Fifteen DSAC members went to Swanage for a weekend of diving in September. While lots of fun, this also fulfilled some important training and experience milestones. This included an Ocean Diver’s first time in the sea (for a long time), a first drift dive, and Alex and Hefin’s first time as dive trip organiser, for their Dive Leader qualification.
Saturday looked a little ropey, with 17-knot winds and 1m swells predicted. But with some good dive management from Alex and excellent local knowledge from Bryan the skipper, we managed to get out and do the dives we had originally planned, even if getting back onto the lift was a little lively.
The first dive was on the two Valentine tanks (15m). The visibility was decidedly cloudy, but the shoals of bib and huge congers made it worthwhile. A number of the group were also lucky enough to spot multiple cuttlefish, possibly some of the brood Lindsey and Hefin has seen as eggs at that site back in July.
The second dive on Saturday was the Fleur de Lys wreck and barge (13m). More lovely shoals of bib, spider crabs, lots of nudibranchs and fan worms made this an interesting dive. A special shout out to Gary who led on this dive and managed to navigate to the barge despite the promised rope being nowhere to be seen initially.
Sunday was an earlier start with ropes off at 8am and, much to Dive manager Hefin’s relief, the wind and sea were calmer than the day before. The first dive was a drift near Old Harry Rocks (15m). As we were on a neap with a tidal range of 20cm, the drift was just over half a knot so was closer to a lazy river ride than a white knuckle one. While we did see some life, including conger, nudibranchs, and some gorgeous dahlia anemones, it has to be said that crockery and earthenware were the most prominent feature on this part of the seabed. Hefin recovered part of dinner plate. If he dives that site a few more times, he might piece together a whole one.
The second dive was the Kyarra (27-35m), which defied our expectations by having considerably better visibility than any of the weekend’s dives so far. The 6,953-tonne cargo and passenger liner Kyarra, a new dive to a few of the group, was a sunk by a U-boat in 1918. She was teaming with blennies, nudibranchs, congers, crawfish, and one pair spotted a cuttlefish. Peering down between the struts you could make out piles of bathroom tiles and even the odd champagne bottle. She is so vast that an hour simply isn’t enough and we look forward to diving her again in future.
Thank you to everyone for coming down and making it a fun weekend and for supporting Alex and Hefin during their first experience as trip organisers.
