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The Black Hawk & M2
Good Friday/Easter Saturday 25th & 26th March
Well the thought of getting up that early for a dive and going down to Weymouth wasnt that attractive, so a bunch of us headed down early on Thursday night. The best bit is the boat is moored on the Quay right next to the pub, thus minimising the faff time between the two.
Next to the Pub and right in town!
So after a relatively quiet night with some denials of snoring (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) we got up bright eyed and bushy tailed to have a stab over the next couple of days on two wrecks.
This is the first go at sea diving (dont count quarries) for most of us since Sharm.
So keeping it nice and easy, first up is the shallow half of the Liberty ship the Black Hawk (the other bit is a bit deep at 50m). Ok who turned out the lights????? It was nice and sunny up-top, murky and dark down here at 12m. Ok we can rummage, but viz and conditions not good. Most struggle on and get glimpses of chunks of metal, but not much else.
Tim & Damien, ready to rumble!
After an extended layoff in Lulworth while Tim, Ben & Phil did Rescue training on the beach and Fleur tried to find the leak in her drysuit, we had an uninteresting drift as a second.
Russ & Tim, the man with no neck.
Was forced into a dive planning session in the local hostelry with thoughts of the next day and the prospect of the M2.
Next day and with the aid of a puncture repair kit, Fleurs ready (it was the neckseal).
M2 underway
If it breaks, she is going to be so pi**ed!
Phil's the one on the left, no right?
See, must be the first dive. Gil is still smiling! Not for long though, viz is very bad and their is an unatural swell on the wreck which just means hanging on and gettting bashed around. Really need buddy lines for this one and without decent torches forget it. Everybody did the right think and aborted after 10 minutes.
Meanwhile ...............................
Phil is so depressed with all the bad viz he starts to contemplate doing it ....No don't!!!
Too late, as he starts sniffing DSMB's
Pretty soon it's all gone haywire and
even Ben's doing it.In fact two of them
can't take it anymore and have hung
themselves!
Phil, high on DSMB fumes starts to loiter at the back of the boat. He calls to the other divers, enticing them with tales of shell shaped delights below!
Ok you've convinced us, nothing for it but to abandon ship (Ben, Tim, Damien, Phil).
But noooo..................... They've started sniffing DSMB's in the water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh it's ok , it turns out to be a false alarm and they are all just scalloping. Russ & Gil on the way back with a load of goodies.
Fleur awaits "her man" - you can just about see him in the distance ..............
Diving? Well yes we did some. Any good? Well not really. It was a fun couple of days socially, we did do some drills and a few problems with kit etc. became apparent. So as a first of the season checkout dive, it went well. Just next time can we have some viz please!
Who went: Dinky, Damien, Tel, Phil, Russ, Gil,Tim, Fleur, Ben, Michelle, Mark, Rowan, Loiuse (DSG), Lyn (DSG)
PS: Pic on left is Russ at Weymouth, on right in the Solent a month later. Big difference!