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UKRS#01 Portland : 8th and 9th May 1999 |
17 Go Mad in Dorset... The inaugural UKRS Dive (organised[?] by KL) was held at Breakwater Dive Centre in Portland, here's what some people thought of it -
(From Keith L : Group Report)
I hope people will be posting their own trip reports over the next few days, but here's an overview...
| The cast in no particular order - Keith [Wine'o] L Kevin [Nitrox] B Jason [SHUT UP KEITH!] P Keith [Tables?] S Mike [Two Boats] F Greg [Cylinders] R Bruce [Vis] ? Mark [Computer] M Alan [Backplate] L Nicki [Gills] ? Frank [Sales] B Miaja [Silence] ? Nicole [Stud] M Mark [Side-slung] S Dylan [Blown Out] C Vic [Semi] W Sharn (?) [Red] W ...and apologies for absence from Jim [SNIIIFFF!] T |
 Foreground - left to right... Greg Roach in usual relaxed mode The folliclly challenged Keith S Jason P with a PADI greeting The jovial Mike F |
Guess who was late getting to Portland! 2 1/2 hours stuck on and around the M25. A small
group gathered in one of the TWO pubs opposite (errrr - I forgot to specify which one,
Mike voted for us by getting there first). The Weymouth stayers departed and we continued
in the bar at Breakwater. First problem - boat booked, only 10 divers... two late comers
saved the day and we had a full boat.
Saturday AM and Mark is eager and waiting in the car park, Frank & Miaja very kindly
gave up their places and went local so that Mark could join in, their revenge was that
Mark ended up with me as a buddy, the (now) 11 was made up to 12 by a local (John) who
tagged along.
Plan was the Fennel, it was not to be, and that set the scene for the diving... S/SW winds
up to force 6 at times made getting round the Bill impossible. So we all piled onto TopGun
and 12 divers set out for the Hood, as it turned out it was the best dive I've ever had on
the Hood, excellent vis and a nice dive followed. So 11 of us clambered back onto TopGun
for the chug back. That's not a
bad record, 11 out of 12 return - somebody who shall remain nameless (for fear of
embarrassing Mike) decided to hitch a lift back on a different boat which had conveniently
moored on the shot!
By now Kevin had joined us, we had a full boat of 12. Second dive was supposed to be a
drift outside of the harbour, the trouble was - everywhere local was on slack. So a chug
back to the Harbour for a drift(ish) around the fort wall was decided upon. Having set a
precedent on the first dive by using two boats, it was decided the whole group should try
it. We exited from a gleaming white TopGun, when we surfaced there was this ruddy great
orange RIB (Saracen) waiting for us??? TopGun had broken down with a fuel problem, so we
all returned on Saracen.
Saturday night was an group gathering in Weymouth, 14 wend out for a meal at which KL
proceeded to get pretty p*ssed and a generally good time was had by all. Trouble was we
had a 08:30 start on Sunday for an offshore.
The sad remains of the group assembled (reluctantly!) for the Sunday dive, KL being in a
particularly bad way! Nicole and Mark had decided to lie in and do a later local RIB,
Frank and Miaja were back on Top Gun, we had 11 (Mark was called away to w*rk). The plan
was the Binnendyk, it was not to be. We steamed out, sat on a rolling boat for a few
minutes over the wreck and it was quickly
apparent that conditions were not suitable, the boat was moving too much to safely kit,
dive and more importantly - board. We chugged back to the Harbour again. Dive was the
Bombardon Unit & Landing Craft, bloody awful vis made this a pretty bad dive! But at
least we *ALL* went out and came back on the same boat...
Nobody wanted a second Sunday dive, we'd all had enough of Harbour diving and decided to
leave it for another day.
So in summary? let them tell the story but I think it was worth it, I met some terrific
people I'd only known electronically, everybody got on well together, we all had a say in
what we did, we went diving. I would personally like to thank all who came along for
making it such an enjoyable time. OK, we were beaten by the weather, but next time...??
(From Greg R)
Keith Lawrence wrote:
: I hope people will be posting their own trip reports
Of course....
: Greg [Cylinders] R
You can't have too many cylinders, that's what I say. Still, having 9 in the back of
the car made overtaking a bit tougher than usual.
I was there with my flatmate, Bruce. Bruce's previous diving experience was in the
Caribbean, so the plan was to introduce him to 'proper' diving, UK style. For his
comments on the weekend, in his own words, see the bottom of this post. He'd borrowed my
old drysuit, and since he's an inch in a half taller than me, I'd like to thank everyone
who helped me squeeze him into it.
