Dives: Swanage Pier 4m, Valentine Tanks 15m
Warm and rather windy weather formed the backdrop for an Ocean Diver trip to Swanage. A dive under the pier planned first to get new members used to diving in the sea, followed by a late afternoon boat trip with Swanage Boat Charters out on Mary Jo to visit the Valentine Tanks.
Not surprising for the height of summer, Swanage Pier was extremely busy and two members only just squeaked into parking spots before the gates were closed and the pier declared full. Others stayed in the hillside parking lot, either dropping off kit beforehand or bringing it down on trollies. Either way, we convened at 9am for our pre-dive briefing and to hear instructions for the day. After the briefing we dispersed to our various activities – some needing fills or to rent equipment, some needing spares and others just getting ready for the first dive or having breakfast.
Dives under the pier were a good opportunity to enjoy the flat seas, though some did feel a slight current at various stages of the dive. Life was plentiful as ever under the pier: with tompot blennies, anenomes, wrasse and crabs easily spotted; while nudibranchs, black-faced blennies, flatfish, anenome shrimp and anenome crabs were harder to see.
In the lull between dives, Lindsey had time for a swim around the pier.
After lunch and with an eye on the still reasonably strong winds, we checked in with the skipper who noted that the position of the tanks plus wind direction meant the dive would remain safe, and started loading the boat for the trip to the tanks. The tanks as ever proved to be full of conger, with shoals of bib gracing the wreck. Lobster, crab, tompot blennies were easily spotted. A rope line was duly followed from one tank to the next, and divers noted the once-secure turret of one tank now on it’s side, weighted by sandbags and connected to what worryingly appeared to be high-voltage cable but later explained to be connecting to a sacrificial anode for one of the tanks.
Back on board a variety of hot drinks were served before we raced back to the pier for a relatively late finish due to the tides, before members dispersed on their journeys homebound. A benefit of the late finish was that the traffic on the way home was thankfully light.