Newbury Sub-Aqua Club

I have asked other people to write their impressions of the week, I would like to thank everyone who came for making the week so enjoyable both diving wise & socially and Mike Markey for providing the photographs of the Aeolean Sky.

Whether to go diving or not, the weather all week had not been good, but it was getting better and it was a neaps weekend. Friday evening we discussed the problem with the Diving Officer and decided that as the boat was to be based in Swanage all week if we had to cancel Saturday’s dive the Square & Compass at Worth Matravers was an excellent alternative.

Despite the predicted force 5 the car park at Kimmeridge was teeming with divers, we were approached by one group who wanted to know if we were going to dive the Aeolean Sky too! First dive out to Worborrow Bay for Sheilah & Dirk to complete Sheilah’s Dive Leader training well done Dirk!

Then the main object of the day, Martin & Dirk dive the Octopus Wreck, one of their favourites. Ten to fifteen meters visibility, only 2 divers on the Wreck and a coxed dive so no need to limit dive time & get back for other divers it’s about as good as it gets.

The sea state is moderate, too rough to drag a magnetometer around so it’s back to the caravan for a cup of tea. Peggy arrives about 7pm and we decide on the Scott arms at Kingston which must have the best view from a pub garden in England. It is impossible for Sheilah to drive past the turning to Worth Matravers so we end the evening with a couple of Beers in the Square & Compass.

Tim joined us at the Swanage car park where Sue took charge of the caravan keys; she was off for a relaxing day on the beach whilst we went diving.

A short boat ride out of Swanage past Ballard Point to Old Harry Rocks, finding 10m and dropping over the side for a pretty, relaxing drift. Martin volunteered to cox so 2 pairs of divers watched the sea life including dogfish, ballan wrasse, crepidula fornicata, and in Tim’s case trigger fish as we drifted past.

After an early lunch we set out for the main object of the day. Sheilah had been researching some wrecks in the National Archives over the winter and several times had been distracted by references to the Aparima. This ship was a 5700 ton cargo & passenger boat which was torpedoed off Dorset during the first World War. She also has a notebook book of transits & fixes collected by an ex club member who was famous for being able to find wrecks, sure enough there were 3 fixes for the Aparima in that book so despite being 8 miles from Swanage it was worth going for a look.

We had built 45 minutes into the plan to find the wreck as although she was not new to the club, she was new to nearly all the club members not having been dived by us in the last 10 years at least. It took 20 minutes before something large came up on the sounder so we had much speculation whilst we waited for the current to slacken off.

First in were Martin Tim & Sheilah, this was Sheilah’s deepest dive & it seemed appropriate that it should be to 42meters (42 being the answer to life the universe & everything). Visibility was again 10 to 15 meters, but coming to the bottom of the shot the first thing Sheilah saw was a reef, this brought back memories of Devon and using someone else’s shot to the reef next to the Persier, but then the wreck towered in front of them, standing at least 9 meters off the bottom. Martin put some air into the lifting bag on the shot whilst Tim & Sheilah looked at the impressive sight. At that depth time was limited so a swim along the deck, finding railings still intact so being able to look down & imagine her on the dockside at Southampton taking passengers to New Zealand with all the razzmatazz of a sailing in the early 1900’s was easy, before returning to the shot.

Peggy & Dirk were next in; they took the advice of the previous divers & decided to come up on an SMB to see more of the wreck. Swimming past the railings they nearly became separated despite the visibility when each saw the object of their diving desire. Peggy went after a lobster (which knew the Aparima better then Peggy so got away) and Dirk saw a prop shaft & therefore a propeller. Divers reunited, they swam around the prop before starting their ascent together.

Dirk had to leave after the dive so it was up to Peggy, Tim & Sue and Martin & Sheilah to end the day in typical Newbury SAC style at the local Curry House.

This was Anthony’s big day, he was marshalling as his last exercise towards his dive leader qualification; Martin was supervising, but had been out of the country on business for the two preceding weeks and Anthony had had to plan without his guidance. There was no-one on the boat who was not an experienced Marshal, but some have reputations for being the best marshals in the club, we were also joined by Mike Markey, leader of Poole Bay Archaeological Research Group and Skipper of his own boat Pevril Myth which he charters to the Marine Conservation Society and Southampton University Oceanographic Department. Anthony felt he was being judged by people with exacting standards so no pressure there then!

