Canterbury Divers' Winter Icebreaker in Portland Harbour, February 2006

by Paul Oliver

Wanting to keep our diving going through the winter this year and having no real affinity for inland puddle diving we decided to have a weekend of Club diving using Breakwater Divingof Portland and making the most of their Winter Package of half price diving if using their accommodation. The plan was for a group to go down and stay in their 10 man bunkroom for Fri and Sat nights and do 4 dives, 2 off of Maverick inside the Harbour and 2 off of Dive Eclipse along by Lulworth Cove, all for a measly £68!

So after a few beers and a very good meal Fri night in the Royal Breakwater Hotel we were up Sat morning to a fantastic sunny day, is this really Mid Feb? A slight change of plan as we were out on Goose at 8.30 and off to do the Countess of Erne, a large and very intact old paddle steamer which is a great dive to start on. With the decks at about 9m and a max of about 14m. She had sunk after breaking her moorings against the Harbour Breakwater, and is very intact and ship shaped.

I had warned my buddy our guest diver Howard The Diving Dude that I wanted to get in first before the rest stirred up the silt, so we were kitted up and off the boat very soon after arriving. Down the shot to the stern we went to find a rather outstanding 6m of viz in a rather nippy 7 Degrees of water, with a very big ugly red lumpfish looking at us.

Howard is still getting used to his YBOD so although I wanted to go straight into a length on the inside of her we worked along the top, dipping down into the holds. As we got near to the bow end we swam through the forward swim through and up into the open bow. After a swim around the very impressive bow we started back along her. Howard had only bounced off the roof a couple of times, showering me in rust, and he managed to stay out of the silt so we went back down through there again, then just as we were about to enter the next swim through, 2 of the club got in first and stirred it all up. We were nicely neutrally buoyant so we slowly frogkicked through the nil viz and out of the swim through. The next one (with the ladder) was clear so we did that as well and were quite chuffed at not stirring up anything at all. We then did a 2nd circuit of the wreck before ascending after 50 min with rather cold hands to a hot chocolate off Andy on Goose. There are some very good pictures of the wrecks here at Underwater Explorers

After a big breakfast at Breakwater it was back out on Maverick to the Landing craft and Bombardoon Unit. Me and Howard were in first again and had a good 5-6m of viz on the very intact landing craft, after a good look at this we followed the rope to the Bombardoon Unit and swam along in the bit between the boats hull and the unit. Then over then around the end of the unit and back to a rather silt landing craft. A good 45 min dive to a max depth of 17m.

We then decided that 4 wanted an extra dive so sorted it out with Breakwater and went back out on Maverick to do the Unknown Coaster that is shown as the Spaniard in Dive Dorset. I had done this several times thinking it was the Spaniard, but only the Bow. This time we did the whole length seeing the propeller and rudder for the first time. A very good 40 min dive with a max depth of 14m.

So after a very good night and meal (16oz steak for £10) in the Royal Breakwater Hotel we were up for a 9 O'clock departure on Dive Eclipse. I had phoned Dave (Skipper) the night before to suggest staying out and going into Lulworth Cove between dives, which he was happy to do, also I was worried about getting all the tanks pumped up, so he came in early to do that.

So off we went, in a cloudy and slightly lumpy sea to the Blackhawks Bow, in 17m off Worrbarrow Bay, again the water was 7 Deg but felt colder and we had a good 5m of viz. Dave had the shot smack central in this broken up wreck and there was lots of bits to see. Me and Howard were first in and last out again and had a very good 50 min dive and mooch around.

On the surface some were cold and a bit seasick so we changed the plan again and went back to Portland where we saw a possible new wreck of an old fishing boat sitting high and dry on the breakwater between the Coaster and the Spaniard.

After a bit of warm up time and more Hot Chocolate, 4 of us dropped in onto the Spaniard, which was a first for me as I had been diving the Coaster in the past thinking it was the Spaniard. The deck is only at 6m and the seabed at 12m. Me and Howard had a very good 40min swimming around very gently on this very silty site before finding the shot again and back up. The bow is very intact but as you work back along her she is very broken up. This dive like the other harbour one's is very good as long as the silt has not been stirred.

So 5 cracking dives in a general 5-6m of viz and 7 Deg water, a rather outstanding weekend's diving, which even with the extra dive only cost £76 and would (as was intended) have been suitable for all levels within our club as long as they had a Drysuit. As it was we had a mixture of AD and experienced DL and SD along with some relatively new SD on the trip. We also managed to get a few DL lessons completed and could have done a lot more if we had needed to.


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