Diving From The Michelle Mary, Littlehampton, Sussex
July 2004

by Steve Jones

This trip was organised by Daniel Taylor and he had booked us aboard the Michelle Mary skippered by Ivan, a “friendly” skipper” (quote from his web site). The Michelle Mary is a Lochin 38 was built in 1990 and is certainly showing her age somewhat. 
The people that were booked on this trip were Daniel Taylor, Trevor Robertson, Steve Jones, Craig “tree hugger” Ballingall, Adrian Smith, Louise Cronin, Jason Poynting, Chris Bell, Adam & Sharon Walker (first day only), Danny Burchett (second day only). 

We arrived at about 9pm on the Friday night, but did not have chance for everyone to meet up as 5 of us were staying in 2 B&Bs in Bognor, whilst 4 were in a flat in Littlehampton, and one who was “getting back to nature” in a tent.  Our B&B said they do “early breakfasts”. However as their normal serving time was 9:00, for early they meant about 8:30 am. We told them that we were leaving somewhat earlier than that so they said that they would leave out cornflakes etc. We took this to mean “a selection of cereals”, but no… they meant a dish of cornflakes, no tea or coffee making facilities, although we did have a kettle in the room. 
So, Saturday morning we were all at the quay prior to the 7am start that the skipper asked for, only to then leave sometime after 7:30. This is a pet hate of many of us, we just wish skippers would say what time the ropes have to come off and not add in some sort of contingency.  br>
Saturday Dive 1: Northcoates, Max depth 28 metres, Run time 67 minutes, Viz 7-8 metres
  HMS Northcoates was an armed trawler that weighed in at 277 tons. She was requisitioned by the Admiralty for mine sweeping during World War 2. She sank in 1944 whilst under tow. There is a 12 pound gun still in place on the foredeck.  We were told that we would be in the water a couple of minutes after 9, so everyone was kitted up and ready, however slack water was a bit late and we were sat around until about 9:20 getting quite hot. However one member of the group didn’t wait and went in early, much to the amazement of the skipper who said that he was only taking a run past the shot line to see what the current was like.  I was diving with Craig and there were many comments about how we would only remain together until we actually got in the water. Much to everyone’s surprise we even did our deco stop together proving that we could stay together. Actually this is only half true, as when we got to the deco stop that was the first time that we saw each other all through the dive.  The wreck itself is quite small although it is upright and it looks like a ship. The wreck is teeming with fish, there were some huge pollack and bib, sometimes so many as to obscure the wreck itself. Some divers saw congers and lobsters, but not me. There were however a lot of tompot blennies. 

Dive 2: Waldron’s Reef, Max depth 12.5 metres, Run time 32 minutes, Viz 6 metres 
The skipper had said that we would be in the water for 12 o’ clock and when the appointed time arrived with no one actually standing on the platform ready to jump in he said that maybe everyone else’s watch had a different time to his. It was suggested that when he said 12 o’ clock this was similar to his earlier stated times. So I finally got into the water at 12:07, very bad time keeping. 
Now what can I say about this dive…. Absolutely nothing, as scabby drifts go, this was one of the worst. When we got back into Littlehampton we had only just tied up when there was an explosion from a boat on the other side of the river. Very closely followed by the owner diving off. For quite a while there was a lot of smoke and eventually a lot of flames. By the time we returned the following morning the boat was broken and virtually sunk. 

Sunday
Once again everyone was at the quay for the appointed time of 8am, we finally got away at about 8:25 
Dive 1: Gascony,   Max depth 26.2 metres, Run time 62 minutes, Viz 7-8 metres
The Gascony was a 3133 ton, 360 foot long steamer that was torpedoed in 1918 by UC-75. Quite broken up but plenty to explore. 
This time everyone waited for the appointed time of the proposed slack of 10:03am before jumping in, however there was a gentle current throughout the dive. As with the first dive on the Saturday it seems that the shot that gets thrown in is the same length for every wreck. So we had a shot of probably 50 metres for a wreck in 26 metres.
A very nice wreck with lots of huge lobsters, some congers, and the usual supply of Pollack and bib. Towards the end of the dive Adrian spotted a large flattie, but didn’t get chance to see what it actually was before it swam off. 

Dive 2: Willie’s Reef, Max depth 16.8 metres, Run time 34 minutes, Viz 5 metres 
Another drift dive, however this one was somewhat better than the previous day. We saw lots of dog fish, and many wrasse. The current was quite strong in places and as can be expected we spread out over quite a wide area. Danny B had to wait in the water for 20 minutes before the skipper spotted him as the sea had developed quite a swell by now. 

So we headed back into Littlehampton thinking the day was over when just as we were approaching our mooring the skipper got a call from another boat to say that 2 divers were missing. So we turned around and headed to Waldron Reef to assist in the search. It was quite a bumpy ride out at 16.5 knots with several twin sets and rebreathers needing to be picked up. We got to the search area at roughly the same time as the coastguard helicopter and the RNLI boat.
The 2 divers (Stuart and Andy) were spotted by the helicopter crew and they hovered above them while we went in to pick them up. Fortunately they were both OK and had been drifting for about 40 minutes waiting to be picked up. Apparently they were from Zimbabwe…now that’s a hell of a long way to drift, especially as Zimbabwe is landlocked, quite a feat.  Anyway..."All's well that ends well"

One thing that we did learn this weekend is that you can get air fills in Littlehampton.I think it is called Arun Aquatics, it is on the road down to the marina. I believe on the last trip that several people had rather a long trip to find air.  Even with the slightly extended end to the day we still got away at about 3:20 pm, so all in all not a bad weekend.


Steve Jones
Photos by Pete Steggle

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