Anthony must have taken the teasing on the Isle of Man to heart; he turned up not in his shorts which ensured that we had better weather on Monday than either of the 2 preceding days. The water was flat calm blue water and the sun was shining as we launched the boat. First stop the Black Hawk, once the wreck of choice for Newbury SAC, but now visited on much less frequent occasions. Today she was looking her best, visibility was about 15 meters shoals of bib & Pollock were being chased by bass, the superstructure standing up with the light behind it reminded us of our childhood viewing through the playschool windows, Colin the Conger nestled in his hole and sand eels danced above us. This was the Black Hawk at her best.

After Lunch we set out to dive the Aeolian Sky, despite being one of the easiest to access big wrecks she isn’t a wreck we dive very often, Mike, Anthony, Sheilah and Kevin (G) had not dived her before & Anthony had wanted to visit for a long time. We arrived whilst the tide was still running, had we not had a good fix she would have been easy to find as the water was disturbed as it tried to pass over such a large obstruction; sure enough there she was on the sounder with time to spare before slack water.

Once again visibility was 10 to 15 meters and the sunlight above filtered through the 31 meters of water through to the ripped open cargo holds. First in were Martin & Mike, it seemed apt that the 2 land rover drivers should find themselves next to a sunken land rover, but neither came up with any spares!

Mike was also excited because he saw some unusual Jewel anemones, a colour he had not seen before. Even more unusual because he had his camera with him when he saw them thus defeating Murphy’s law!

Anthony need not have worried, the day was planned to his usual high standards which ensured everyone enjoyed themselves, and the visibility and the weather were a bonus which will live in our memories for a long time.

It was extremely foggy when I rolled up in Swanage at eight o'clock. The drive down from Newbury had been shrouded in thick fog all the way with the occasional clear patch around Poole. Things seemed to have brightened by the time the boat arrived and we were soon underway and heading for the Kyarra.

We arrived on site early to wait for slack. The Kyarra is buoyed and there is a tell-tale on the line. After a couple of minutes the tell-tale popped up; we kitted up and were in the water before the inevitable charter boats arrived.

The Kyarra is a very pleasant wreck. Well opened up but with some intact compartments with plenty of cargo to interest the souvenir hunter. The sea bed around it is also interesting with plenty of life among the low rocky reefs. At 30m though, this site is out of range of trainees - and given the recent incidents on this site, trained divers would be well advised to make sure they are dive-fit for it.

Conditions were superb (the best I've see for a couple of years) and the wreck was adorned with enormous shoals of Bib and Pollack. The wreck itself harboured a good selection of wildlife, the highlights of which were an extraordinary number of Tompot Blennys and some beautiful colonies of jewel anemones populating the sides of the hull.

Back on the surface, the sun was shining and it was a short trip back into Swanage for air, a play with the dog from "Divers Down" and a leisurely lunch.

The Betsy Anna is further offshore and given the long break between slacks we elected to get there early and see what the score was. Martin found the wreck easily (or should I say he made it look easy!) and the shot was duly deployed. Still a little current running so there was time to put our feet up and enjoy the sun for a bit...

The conditions on the Betsy were stunning - even better than in the morning. The visibility was great - tropical quality! The wreck is a nice size to complete a circuit in a dive. The middle is collapsed with the bow and stern intact but pointing skywards. Prominent in the centre of the wreck are the boilers, sitting end to end with about a two metre gap between them. The boilers resemble what I can only describe as a conger eel shop - a series of shelves, each with its own enormous conger! There were at least ten lining the sides of this narrow alley. And they were huge - large black eyes watching us swim past. The only open compartment which did not have a conger housed a large lobster. There were still more congers living under plates around the rest of the wreck, along with yet more blennys, some impressive edible crabs and thick carpets of anemones. Above the wreck loitered more large shoals of Bib and Pollack - the occasional silvery Bass spearing through the cloud of fish.

All too soon our time was up and we beat a retreat to the surface. A truly memorable dive - up in my top five UK dives. The Betsy is well worth a visit, it is well dived but the Kyarra will take the bulk of the diving population leaving the Betsy in peace and quiet.

The Wednesday of the Purbeck week was kindly given to the NSAC Photo group by Martin and Sheilah. Based on the good visibility experienced on the Kimmeridge photo competition the previous week, all were hoping for a similar day and Kimmeridge was chosen for the dives. 3 members of the photo group (well almost!) and 2 buddies attended the day.

