Rescued by the RNLI



They have found us!

 Well the first dive off the rib didn't go as planned, the day started off badly and this was before we got out of the harbour. I'd arranged to meet up with Loraine, James, Mark and Steve in the car park at Sovereign Harbour Yatch club. I was getting some petrol for the rib when James called to say he was lost and could I guide him in. I told him to meet me at the Eastbourne Swimming pool and I'd help him from there. Finally they made it, never give and ambulance driver a GPS and get a woman to drive. Well I got them to follow me down to where the rib is parked and told them that they could unload there gear and then would have to move the car to the side of the car park and then we could go round and pick Mark and Steve up from the right car park. Well they went off to park the car and was never seen again what should have taken no more than 2 minutes.

Well after waiting nearly 30 minutes I decided to go round and pick Mark and Steve up. It was no better with them Steve managing to loose his mask in the carpark, and Mark just taking his time so we'd already missed the tide to do the wreck dive so it only left them with a drift over the shoals.

Finally with Mark and Steve on the rib I headed back round to my mouring to see if I could find the others, then I had a call from the Marina asking me if I was missing 2 divers. Not a good call when we've not even got to sea yet. Finally I picked them up by the locks and there was 4 divers and myself onboard, I headed into the lock and waited until we got the green light to leave to lock and start getting out to the drift area. On the way out the engine decided to cut out and I got it restarted OK.



Finnally at the dive site they started to get ready it was decided that one from each side then the next 2 divers they would meet on the surface and then descend together and would share a SMB between the buddy pairs, this didn't go to plan as James and Lorraine was already in the water before Mark and Steve had completed kitting up. Mark flipped off the boat then Steve, however Steve managed to loose his mask I asked him if he had a spare and he said no. So that was the end of his diving for the day. Mark headed to the other 2 however it soon become notoceable that they wasn't together as a group so I decided to follow the SMB of MArk, after around 30 minutes, finally surfaced and I moved the rib round and picked him up. James and Lorraine made it surface and I fetched the rib round and got them on the boat.



On the way back into Eastbourne the engine had enough and cut out and no matter how much I tried it had different things on it's mind. After a call out to Sovereign Diver Eastbourne  BSAC's local dive boat and them not hearing me, it was time for the call you never like to do.





Steve & Mark



"Dover Coastguard, Dover Coastguard this is Cobra 1 we are dive rib out of Eastbourne with 5 persons onboard we have engine trouble, our position is 6miles south of Eastbourne Marina" this was follwoed by " Cobra 1 Cobra1 this is Dover Coastguard please standby on channel 67"



Switched to channel 67 to be told that Eastbourne Lifeboat was already out playing games with there crew and they would be heading over to us shortly.



After around 30 minutes the lifeboat was along side and we tied on a tow rope and then the long tow back to Marina. Once is the harbour entrance we was brought along side and waited for the work boat from the marina, they explained that the Coastguard would be waiting to talk to me in the lock which was nothing to get worried about. Sure to there word they was waiting for me. After a short chat nothing that I couldn't answer or provide they was happy.

We was first out the lock and was soon on the mooring it was then time to get everyone back to there cars with there stuff, this was just not my day.



I drove Mark and Steve round with there kit, then spent over an hour with Loraine trying to find where she had parked only to find it was round the corner.



Sad Day for James





I headed back to the boat to finish up sorting it out and getting the cylinders back in the car, monday would be fun ringing up to get someone to fix the engine.







Aeolian Sky Wreck Dive

George and myself joined some of the usual Wraysbury divers for a trip on TANGO out of Weymouth for 2 dives the first being a dive on a Greek Container ship Aeolian Sky that was damaged in a storm around 20 years ago and the second dive would be a drift over a scallop bed.

George picked me up a silly o'clock (around 5.00am) for the 3hour journey down to Weymouth, well as for kit it was the usual twin 12's filled with 28% nitrox and a seperate 7Ltr pony with 50% nitrox, for the second dive I had just a singlw 12Ltr with 32% nitorx.

We arrived at the boat and loaded all the dive gear onto we was the first to arrive.
Finally everyone had turned up all the kit was loaded aboard and the engines was soon started and the mooring ropes was released and we started down the channel. The trip out was going to be about 2 hours so we had plenty of time to setup and check the kit. George and myself was going to buddy up together as we are regular dive buddies anyway.

We arrived at the wreck and Phil the skipper throw in the shotline, we arranged ourselves in order to go into the sea George and myself we the second group to go.

Phil brought the boat around and George and myself lined up to jump into the water, then splash we was in we swam over to the shotline. One quick last check and we started to follow the shotline down to what was the accomodation block on the wreck. Phil had managed to get it spot on we was at 18m. We dropped over the side of the accomodation block and onto the lower part of the wreck which was around 28-30m,

George was already looking for eating crabs or lobster, he;d already missed a lobster. As we continues to look at wreck we both saw the mother of all lobsters, what went through my mind was I was going to need a bigger bag to put it it, however this lobster was having none of it and then decided it would chase us, so we let it off.

After 30 minutes on the bottom it was time to ascend we moved up to around 25m and George sent up his SMB, we did a deep stop at 21m for a minute this allowed me to swap onto my 50% deco cylinder and then made a nice slow ascent upto 6m where our final safety stop for 5minutes.

Once on the surface Phil brought the boat around and George got on the lift first then I was on next, that was dive one completed.

Once everyone was on the boat we headed back in to Weymouth so we could do the Scallop dive, which was only going to be around 30 minutes. Phil provided us all with hot cross buns and more tea's and coffee's.

After nearly 2 hours we were ready for the second dive a few people decided not to dive however this didn't stop George and myself, so in we went again this time straight to the bottom and start looking for scallops, they was all around us and we managed to get around 50 between us.

Once back onboard we started to sort them out with all the undersize one going back into the sea, we ended up sharing about 40 between us.

We moored up again unloaded all the dive gear and went round for a drink in the local pub, then after we had fish and chips on the quayside