Well, the weekend involved all the classic elements of a UK diving trip;
Firstly, beer was consumed in quantities that may not have set a good example. Did you
know that you only have to walk into three bars in Weymouth, asking "Has anyone seen
Keith Lawrence" before you find him. Secondly, quality equipment. Saturday
morning was spent with spanners and allen keys trying to put together a set of regs that
didn't leak (that octo hasn't been used since its service) and inflator hoses that fit
inflator nozzles (just, with a bit of mechanical persuasion).
Having seen my kit lying around the house (lounge, dining room, kitchen, bathroom, utility
room,...) he is quite used to things like manifolded twins, stage cylinders, argon
bottles, etc. What really threw him was the couple that were diving with very
well-used looking ABLJs. "Do people really still use those?"
Thirdly, organisation and marshalling. On the first dive, Keith diligently logged 12
divers into the water, and logged 11 of us back out again. In the words of the diver
that got back into the other boat "it was nearer, and I'll be buggered if I'm
swimming all that way!". Fair point, I suppose, and well made.
Finally, I'd like to join the rest of the group in thanking Keith L for arranging the
weekend. To anyone that claims, he couldn't organise a p*ss-up in a brewery, I can
confirm that he can at least organise one in a Chinese restaurant.
[Waitress] Can I take your drinks order please?
[Keith L] A bottle of Muscadet, please.
[Waitress] And how many glasses?
[Keith L] Just one, thank-you.
Since Bruce's employer is a bit anal (he actually has to work during the day, rather than
play on the internet), he has asked me to include his comments here;
"Sunday was poo"
Well, it certainly wasn't the Caribbean!
Greg
 Twins sets at the ready! UKRS scatter kit all over Breakwaters car park. |
(From Mike F)
OK then, here's my bit sorry for the delay but I decided to post on another group as it was closer :>))) where to start...now that is a bit difficult. Firstly well done Keith for the organisation, considering that this was the so called inaugural meet I feel it went off fantastically. It was a pleasure to meet all of you and to be able to put faces to names (and boy there were some faces especially on Muscadet sorry Sunday morning)
Being a basic air diver I was well impressed at some of the gear, what with twin sets, nitrox kits, incorrect dry suit inflators oops wasn't going to mention that bit but hey ho!. The dive on the hood was by far the best dive I have ever undertaken in British waters, vis in excess of 10mtrs, I'm used to almost zero vis so when I was able to see something I was gob smacked.
(From Keith L)
Saturday dawns in a breezy Portland, then Mark M phones me
from the other side of the car park. Thanks to Frank & Miaja stepping aside Mark finds
himself on TopGun with me as a buddy. Only the harbour was on due to the winds, so after
waiting a little while for slack we hit the shot for the traditional HMS Hood dive.
I could not believe the visibility! I've done the Hood three or four times now, this was
the best I had seen it. Coming around the corner off the rocks the wreck was visible
stretching into the (6 - 8m?) vis, loads of fish, loads of spider crabs. Mark & self
proceeded to have a good poke around, peering into holes, looking under plates, generally
admiring the view. As we were last in, we kept meeting others from the group heading back
to the shot. By the time I judged we were at turn around the 'traffic' had stirred things
up a little so we decided to continue and come up on a DSMB, so we trundled on a bit
further. Time came to deploy DSMB -
Now the fun starts. I spot a nice belay point (I tie off the reel to the wreck if I can)
on a fly deck on the side of the boat, we ascend to about 13m, I start to attach reel to
wreck. At this point I lean too far forwards, resting my chest against the wreck. What
follows is a very passable impression of Mr Blobby as suit feed is depressed by wreck.
Mark is calmly looking on as I grab hold with right hand, drop reel, roll to vent suit and
recover buoyancy - it's all over in about 3 secs - and no Mark, this is NOT normal
practice <g>.
Despite the supposed slack there was a slight current into the harbour, this takes us over
the wreck and into the harbour. Being the only ones on DSMB (everyone else made it back to
the shot) spent a fruitless 10 mins or so trying to make headway before being picked up.
Well, it wasn't the planned (Fennel) dive but I enjoyed it, run time was 34m, depth 16.3m,
I used 90 BAR.
Second dive of the day ended up on the Fort wall on the harbour breakwater, we were on
neaps, we were around 3 hours after HW, and virtually everywhere was slack! A nice gentle
meander around the large rocks and slabs, followed, not much current until the end (when
we had reached air reserve), loads of large spider crabs gave some interest. Confusing
part was finding your dive boat missing when we surfaced, we even deployed the flag hoping
that it was just out of view, but it was Saracen that picked us up. (Technical Note : This
two boat technique is called "DAM [Doing A Mike]"). A so so dive, but a dive
anyway. Run time was 31m, depth 14.1, I used 60 BAR.
