Littlehampton, 18/19th
June 2000
Kevin Beurle organised a couple of days diving out of Littlehampton,
and the usual UKRS crew (plus
some new faces) turned up. The weather forecast was supposed to be
OK, but you can never trust
them forecasters when it comes to diving, can you? However Saturday
morning dawned bright and
sunny, and with the alarm set to 7am it was a painless start
to the day too. Once down at Littlehampton
Marina it was obvious that it was going to be a nice sunny (and warm!)
day, and the sea was quite
calm too.
The boat (Deep Space 9) was roomy even for 12 and had a decent loo,
two ladders and room for
two divers to enter the water simultaneously at the back. The skipper
managed to shot the wrecks
precisely and (I've never had this before!) even helped me carry my
twinset up the ramp in the evening!
(NB: others on the boat who know me would never volunteer to do this,
as they are bloody heavy...)
First dive of the day was to be the Basil, about 14 miles out of Littlehampton.
Jason and I kitted up and were first in (despite what Alasdair claimed!). Heading
down the shotline I sort of expected to
see the wreck at 30m, nothing, then suddenly found the sand at 40m... where was
the wreck? Well it was behind me, the hull towering up some 7m in the clear viz
of 10+m. Jason tied in the shot and we went up into the holds for a rootle around.
Plenty of (live) howitzer caps and 18 inch shell cases
lying around... Slack was only supposed to be about 15mins, well I don't think
there ever was a complete slack, and after 30mins we found ourselves at the bows
with a strengthening tide and decided to go up. We switched to 80% at 9m and a
merry bit of deco followed before getting out at 59mins. In the afternoon there
was a rather boring drift, I was buddied with Digs this time as Jason couldn't
be bothered with the dive. Digs signalled she was bored at about 20mins I think
but we stuck it until 30 (just)...
Saturday evening we trooped into Littlehampton for a pint and some food. Jason
disappeared to find a pub with a TV so he could watch the football, then we all
went back to one near the B&B where people were singing atrocious Karaoke
(not us, else the incriminating pictures would surely be here...)
Sunday's first dive was the War Helmet, this wreck was in about 30-33m and fairly
well broken up although with some interesting structures I couldn't imagine what
they were used for, for example a spiral-like section on ribbing. Again a fair
old current, although this time we managed 40mins
bottom time, total time 60mins. I had taken my old Suunto as well as the Cochran,
but decoing on 80% meant that the Cochran cleared about 10mins earlier, which
left a bent Suunto at the surface...
The afternoon dive was another drift, and there were only 3 of us doing it, all
the other wusses came up with some lame excuse... It was OK really, as drifts
go. Then it was a short ride back to port and carry the kit back and away by 4:30.
Could hardly have been a better weekend really.