Swanage July 2010

It never ceases to amaze me how much difference a couple of hours and some nice weather can make… A 5 o’clock alarm call and things are quite frankly not ideal! However, a two and a bit hour drive and glorious sunshine later, things are looking up!

Swanage bay looks beautiful and serene; moored boats gently bobbing up and down and with the sun glistening on the water. Even the seagulls are respectfully silent! We arrive at the pier a little after 8, and thankfully manage to find a space on there to park. I ask about the visibility and am told it is excellent. With a feeling that today will be good fun, Chrissy (a confimed non-diver who I have recruited as shore cover for today) and I head off in search of three very important things – (i) a cup of tea (ii) a bacon butty and (iii) some Divecrew people!

Vee and Peter are already at the cafe so we join them and await the arrival of the others. Slowly but surely the group grows until everone is accounted for.  It seems we’ve all managed to park on the pier with the exception of Frank who actully arrived in Swanage the night before to guarantee a good spot – he’s parked up the hill!

After some leisurely kitting up (who says diving has to be rushed), a dive briefing and a game of Dive Trumps to determine buddy pairs, we hit the water. Fun and games are had with a weight check and after much to-ing and fro-ing we are all ready to go. I am to lead, followed by Vee and Peter, with Smasher and Lara behind them, followed by Simon and Felicity, then Jan and Frank just ahead of Lucy and Craig.

For the first dive we drop down halfway along the pier and swim out along its length. The visibility as suggested is excellent and it is possible to navigate by the pillars alone. The water’s a pleasant 16 degrees. There are loads of fish – tompot blennies, sand gobies, pollack hiding from the fishermen, big spider crabs, ballan wrasse and various others I’m not sure of. Wending our way slowly between the pillars on the left hand side of the pier we turn once we reach 100 bar and head back along the opposite side of the structure. This time there is nothing between us and the sun so the colours are fantastic, with everything bathed in bright sunlight. Who would have thought that diving in the UK could be so pretty? We ease our way back to where we dropped down and continue past towards the point where the pier itself starts, where one by one the buddy pairs appear at the surface.

A long surface interval follows, during which time there is much munching and slurping. No ice cream, can of drink or Mars Bar is safe. 
Air tanks are refilled and once everyone is ready and declared fit and well we hit the water for the second dive. Vee decides to sit this one out – conserving her energy for her and Peter’s house move the next day.

For the second dive we plan to descend a little further along the pier, near the boat jetty. Simon, Felicity and I time our entry to perfection and are able to perform a giant stride off the jetty itself once the moored boat disappears rather than have a long surface swim from the steps. This time Smasher brings his underwater camera. After he has taken the requisite number of photos of himself and a token one of him and Lara, we submerge to begin the business of diving and head out to find the end of the pier. In some places it’s rather dark and a torch is a welcome accessory.

The number of fish increases from the first dive – we see a couple of shoals and there are some nice big specimens too, lurking in the shadows. We follow the pier along until we reach the final set of pillars at which point we turn round and head back, passing the others still on their outward journey. On the underside of one of the concrete blocks there’s a yellow Leach’s spider crab, and I find an unopened bag of fishing hooks that I put into a net bag along with various other bits of rubbish. After 50 minutes or so and a gurn to the pier’s underwater camera we reach the start of the pier where we surface. Some more rubbish collected by Craig goes into the net bag and we all head back to dry land. Lucy and Craig had spotted a pipefish too and a sole.

After de-kitting we have the obligatory Divecrew photo before heading into town for a well deserved fish and chips.

Thanks to everyone who made the effort to attend today and make it such fun. It was a pleasure to dive with all you folks and I look forward to seeing you in the water again soon… Many thanks to Jan for assisting and thanks too to Chrissy for helping out with the paperwork.

PS For anyone wanting to find information regarding some of the marine life on view please take a look here:

http://www.habitas.org.uk/marinelife/
http://www.marinespecies.org/

Happy spotting!