Sunday dawned very breezy, the remnants of the so called "group leader" (see
Greg's report) could be found being particularly grumpy and insulting until after the
second coffee. Dylan had arrived, having been blown out on the Kyara Saturday, to find
himself diving WITH a wreck rather than on one. Fully recovered (I would not have dived
otherwise) we boarded and chugged out to the Binnendyk, abandoned that one due to
conditions and headed back for a harbour dive on the Bombardon Unit & Landing Craft.
Well, we were dropped on the Bombardon Unit, we only knew that when we hit it. Knelt down,
peered, there it was! the vis was that good. We headed off using dead reckoning navigation
(neither of us had thought to take a bearing...) in the direction of the Landing Craft.
With the vis is was difficult to tell where the sea ended and the silty sea bed started,
they kind of merged into one impenetrable mess. We tried contour nav, we tried dead
reckoning, we even looked at the compass - yup, we were lost! By mutual consent it was
decided that this was pointless, up we went.
I am normally very good on boats, being a tight fisted bugger I reason that having paid
for breakfast I'm going to keep it. But on that ascent, boy - did I feel rough all of a
sudden! I signalled Dylan that I had a problem and proceeded to debate the merits of
throwing up a) through regulator, b) open water, c) freeflow style. Didn't need to in the
end, got back on the boat, fell over and dekitted upturned turtle style, then recovered
within minutes. I was suffering sea sickness, primarily due to the boat trip and the lack
of visual reference on the dive. Once back on the boat, with a visual reference, I was
fine. An appalling dive. Run time was only 16m, depth 17.8m, I used 40 BAR.
Enough was enough, I don't think anybody could summon up the enthusiasm for a second dive
after that one. End of dive weekend. My thanks to Mark and Dylan for being buddies.
Keith L
(From Allen L)
Keith Lawrence writes
> Alan [Backplate] L
> Nicki [Gills] ?
Sorry its taken so long post this, work seems to be getting in the way of life at the
moment. Thanks for organising a great weekend, better weather would have improved the
diving but it couldn't have been that bad, Nicky and me managed to spend exactly 2.5 hours
under water in three dives we did.
What's this I see in Greg's post:-
>>What really threw him was the couple that were diving with very well- used looking
ABLJs. "Do people really still use those?"
It's a good job you didn't let my ABLJ hear you, its been getting very worried lately,
what with me looking at stabs and other such new fangled gadgets recently. Thing is, its
only done just over 800 dives so it doesn't see why I should even consider changing.
Seriously though we had a thoroughly good time and are looking forward to UKRS dive #2.
Our vote is for Plymouth partly because there is some good diving once you get out of the
sound and Nicky is at Uni there!
Porthkerris sounds good as well. I dived several wrecks on the Manacles and surrounding
area from a rib operating out of Porthoustock. Can't remember any more details apart from
the owner/rib driver bring called Kevin. Dive Action of Porthkerris used to be at Whitby
(Yorkshire) and I've had three good weekends with them there. Gary Fox (owner?) was who we
used to deal with and he drove one of the ribs.
Allen Leaver
(From Kevin B)
Keith Lawrence wrote:
> I hope people will be posting their own trip reports
Excellent weekend: thanks for making it happen!
I couldn't get there until Saturday lunchtime, so I missed the first dive (which sounded
like it was probably the best). No sooner had I mentioned that I was thinking of hiring a
clean cylinder so that I could use my shiny new nitrox card than Keith produced his spare
and lent it to me - thanks again for that! Unfortunately I didn't know that overnight
cylinder cleaning was possible over the road, so I'm on a 2 week waiting list at the local
shop to get my cylinder into O2 service :-(
 UKRS "Dive Team" ready to depart |
Rigging my kit outside Breakwater, I realised that I hadn't actually brought my regulators - in hasty packing I had instead grabbed those of my usual buddy. Decent regs, though, so no problem... except that half an hour later out on "Top Gun" it became apparent that the drysuit hose had the wrong fitting. Oops. I didn't want to miss the dive, so did it without the d/f to the suit - effectively using it as a totally dry semi-dry (it's a 5mm O'Three). Warmth was fine, but the suit squeeze was a weird experience... rather stiff, and heavy feet! Then of course there was the further weirdness about being picked up by "Saracen" while "Top Gun" went drifting away into the distance. Straight over to Portland Oceaneering when we got back to shore to get the right drysuit hose, and a standard nipple which I'll use to make my usual buddy's drysuit inflator sane and standard (there is *bound* to be another regulator mix-up sooner or later).
