Dover, 12-16th August 2002

The Boat

Taurus is a 33ft Blythe catamaran, skippered by Steve Howland and ably assisted by Sarah. Steve's number is 07860 934712 in case you need to call the boat. It has a smallish cabin for dry gear, a loo and plenty of space for kitting up. Exit from the boat is from the side, entry via a good ladder at the stern. The boat is normally moored at Granville Dock. To get there, follow the A20 towards Dover. As you enter Dover, you will go across 2 roundabouts, with a Shell garage on the left just after the 2nd. At the 3rd roundabout, take a right into the dock. The boat costs £372 per day split between us, so with 10 people that works out as £186 each for the week, less your deposit.

Accomodation

I've booked the Chandos guest house, 77 Cheriton Road, Folkestone, tel 01303 851202. This is about 15mins from Dover docks. It's run by Don Falvey, a local diver, member of Folkestone BSAC 501 and source of some good GPS marks. Cost will be £20 per night, or £22.50 for the rooms with an ensuite. The B&B is walking distance from the town and pubs/restaurants, and about 10 minute's drive from Dover harbour.

Parking

You can park at the Docks near the Harbour office. On entry to the docks, turn right just before the bridge. A week's parking ticket in 2001 cost £6.50 from the office.

Gas etc

We can get gas from Folkestone Dive Centre. Their contact details are: Folkestone Dive Centre, telephone 01303 - 255752, e-mail fsubaqua@aol.com. However, Helen has found a cheaper source - Seascape Scuba at Ashford. They will pick up/deliver gas to the boat for £15; they charge for gas as follows (prices for singles and twin 7's; twins greater than 7s counted as 2 singles):

 

Air Fill 232 bar	£3.00
Air Fill 300 bar	£3.50
Nitrox up to 32%	£4.50
Nitrox 32% to 40% £5.00	£5.00
Nitrox 40% to 60% £7.50	£7.50
Nitrox 60% to 80%	£9.50

There will be approx. 8 pickup/dropoffs of gas required, so that'll be £120 for gas delivery split between us. It saves an awful lot of time(not to mention lugging cylinders around and the hassle of parking in Folkestone)! Remember, you'll need 2 twinsets (or whatever you're diving) for the pickup/dropoff to work.

The Diving

The wrecks we'll be doing will probably be in the 25-35m range. Dive Kent has many of them listed, although one or two of the exceptional ones are either marked as 'unknowns', such as the Strathclyde, or they've got the position wrong (Lusitania). We'll be diving slack water, but it is not always slack, so experience of diving in a current helps. All divers must have a DSMB and a surface detection device (flag, flare, EPIRB etc). The water around Dover is rather busy so all divers must be prepared to stick to a plan so we can all bag off around the same time. The viz in Dover depends on a lot of things, but 2-3m is bad, 6-10m good. Most of the dives are wreck rummages so good viz is not really essential anyhow. The boat returns to port in between slacks, time for breakfast/lunch and even a bit of sunbathing if the weather's good!

The dive times as given to me by Steve are as follows:

 

Date	Start Time	Approx Return Time
Mon 12th	11:00am	15:00pm
	17:00pm	21:00pm
Tues 13th	11:30am	15:30pm
	17:30pm	21:30pm
Wed 14th	06:30am	10:30am
	12:30pm	16:30pm
Thurs 15th	07:00am	11:00am
	13:30pm	17:30pm
Fri 16th	08:00am	12:00pm
	14:30pm	18:30pm

I propose we skip Wednesday's 6:30am dive as getting gas between Tues evening and Weds morning is not going to be easy.

Location of B&B

The quickest way to get there is to take the A20 exit (the one just after the tunnel if you're coming from Dover). At the T junction turn left, past the supermarket, then right at the next roundabout. Bear left then left again into Cheriton Road. The B&B is just on the right.