Friday 12th July
The group convened at Stores and scratched our heads about how to fit 7 people and 9 lots of kit (scuba and camping) into 2 average sized cars… Turns out, with epic tetris skills and an early go on the air cylinders for the passengers squashed into the back seats. Edu, Olly, Abby and Theo in one car and Ben, Chenjun and Tanya in the other. After a ‘quick’ stop for Maccers and food supplies, we eventually reached Friar Waddon campsite in Weymouth at around 10:15pm. Using our Guide and Scout “Urban Campers” badge skills, we pitched up in the beam of a headlight and raised a tinnie to close out the day.
Saturday 13th July
Alarm clocks were entirely redundant, thanks to a murder of crows whose choir practice started at the crack of dawn. Once up and about and coffees smugly brewed, the group headed to our first site of the trip – Chesil Beach – where we were joined by Max and Reuben. 18 miles long with pebbles that “might explode if you build a campfire on” (more on that later), Chesil gifted us with sunshine and around 4m visibility at ~10m depth.
This gave ample opportunity to see spider crabs, lobster, eel and lots of fish. If compass fate (not skill) allowed, then there was also a pipe surrounded by luscious kelp to dive around. We took two dives here, refilled tanks nearby and while one car returned to the campsite the rest supported Reuben completing his Ocean Diver course (congrats!), while simultaneously sunbathing and eating ice creams. We then packed up the car, popped to the campsite for some chicken catching and then back to Chesil for a night dive!
Theo played Dad of the group as chief BBQ flipper (positioned responsibly on the concrete steps at the back of the beach – away from the exploding pebbles you see). The night dive was a beautiful and exhilarating experience as the marine life became more active and uninhibited in the dark. There were a few exciting extra species too – cuttlefish, conger eels, a nursehound shark (top spot by Max) and by turning our torches off and moving hands through the water, bioluminescent plankton light up as sparkles! I personally also found it exhilarating when, upon signalling thumbs down to descend into the murky depths I immediately had jellyfish ON MY MASK.
Meanwhile, the BBQ-turned-campfire was blazing merrily – both for warmth provision and to give a land signal to aim for if disoriented in the water. Anyway, it turns out it’s not just the pebbles that are sensitive to heat – the concrete made a bid for freedom with dramatic explosive effect – fortunately injuring no one, but unfortunately disabling its warmth and light-giving capacity.
It was a late one that night, after packing, star gazing and rehydrating with a tinnie, the group turned lights out at around 2am.
Sunday 14th July
Mission 1: vacate the campsite by 8am. Edu encouraged the group with heavy bass music from the car stereo and we shoehorned people into cars by 8:30. Another beautiful day, this time to Swanage Pier where Alex and Becca joined our ranks. Several trolleys, coffees and requests-for-money-from-the-ticket-lady later, we dived under the pier. Being only 4m deep the visibility was high from light penetration. This was awesome to take our time exploring crevices and the pier pillars for life. There were crabs, eels and loads of fish including the frilly antlered tompot blenny (photo creds to Theo).
In the afternoon we took a boat out 10 minutes to the Fleur de Lys wreck. One giant stride into 40 minutes of diving between the wreck and adjoining Bombay Barge before returning to the boat (via a lift?!) for a choice of warm beverages. Finally, with some resemblance of urgency, cars were packed so we could get back to Briz to support our boys to bring it home… At least Edu had a good night.
BIG thanks to Edu for organising such a great weekend and to him, Ben and Max for coaching Tanya, Olly and Reuben towards their Ocean/Sport Diver qualifications and generally supporting the less experienced divers in such a welcoming, encouraging way.