After last year's succesful trip to Dover, I was keen to go again. Callum Beveridge, the DO of Reading BSAC who was my buddy the previous year organised the trip. We were to spend a whole week there this time, however I was on holiday the week before and so managed to miss the Saturday's dive. So on Sunday morning I headed down, with sunny weather and clear skies to find Taurus moored at Granville dock at Dover.

We were only going to do one dive that day, as a second would have been after 7PM and gas fills would be hard to come by. In the end there were 11 of us on the trip, which meant that someone had to dive in a three, and being the last one to arrive that meant me. I've never liked diving in threes, nothing against Chris Pitts and Anke Otto my buddies, I just find it doesn't work out too well, but never mind. We were diving the Lusitania, a steamer of 1834 tons, sunk by a mine in 1915 while the captain was turning to give assistance to the Anglia which had struck a mine a litle earlier. It was reasonably light on the bottom at 33m, which was just as well as Chris's torch failed right at the  beginning of the dive. We swam up to the bows and inside, as the decking is long gone, and explored the interior. Then we went out and over the hull down to the seabed and followed the wreck back to the stern and had a root around the boilers. Actually the stern was blown off behind the boilers, presumably by the mine explosion. After 35mins we put the blob up, with 15mins deco showing as I had a full tank of 28%. Most of the week I took a 3L stage filled with 100% and switched to that at 6m although decoing according to bottom gas, just for a bit of margin. Total runtime was 55mins.

That night we went up to Naut-Tech in Blean to get gas fills. Jez's digital pressure guage had blown so he was having problems mixing nitrox, and so the fills for the next day were air only. I discovered that my manifold had been bent when it had fallen off a bench on John Thornton's boat in Scapa three weeks ago, and initially no-one was keen to fill it... It wasn't as bad as it looked though, being a Scubapro manifold with barrel O rings there was still a good seal. Jez helpfully ordered a new manifold centre section and replaced it later in the week. Great service from the Naut-Tech guys! While all the fills were being done J (Julian Hale), Julian Moore, Callum and I went to a local pub for a meal and a beer.

Monday morning dawned sunny and warm, with force 2-3 wind i.e pretty much flat. We were going to do the Strathclyde, which is noted in Dive Kent as an unknown, in reality is was sunk in 1876 not that far from Dover harbour. We had marks from Don the B&B proprieter who claimed the wreck had only been identified 3 years ago. It was an early start, and we were in the water at 7:30am. I headed down the shot and found my drysuit inflator hose had become disconnected, oh no. I couldn't manage to reconnect it myself, so at the bottom stopped and Anke reconnected it for me, no more feeling like a shrivelled prune! The wreck is mostly intact and upright on a pebbly seabed at 30m. We quickly found cups and saucers and bottles of all descriptions. The wreck was certainly an exciting dive. Being on air the deco started to rack up and so at 30mins we put the blob up and had a leisurely ascent to our stops, total runtime 46mins. On the surface people were excitedly discussing what they'd raised. Back to port for breakfast in the little cafe up the road and dropping off tanks with Naut-Tech who came down to pick them up and returned after the second dive to return them and collect the second set of empties. In the afternoon we were to do an unknown, suspected to be the Mount Stewart. Lying in 27m, we found the current reasonably strong at the start of the dive, although it slackened off after 20mins. The wreck was fairly broken, we swam along to the bows which stand up 3-4m, then back past the engine area. Towards the stern was a rather large gill net, which we gave a rather wide berth to. There was evidence that this wreck was fished a lot, with plenty of lures and lead weights snagged around it. I collected a few for Steve the skipper. After 30mins Chris put the blob up and after stops we surfaced with a total runtime of 44mins. In the evening it was into Folkstone for a nice curry before retiring to bed early (well we had got up at 5:30!).

Tuesday morning we got a slightly less early start, then by popular vote we did the Strathclyde again, which had been nicknamed Tesco's. We arrived on slack, and the shot found us in the stern area which is fairly broken. We swam along the seabed up to the bows and then back to the stern area then up the hull to the decking. Sitting on the deck I found a large cylindrical shaped yellow block of what appeared to be flowers of sulphur, perhaps once the contents of a barrel. At 40mins we put up the blob for a total runtime of 51mins.

In the afternoon we went searching for another unknown.It proved somewhat hard to find, and when we got down the shot there was a huge anchor maybe 2m across. No sign of the wreck though. Anke had a portable sonar device and reckoned that the wreck lay north, well after about 15mins of searching a featureless sandy seabed at 32m we gave up and sent up the blobs. Others did find the wreck though, we were going in the opposite direction! Jez came up with a brass plate that after some scraping started revealing that the boat was made by John Fullerton & Co, Paisley, 1893. With a bit of detective work Callum layer identified it as the wreck of the Seagull.

Wednesday morning we dived the... Strathclyde! This time I went in with Chris and Anke, but then followed Callum to the stern to where the inkwells were located, reached by a small but squeezable hole. I dropped over the port side to the seabed and found some intact inkwells and porcelein jars with lids. Then headed to the bows where I met up with Anke again and after 40mins we sent up the blobs, total runtime 60mins. In the afternoon we did the Monarch, a cable layer which struck a mine in 1915. The wreck lays on its starboard side in 27m, and we swam down to the stern along the seabed. Then we went round the stern and into the holds, spending a long time searching and slowly making our way forward. I spotted a large brass key in a hole, but it was just too small for me to squeeze into with a twinset and just out of reach... After 36mins we sent up the blob, runtime was 51mins.

Thursday morning we did the W. A. Scholten, a 2589 ton Dutch ship sunk in collision in 1887. Down the shotline the viz was good, around 8m, and at 30m we found the wreck mainly upright. The shot was near the stern and we swam round and along the port side a little way, finding what appeared to be pencil leads in one section, and shards of pottery but nothing complete. A salvage vessel had been working the ship with an airlift recently, and lots of ropes were lying around. I seperated from the others and made my way up to the bows which were broken off and lying on the startboard side, then headed back before finally sending the blob up at 40mins, total runtime 55mins. In the afternoon we did the St. Cecelia, a 4411 ton steamer mined in 1916 while travelling from Portland USA to  London. The wreck was a little dark and silty, lying on the port side in 30m, but quite intact. We found a massive engine still intact with walkways, and 'Oily' Steve G. found not one but two oil boxes on the engine, which he promptly retrieved (after a fair bit of hacksawing the pipes) to add to his collection. Dive Kent claims that 'divers have claimed to be able to see both the bow and the stern from the bridge', well if so they must have been narced, because the ship is over 300ft long!

Friday being the last day, we decided to do the Strathclyde again in the morning. I spent the entire dive looking around on my own, managed to retrieve some bottles of preserves in a hole in the hull just back from the bows on the starboard side. Back to the stern, well the hole in the broken area behind the wheelhouse was full of divers grubbing around, so I ventured down to the seabed and looked around. Then a bit of crab hunting, sadly none of them wanted to come out of there holes and play in my goody bag. The blob went up at 42mins for a total runtime of 60mins, a very pleasant dive. That afternoon another dive on the W. A. Scholten was planned, but I decided to give it a miss as it wasn't until 6-ish. As it turned out for some reason (easterlies picking up?) the viz was utter crap, <1m, and everyone who stayed for it aborted the dive early.

All in all it was a good week and some excellent wrecks, hot sunny weather and good viz, what more can you want? Well, a repeat next year of course! And that's why Dover 2001 is planned!