The weather gods were with us for the weekends diving out of Portland Harbour on the Waverider. Little wind and swell, and warm but cloudy, so the 12 divers on board had a comfortable ride and weren’t baking in their dry suits.
The first dive of the weekend was on the Elena R, a steamship weighing 4,576 gross tons and 370ft long that sank on the outside of the Shambles bank after hitting a mine in 1939. Sitting at around 28-30m the wreck is constantly being buried and uncovered by the ever shifting sands and shell of the bank. It is fairly well broken and lies with her bow to the south-east but made a good dive with much life on it. Three of the Sports Divers on board managed their 30m depth progression on this dive.
Elena R
Spider Crab
This was followed by a gentle drift dive
Kitting up
The first dive on Sunday was on the MV Alex van Opstal, a Belgian passenger liner which lies at a depth of 30 meters. It was built in 1937 and had a length of 128 m. The ship sunk on 15th September 1939 as a result of hitting a mine. The wreck is in two parts, and the stern is much damaged.
Alex Van Opstal
This was followed by a second drift dive, this time over the British Inventor, a steam driven oil tanker which hit a mine on 13th June 1940. Only the bow sank, the rest was towed to Southampton and repaired! There was a chance to bag some scallops along the way. The wreck was full of life, with large congers, pollock, and cuckoo wrasse
Heading home