The weather was lovely with Sun and a nice breeze, so it wasn't too hot. First dive was the gullies south of Clavell's Tower. The visibility almost lived up to the week before and was a good 10 metres. The Sea Hares were still out in some numbers with the addition of eggs which looked like "silly string" adorning the seaweed in various places. The dive in the morning was on slacks and was enjoyed by all.

In the afternoon it was the Dancing scallop dive with the plan being to conduct a slight drift with some action shots. After much checking of the tide diamonds and Martins local knowledge database it was decided that there would be a reasonable current that possibly might disrupt the photo taking. Kimmeridge again proved its hard to fathom currents by both dives being virtually slack against the predictions. There were few dancing scallops about due to the lack of drift but a fan coral much further East than usual was seen and reported. Photo's were taken and Martin even managed to do a bit of Project checking during the proceedings.

All met back at the ranch (caravan actually) for a few oranges and agreed a good day was had by all.

The photo's shown are as follows: Camouflaged Cuttle Fish - Sheilah Openshaw. Tube Worms - Sheldon Jowett. The other two pictures were kindly submitted by Mike Markey.

Full Size Pictures Can Be Seen In The Photo Gallery From Purbeck Week Here..

Thursday dawned sunny and calm. Trundling the boat-mobile down from the parental homestead in Bransgore through the week-day morning traffic to Kimmeridge was less of a problem than I thought it would be, so I arrived half an hour early and went for a bit of a walk.

Dot on 9am two green Landies arrive, one with boat - so I am in the right place. A bit of planning with Peter Tinsley the Kimmeridge Warden and we dive on the wall off Freshwater Ledges (That right Sheilah?). Sheilah says I have "drawn the short straw" and I am diving with her. I know this means I'll get a nice, long, relaxed dive (in 15-20m) and a really good look at all the nice things living down there. And so it transpired.

We trundled along the base of the wall which varied in height from about 1.5 m to 3m. In the 12m or so viz you could look up at the whole height of the wall, the kelp and red weeds waving from the top, the wrasse amongst the weeds and the light from the surface over that. Or you could look the other way accross a rock-strewn seabed fading into the murk. Species seen? Leopard spotted gobies, bloody Henry starfish, Sagartia elegans amenones in white and yellow, snakelocks anemones with unusual orange bases to their tentacles.Bright yellow boring sponges (Cliona, never boring in my book as they are a lovely bright lemon yellow), squat lobsters, 3 species of wrasse, yellow jewel anemones (not recorded here before) and I'd better stop listing.Except I will mention the most amazing decorator crab. I spotted this by turning over a stone and seeing it move. It had planted itself with hydroids, sponges and red algae, especially Plocamium cartilagineum. I took its picture against several bare patches of stone as it wandered slowly about, but despite all the pics being correctly exposed and in-focus (unusually for me), you can't see it is a crab. We surfaced to find the breeze had freshened and the sky had become overcast.

After lunch (with the spectacle of the Sanders boiling up pasta over a camp stove) we go off to do the Kimmeridge Craters. Different straws drawn this afternoon and I am with Peter Tinsley. I leave the camera in the boat and wish I'd taken it as the craters is a leisurely drift over a flat rock seabed grown with a park of hydroids, sponges and white dead men's fingers.
Periodic gullies and craters open up in front of you as you "fly " along.
They are only a meter or less deep, but the walls are covered in life and there is different life in the sand and shell in the flat bottoms, such as large scallops, partly buried in the bottom. Some of the walls overhang so there are lobbies and edible crabs.

Back up onto the rock "plain" and all around are thousands of queen scallops. In these conditions this would make great documentary footage: Pretend I'm the cameraman, drifting backwards ahead of and just above Peter while he drifts along just above the seabed and the Queenies "fly" up around him like demented fairy false teeth. Cut to close-up of a queenie and explain about the pretty blue eye-spots in the mantle around the edges of the shell and their sensitivity to changes in light and how they actually fly by "clapping" to expel jets of water. Voice-over by by Martha Holmes perhaps and a bit about commercial fisheries and the effects of scallop dredging on seabed habitats? Oops! Peter has spotted something and stopped before whizzing off accross-current, He's got the SMB, so I've got to work to stay with him.

As we reach the end of our no-stop time, I spot an old Admiralty Pattern anchor about 3'6" long lying all on its own at the bottom of a low wall, so we stop and measure it . Surface up the SMB line to find we are the last up and the breeze has freshened even more.

A lovely day's diving and well-worth the time off work. I'd happily do the craters again (with the camera) or the wall, to see how it looks further along.