Inaugural Dive

The day started with a rather chilly -4 degree, slightly apprehensive, meet at Lyme Regis car park. I was however impressed that despite the layers of thick ice on the ground, Mags still managed to pull off a pair of 4 inch heeled boots.

Putting the kit on the rib, it was alarming to note that most of the ropes including the shot  onboard were still actually frozen to the deck.. super.Luckily the post dawn temperature was also accompanied by a steady breeze adding a wind chill factor of minus, “ quite a bit”. Anyway enough winging about the cold, after all I am only made of plastic.

Luckily the Baugitano is only about a mile out of the harbour, so we were kitting up almost immediately. It’s funny how the cold makes basic motor skills such as doing up your weight belt increasingly difficult. Having said that, the knowledge that it would be warmer in the water than on the rib was all the encouragement I needed to get a move on and stop faffing with my gloves.

As the shot went in, the viz from the surface did actually look quite encouraging. I did however have certain reservations about the structural integrity of my head, being that it is made of plastic and a completely empty void, no I’m not talking about my buddy Piers. (Sorry Piers but I couldn’t miss that one.)

As Piers and I descended onto the wreck it was notably darker than the usual drop to th

e Baggy. Although the viz was probably no more that 3 meters I was pleased to see that the shot line was festooned with Bib in all directions. As we travelled North towards the bow I noticed two things, firstly the viz did improve quite dramatically in some places and secondly my earlier reservations came into fruition as my head had imploded to about a 3^rd of its original size.(Note to self , must pierce back of skull with screwdriver  to allow equalisation of pressure).

As we approached the bow the 8 degree temperature began to become increasing uncomfortable so having signalled to my Buddy Piers, we bagged off and started the assent. The 3 minute stop provided an ideal opportunity for further photos. I also noticed that there was a visible thermocline as we entered the balmy temperatures of 10 degrees.

Back on the boat the, wind had picked up quite considerably. The next few minutes could have been the start of an irreconcilable incident pit. Due to the wind and currents we could not get the shot back into the rib, but did in fact manage to get the line caught around the prop. So we had to turn off the engine with divers still down and untangle the rope. At the same time the GPS connection became loose, so we now had no marks to gauge the Baygitano position as the shot drifted off with the lift bag. Luckily we reconnected the GPS, untangled the line and the engine restarted, with minimal swearing from Capin Rog….. phew. Not a good day to be drifting around the bay.

Having picked up the remaining divers we headed back to the harbour and the warm hand blower in the car parks disabled toilets, hmmm.

My inaugural dive was despite the chilly conditions a real cracker. The Baygitano never fails to provide a high fish count and reams of nooks and crannies to investigate further macro life.  I now look forward to the rest of the Winter dive program which will hopefully encourage more members into the water during this “off season” period.

Scuba Steve