Diving From Kyaratoo, Weymouth, Dorset
April 2003

by Steve Jones

This was the first of our trips that Neil organised, and those on the trip were Neil Weller, Chris Bell, Pete Steggle Ken Tomlinson, Steve Jones, Louise Thompson, Darren Cronin, Sheila Bannister, Keiran Barry, Richard Thorpe & Huw Porter. Keith Manning was also booked onto the trip but had to pull out due to a cold. So the original 12 were already reduced to 11, with more reductions to follow. 
Set off Friday afternoon and got to Weymouth in good time, surprisingly the M5 was not busy. Probably those who conspire to cause major holdups every time I venture South have not realised that the diving season has started, and that I am there to be a target of their attempt to turn motorways into car parks.  So as I got to the B&B quite early I managed to get the pick of the beds and managed to get a double bed in one of the rooms, a trick learned from Alastair Allan on a previous trip when he managed to claim a double bed by beating me to it by a couple of minutes.  Once the Friday night arrivals had got to Weymouth we set off for the Hog's Head for some food and to replenish our liquid reserves. Rather a loud pub this and several sore throats the next morning from shouting above the noise. 

Saturday morning duly arrived and we had to be at the slipway for 10:30 for a 11:00 start, all quite civilised. We were originally booked aboard Autumn Dream but Len has not yet taken delivery of his new boat and so he had borrowed Kyarratoo from Paul Cooper for the weekend. 
Those of you who know where the boat ties up will remember that at the top of the slipway there is a gate which is kept locked to prevent access to the private moorings. So what we usually do is wait for someone to come out then keep the gate open while we carry all our kit to the boat. So today was the same as every day until we were challenged by a local council official, complete with clipboard. I was left to chat to her while Pete walked off, then decided that he needed to advise the official of his opinions. The conversation went something like this:
Pete: You are from the Council aren't you?
Official: Yes
Pete: Do you lot hate all tourists, or is it just us divers that you don't like?
Official: No we like the divers coming here.
Pete: Then why do you make it so difficult for us, no parking, etc etc. Weymouth is totally anti-tourist. 
I think the discussion ended here but Pete could be heard later advising others that the council official was probably also an advisor to the Iraqi Information Ministry. I think there was also a reference to Jackboots. 

Once we were all on board we set off still not knowing whether we would get to our destination, which was the Aeolian Sky a 148 metre long Greek cargo vessel weighing 10,700 tonnes which sank in 1979 following a collision.

Dive One - Aeolian Sky, Max depth 31.0 metres, Run time 42 minutes.
Prior to the dive we had 2 more drop outs. Neil has a HP hose blow on his rebreather and Pete was not feeling well. He said that he probably would have spewed but admitted that he was too tight to give anything away.  So after a few quick buddy changes I went in with Ken.
The viz was very bad on the way down and things were not looking good. However once on the bottom and the eyes adjusted to the low light levels it was not too bad and the viz was a respectable 3 metres. The wreck gives plenty of opportunities for poking around, however it is clear to see why several people have said that it is all to easy to inadvertently go inside when the viz is not good. Saw a reasonable amount of fish life on the wreck, but I won't try to identify them as fish identification, along with underwater navigation, remain some of my weak points. Ken and I got separated near the end of the dive and I bagged off when I had run up several minutes of deco. However on the ascent I noticed that one of my computers was showing 17 minutes of stops remaining. It had reset itself to 21% whereas my back gas was 32%. So do I hang around for lots more minutes or bend the computer? Take a guess. 
Back on the boat it seems that 2 others had decided to feed the fish after their dive. In between dives Maggie provides a great meal, this one consisted of soup, jacket potatoes, chilli and followed by cake. 

We had originally planned to do the Black Hawk as the second dive but this would have meant returning to port quite late so we dived the standby of the Hood at the entrance to Portland harbour. 

Dive Two - Hood, Max depth 16.2 metres, Run Time 55 minutes
This was my 200th dive and I had made it known to some of the others that I planned on doing it alone, so although I dropped in with Chris, we separated almost immediately. I went into the first hole that I spotted and spent the most of the dive inside the wreck having a general look around. Saw quite a lot of what I think are Tompot Blennies, and there were several very big Wrasse, plus the usual assortment of crabs etc. When I had finished poking around I came off the wreck for about 30 metres and had a look around in the rocks, saw a few scallops but unfortunately nothing to put them in. 
Back on the boat Keiran and Sheila has managed to keep their lunch inside them but yet again they get a mention because they didn't find the wreck. This list seems to be getting longer with each trip to the Hood. 

On the Sunday we were not joined by Pete and Neil who had headed off home, leaving 9 of us on the boat. The plan was to dive the M2 but it was unlikely that we would get around the Bill. This proved to be correct and there was no other option other than to go into Portland Harbour for 2 dives. 

Dive Three - Landing Craft, Max Depth 18.0 metres, Run time 43 minutes
Len tied off to the buoy marking the wreck and said to go in when we were ready. I took that to mean that I didn't have to wait for anyone else, including a buddy, so I didn't. The Landing craft is not a particularly exciting wreck and it is possible to see all around it within 10-15 minutes, there is apparently a rope which joins this to the Bombardian but I didn't see this and just went off for a wander. When I got back to the Landing craft, probably more by luck than judgement, I saw some divers that had been dropped in by a RIB, one of whom gave me an OK signal, which I returned then 3 of his buddies all landed on me I got kicked around a lot and the respectable 2-3 metres of viz was now zero, gee thanks guys, ever heard of buoyancy control. 

Dive Four - Countess, Max Depth 13.1, Run time 50 minutes
Just as we were getting ready to drop in Len got his boat hook caught in the mess that holds the buoy in place. I was volunteered to go in and free it. Another excuse for a shallow solo dive. The Countess is an interesting wreck and you can poke around quite a bit in its holds. However it is very silty and incorrect finning can soon mess up the viz. This is one of the benefits of going in first as the viz was again quite reasonable, I would estimate up to 4 metres. However, watching the finning action of others was quite depressing, knowing that they were destroying the viz for anyone following them. 

Many thanks to Neil for organising his first trip, pity he didn't get to dive. My only problem was that I got wet on every dive,"dry suit", what's that? So now having changed the neck seal, wrist seals, zip and boots I have to look somewhere else.

Pics courtesy of Chris Bell

Steve Jones

Clear Viz

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