Bowleaze Reef, Portland

by Bill Quinn

In order to celebrate St. Patrick’s day I had planned a dive with my dive club (Severnside). Ok, I know the 16th of March is a day early but it was close enough. Tony volunteered his boat, and I had two other willing volunteers (Ian and Chris). Portland was our destination. First dive being planned for Bowleaze Reef, about two miles out from Portland harbour. Tony had talked about this dive numerous times and it sounded excellent. A site that isn’t dived too many times, plenty of fish life. Sounded like a good dive.

We got to Portland and the weather wasn’t brilliant. Quiet blowy, wet and miserable. Still we were going to do this. So we set off. We shot the reef, and Ian and I buddied up. Off the side of the rib and down the shot. Into darkness. We reached the bottom at about 16 metres and it was dark and cloudy. Ian looked at me, I looked at Ian we shrugged our shoulders. You could see both of us thinking about this. Torches on, didn’t help at all. Still we were here so let’s make the most of it. We felt our way along rocks, as there was next to no visibility. After 10 minutes I was asking myself was I mad?

Eventually I managed to find a crab. Quiet a small creature. This was the highlight of the dive, as you could see nothing. After about 18 minutes Ian called the dive by saying he was cold. Quietly I was happy as it wasn’t the most pleasant of dives. Good experience of low visibility but that was it (apart from the crab). DSMB up and we surfaced. Fog had closed in during our dive, and the sea was rougher. We were met by a green looking creature that was not looking too well over the side of the boat; later identified as a Chris from the family of Choppings.

Despite the detoriating conditions and our report of poor visibility Chris and Tony decided to go for it as well. We deposited Chris at the shotline as quickly as possibly to help with his sickness. Then Tony joined him. It was another short dive, possibly as exciting as our first one. We headed for the shore in what was quiet a bouncy force 5 /6 wind.

Once back on land we regrouped and went for the cure, a fry up at Budgies. Which was most welcome and excellent food. Chris and I decided not to dive in the afternoon. Chris was still green, I just wasn’t too keen on another bad dive.

After lunch we all headed out and found a quiet spot by the harbour wall. No idea what was here but in they went. As they were diving, Chris was giving me powerboat lessons and boat cover. Eventually the pair surfaced. In all not a great dive but not a bad dive. There were bits of crockery down there.

Back to Budgies and boat out of water. Best bit of the day was the fry up, still it was an experience. Happy St. Pat.

The good thing about Portland, is that whichever way the wind is blowing you can nearly always find somewhere to dive. Even if it is a shore dive, like Chesil beach. Worth rembering for times that the weather might be so so.

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