On the Sunday dive, Mike and I dropped onto the Bombardon
unit and swam around it after which we tried to go over to the Landing Craft. "You
don't need a bearing, just follow the wall", they had said on the boat. Of course the
visibility had, umm, deteriorated somewhat and this was a non-starter. So we struck off in
what seemed like a credible direction, swam for a while, got bored and surfaced. Of
course, there was the Landing Craft buoy just about another 10 metres straight ahead.
Ho-hum.
Too rough outside the harbour, and rather soupy inside so there was no burning enthusiasm
to dive again. Packed up, left suddenly when the parking attendant came (my 24 hour ticket
had just expired), and wandered back to London via country backroads.
It was all very enjoyable, and it would be good to do more of them. The two-events plan of
a more serious weekend and another recreational one sounds good to me. Having a
"recreational" option on the "experienced" event and vice-versa would
be even better if the locations allowed (esp. for groups with a mix of experience levels).
--
Kevin Beurle
(From Jason P)
> Jason [SHUT UP KEITH!] P
On the next trip I think I might book into a completely different B&B to you. There's
always the risk of thin walls and sleep deprivation is a terrible thing.
Yes, it certainly was enjoyable and the weather was as to be
expected for that time of year. So thanks for organising everything Keith. As anyone who
has tried to organise this sort of thing knows, it's an awful lot of aggravation. So when
the next one? My vote is for Plymouth. We could get a hard boat for the more experienced
and the rest could easily get on a RIB shuttle. There are several in the area. The
diving's pretty good there too.
Jason
--
See www.volnay.demon.co.uk for trip
reports on Barbados,
Bali, Spain, the Maldives, Gran Canaria and Australia
(From Keith S)
Well first of all a big thank-you to Keith L. for organising the trip. Despite the weather, and the plankton being in full bloom, it wuz fun. Really.
> Keith [Tables?] S
Actually I did have my tables there! but I kept them well hidden...
> Dive was the Bombardon Unit & Landing Craft, bloody awful vis made this a
pretty bad dive! But at least we *ALL* went out and came back on the same boat...
It wasn't too bad, 'cept Jason lost the rubber bit off his UK400 (I'm amazed it came
off as he jumped in) and it sunk as I tried to recover it... then after leaving the
Bombardon unit and navigating N-ish to the Landing craft, five minutes later we found
ourselves back on the Bombardon unit again! I still can't figure out how I managed that,
although Jason says I was going in the wrong direction...(thinks: must improve navigation
skills)
Highlight for me was finding a dive knife near the Hood, so if anyone lost one on Saturday
(I don't think it had been there long) tell me what it looks like and I'll send it to
you...
- Keith.
(From Frank B)
> Frank [Sales] B
> Miaja [Silence] - You don't know her yet!
I can't imagine what you mean here, but don't let me catch diving in your Dry suit without
a licence!
We had a look at Chesil, not a hope, so we went back to
Breakwater to find every boat fully booked, I ran into Craig PADI MSDT from SunStar
running an open water course on TideFlow so joined them and got wet, twodives the first in
the bay outside the harbour along from the Dredger.... 7M 5M Vis, the second Dive was on
the inside of the harbour again 5M Vis loads of Wrasse, very reminicent of Turkey,
sunlight streaming through the water, no pots but loads of fish. A very nice dive.
Back to meet the rest of the reprobates at Breakwater....
> Saturday night was an group gathering in Weymouth, 14 wend out for a meal at
which KL proceded to get pretty p*ssed and a generally good time was had by all. Very nice
Chinese food, and very good company thanks everyone, still don't get that joke :-?>
> Trouble was we had a 08:30 start on Sunday for an offshore.
> The sad remains of the group assembled (reluctantly!) for the Sunday dive, KL being
in a particulary bad way! Nicole and Mark had decided to lie in and do a later local
RIB, Frank and Miaja were back on Top Gun, we had 11(Mark was called away to w*rk).
KL obviously still pi$$-ed, failing to notice that Maija being the only sensible one, just
stayed in bed.
I had a good dive with Greg and Bruce, we found it all
(albeit finally), although the Viz mad life interesting down to about 1 foot in places.
And another trip, If you missed it you missed out, but I hope to see more people next time
- I vote Ireland, and would like to thank Keith L, for taking the time and making the
effort. - Thanks Keith I really enjoyed it.
Frank and Maija.