2008 has not been a good year for our dive trips, with most of our trips so far being cancelled due to bad weather. West Bay was going to be the one to kick start our diving. In the 12 years or so that Steve Prior has been organising the West Bay trip it has never been called of and has seen some excellent diving. But what happened this year.
Some of us didn't get off to a very good start. Unfortunately due to an accident at M40J9 it took us nearly 3/4 hr just to leave Bicester. Once we'd cleared the hold up, the rest of the journey was quite pleasant with the sun shining on us most of the way down. For those that were camping, the weather on arrival in West Bay was a little blustery but nothing too serious and certainly not on the scale we had seen at St. Abbs last year.
Alan (Mr. I can put my tent up in 10 minutes) did what he apparently does most years at West Bay and asked for his tent to be pitched for him as he would be travelling down later and it might be dark. Yeah right, on the longest day of the year, hmmm, I fell for that one. Alan arrived narrowly missing out on seeing the last few pegs of his '10 minute erection' going in. I have to say, it took a little longer than we expected.
After a few jars in pub where campers and B&B'er met up, we parted with great anticipation for Saturdays diving.
Throughout the night winds blew and the rain drizzled down. The morning saw clear weather even if the flags were bending the poles a bit.
Due to tides we were scheduled for an 11:30 start. Once again we were venturing out of West Bay in Huntress II skippered by the relax and ever optimistic Ian. 10:30 on the quay and we began to load up. The wind was a little blustery but Ian reckoned we'd get out of the harbour and hopefully get some dives in.
Once boarded we set of for our 1st dive 'The Ailsa Craig' (50 33.66N; 02 47.46W), a British steamship that was torpedoed whilst carrying a cargo of coal from Cardiff to Weymouth in April 1918. Huntress II is an excellent boat and it wasn't long until we were at the dive site. Due to the earlier winds and wet weather we were a little anxious as to what the vis. was going to be. We kitted up, Ian dropped the shot, an we waited for slack.
The diving was excellent, the shot as ever from Ian was right on target and dropped us right on top of the wreck. The vis. must have been a good 8-10m and the wild life was in abundance. unfortunately the depth of the dive meant we couldn't stay for long but on surfacing everyone spoke of the excellent conditions underwater.
For dive number 2 we moved a little close to shore to dive 'The Baygitano' (50 41.76N; 02 55.97W) a large British collier that was was torpedoed in March 1918. For safety purposes, after kitting up, we had to wait around for a little while for other divers to surface before Ian could drop the shot. All the bobbing around on the surface caused one or two of us to feel a little green around the gills.
The vis on The Baygitano was not as good as on The Ailsa Craig but still relatively good, with plenty of sealife about, if only I could name some of the species.
The first day saw a number unfortunate incidents. Another dive boat shot line got tangled around the prop. Geoff and Sharky to the rescue, managing to save most of it and hand it back to the other dive boat. Also Lorna managed to put a finger through her neck seal on her dry suit and Alan managed to break a wrist seal. Oh what fun we have. But all in all not a bad days diving.
The day was finished of with all enjoying a lovely meal at the Durbeyfield where
