Weymouth, Dorset
by Jim & Stella Harrison, Mark Kendall

We travelled down to Weymouth on Friday, Jim having rung in "sick" so that we could leave early and miss the bank holiday traffic but in fact we left at 5pm and got stuck in slow moving queues anyway. We found the 'Harbour Lights' B&B after following no directions at all, and got there before the others. There were twelve of us in total split between two B&B's Chris Knight, Ian, Jonathan and Chris Drabble were in one and we were in the other one with Mark and Amanda, Dave and Jo, Brian and Shirley and Sandra. A few of us went for a curry in the Weymouth Tandoori and a drink or two in the Kings Arms afterwards, made arrangements for the morning and walked up the hill to bed.

We all had to be on the boat and ready to leave at nine thirty the next day, so we drove down dropped off our gear and while the men loaded it onto the boat, us girlies took the cars back to the B&B.
Now Jim and I are quite new to hard boat diving having been on 'Freedom' and 'Channel Warrior' only. So when we saw our boat for the weekend we were well impressed with the amount of room and the lift! And as we left the quay a drink in one hand we were thinking how pretty Weymouth looked from this angle.

Everyone seemed to be fiddling with their kit on the way to the dive site, which made me think that we should be doing the same (with our own!) so we got up and had a fiddle and sat down again... then we had a fiddle with each other's. After this Mark told everybody who they were diving with and we all huddled into corners to plan our dives, and work out our air calculations etc.
After a while when we had settled down somebody shouted that the infamous Georges the dolphin was following the boat, so we all crowded to the end of the boat to have a look. I have to say I was the last one to see it and thought it was a wind up but when I did see it I couldn't take my eyes of it and we sat there for the rest of the ride watching it come up for air in the wake of the boat 'magic!'

We were diving a wreck called the St. Dunstan located beyond Chesil beach round the other side of Portland Bill.It was sunk on 23 September 1917 and lies in about 30 metres

Jo and I were third in so after a lot of faffing on my part, in we jumped swam to the shot and down we went. This was to be the first of a series of deeper dives for Jim and I, and we planned to go to 27 metres. The visibility was better than I expected and there was a lot to see in the fish department, we also saw loads of dead men's fingers and anemones, small ones like daisies, all over the parts of the wreck. We spent time looking into the wreck I felt as if we were looking into the living rooms of the fish inside. We made are way back to the shot and started our ascent. As we were coming up the shot I heard Jo shriek and looked in the direction that she was pointing to see the tail of the dolphin disappearing in to the depths. I assumed it was the dolphin and nothing more sinister! A bit further up and it circled round us and was gone.
This was an excellent dive.

Back on the boat we de-kitted debriefed and sat around off gassing, at least that was Jim told me he was doing!
During our surface interval some of us decided to go snorkelling in the hope that the dolphin might come back.
After a while, when it didn't appear, we started to get back on the boat then we spotted it playing with some people from another dive boat. Some of us stayed in the water and the divers from the other boat got out. Chris Drabble managed to attract the dolphin's attention and as he swam nearer to us it was playing with his fins (see Mark's photo).

I've never touched a dolphin before but I had plenty of opportunity to touch this one, and the thing that I liked the most were the noises it was making. After a while we had to get back on the boat, although we could have stayed there for hours, to go to the next dive site. So, escorted to the boat's lift by the dolphin, out we got.

We moored up in a sheltered bay and had soup and rolls provided by the skipper's mate and laid about for a while in the sun, then we went on to the next dive site called the Stennis Ledges.
We kept the same buddy pairs as for the first dive so planned and calculated as before. This was a drift dive so we went in and went down SMBs to about 20-24 metres, had a good look round although there wasn't as much to see this time. We did see starfish, crabs, lobster, dead man's fingers, sponges and tube anemones and a few small fish. Lovely!
All back on the boat and it was back to Weymouth kit fiddling as we went.

Back in the Harbour we sorted out all the cylinders, nabbed the trolley from the dive shop (the one with the square wheel!) and got them all in to be filled ready to pick up in the morning. Instructions were to meet at 10.30 the next day.

We decided to all do something different that evening, Jim and I walked back into Weymouth had fish and chips, a couple of drinks in The Boot and wandered back to the Harbour Lights quite early, reflecting on the day as we went. We decided that the dolphin was the icing on the cake and it all seemed a bit unreal!

