had been a part of the team which found this coral in Swanage Bay last year, she thought it was on the wreck, but a more expert opinion should be sought.

Back to the caravan and a hunt for the right tools before a ring around all the Honda dealerships in the south of England located the necessary part, a dash to Axminster followed by 20 minutes work fixed the engine, Purbeck Week was back in business!

To celebrate a drink in the second best pub in England, the Square and Compass at Worth Matravas. The Ringwood was perfect and the museum was open for us to peruse the exhibits from various wrecks and oddities.

Wednesday was planned as the assistant marshal's day, her favourite wreck followed by her favourite drift dive. It didn’t turn out exactly as planned because when we arrived at Kimmeridge another dive club were preparing to dive & video the same wreck. Negotiations took place & we agreed that they would buoy the wreck & we would jointly watch for divers surfacing.

It looked very much like one person was to be solo diving, but just as the engines were engaged to leave the bay her buddy arrived, he had been held up in traffic (that’s his story & he’s sticking to it). The wreck was a little crowded, but everyone enjoyed what they saw (or in the case of the latecomer what little he saw having forgotten his mask with prescription lenses).

The afternoon was the dancing scallop dive, along this particular stretch tiny queen scallops hurl themselves at divers dancing in mid water, it’s a dive guaranteed to make a mask leak as divers laugh at their antics. Dogfish, skate and crabs were also noted especially what we believe to be scorpion spider crabs (Inachus Dorsettensis)

To round the day off an evening in the Hot Spots of Swanage, firstly a pub meal then to another pub whose “Grab a Grannie” night had live music (well that’s what they described it as) then to a night club, where our 2 bachelors were glad of their chaperone when they saw the girls were more suited to a youth club!

Thursday was a much more civilised start, 11.30am at Kimmeridge complete with filled cylinders and the diver who had fallen asleep after breakfast following the excitement of the previous evening. This time it was a dive with a dedicated cox’n to dive the Octopus wreck. The club has dived this a number of times and is trying to identify it by drawing it and looking for cargo. This time we took a guest with us who has forgotten more about ships that the rest of us ever knew.

With 5 divers the diving was split into a pair and a threesome on this 38 meter wreck. One diver was thrilled at how close he got to a conger, another diver was disappointed because he didn’t see the octopus he had seen on previous dives. All the divers managed to see parts of the wreck they hadn’t seen before and our guest identified some dead eyes. From which we can assume that she had a mast and sails and means we must look for more clues as to her identity.

It has to be said though that the diver who forgot to set his computer to the nitrox mix he was using caused merriment when a buddy surfaced and told the cox’n that the planned time had been extended to account for the error

Late in the afternoon we dived the old favourite of the Black Hawk again. Our guest diver was looking particularly for some rare coral (Hoplangia Dutorix) which the club had found on her last year and to look at the other coral spotted on Tuesday. On finding that the torch batteries died at the bottom of the shot he scurried back up the line intent on borrowing another torch. He was surprised to find one of our bachelor boys stark naked about to go skinny dipping in the sunshine. Needless to say he scurried back down the line, sadly there was no sign of the Hoplangia Dutorix, but the sighting of Caryophillia Inornata was confirmed (under most plates).

The evening saw us back in the Scott Arms at Kingston for someone to try and do justice to the view with a camera, a feat we don’t believe is possible, but the beer is good!

Friday was back to Swanage, in the morning a drift offer the Whitehouse grounds, being neaps it was much slower than the drifts Saturday and Sunday, but still quite exciting.

In the afternoon the target was that well known and well dived wreck, the Kyarra. This was the first time that the club had dived this wreck for many years and consequently the first time a number of the crew had dived her. She is a big wreck and has much cargo that can be salvaged, this is the attraction for many divers which makes her such a popular crowded wreck. Only one member brought anything back, this was a perfume bottle which was lying on the seabed, the contents were aptly named toilet water!

As both dives had had a dedicated cox’n the day had an early finish and the party broke up. Our two bachelor boys were off home to spruce themselves up for the ladies in their lives, the marshal and his able assistant remained behind for a last meal in an Italian restaurant in Wareham. They were joined by the diving officer who was marshalling the following day’s diving from West Bay, but that’s another story..........