The next day we all met and got everything loaded in fairly good time.
The first dive of the day was to be the M2. A submarine of 296ft in length, that sunk on the 26th of January 1932. It lies upright in about 30-35 metres on a sandy seabed. Apparently the hangar doors stuck open as it descended which is why it sank and the crew are still all inside-spooky!
It was slightly shorter boat ride to the dive site so Jim and I started kit fiddling a bit sooner this time. Mark sorted out who was diving with whom; I was diving with Brian, and Jim with Chris Drabble. So we got our heads together and planned what we were doing, and I'm pleased to say that I think I have finally got my head round air calculations - easy ones that is!
We went down the shot to the conning tower, dropped to the seabed and finned along to the stern, saw loads of quite big fish (pollacks!) and a conger eel in one of the torpedo tubes that gave us a dirty look as we went past. This was my deepest dive so far and I have to say one of the most enjoyable apart from losing my reel (I will learn how to tie a bowline properly next time!) All too soon it was time to ascend. Because Brian's reel had jammed and I had lost mine we came up the shot to start with. Then lo and behold Brian produced another blob on 8 metres of line so we surfaced on that.

The second dive of the day was to be a drift dive but the skipper put a shot on to the wreck of the James Fennel for us to go down. This was a steam trawler that sank on the 16th of January 1920, is fairly broken up and lies in about 15 metres. So after soup, rolls and a siesta, in we went.
We had a look round the wreck but it didn't look very recognisable to be honest, and then we started to drift, looking as we went. Lots of ledges and rocks to look under, but not much about. A few fish, crabs and an evasive lobster, we saw Jim and Chris. A good dive.

Back to Weymouth same routine as the day before. We had a meal that evening in The Rooms Inn, with Dave, Jo and Jonathan. Mark, Amanda and Sandra were in the same restaurant but pretending that they didn't know us (I can't think why). We went on to the Kings Arms and had a few drinks in there. Jim and I left earlier than most, realising that we are getting older!

Next day we met at 10.30, loaded everything and were away.
It seemed choppier than yesterday so we kit fiddled earlier and made sure we were ready to get in quickly. Jim was paired with Chris Knight, and I was diving with Sandra.
Well it didn't take long for Jim to start throwing up, he is definitely better at this than anyone I've seen so far, I suppose we all have to be good at something! The first dive was a wreck called the Bennediyk. It seemed quite broken up and even more so when Sandra took her knife to a porthole - she seems to be a bit of a vandal! There were lot of places to look into, Sandra found a crab and we bounced it about for a little while, then she saw a big lobster but couldn't get it to come out and play in her goody bag! An interesting dive, after which we got back onto the boat dodging Jim's stomach contents!

We managed to find calmer waters in Lulworth cove where we moored, had lunch, and goofed out for a while.
Last dive of the weekend was to be a scallop run at Lulworth banks.
I had never done this before and took a lot of advice from the more experienced on the boat. What to look for, how to clean them, how to cook them etc. Sandra had previously showed me a few queen scallops that she had brought up from a dive the day before. They were nestling in her fin clacking furiously, like mad castanets. They looked like something from a Disney film. I asked her why they were doing that she said "basically they are dying, Stella" I felt sorry for them then.
Anyway, in we went, down Sandra's SMB to about 20-24 metres. She showed me one or two scallops and off we drifted. The water seemed to be pushing us along quite fast and it was a case of grabbing the scallops and getting them into the bag as we went. A couple of times I thought about going back for a big one that I missed but we were going too fast for that and I would have been left behind so on we went. It didn't seem very long before Sandra was signalling up, she let me grab another couple of scallops and up we went. Sandra sent the bag of scallops up the line first with its own buoy and we followed. Back on the boat it felt like I had been on some weird sort of supermarket dash!!

We made our way back to Weymouth for the last time that weekend and unloaded everything, thanked the skipper and Mark for a brilliant weekend and made our weary way home. Stopping a while on certain stretches of the motorway to admire the lines of traffic. A really good weekend and I couldn't think of anything that I'd have rather been doing!

Kingston & Elmbridge Branch www.kingstonbsac.co.uk

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