Martin organised a fab weekend of hardboat diving from the Catamaran, 'Skindeeper', operating from the new marina in Portland. Weather for the weekend was superb, warm and sunny, and flat calm both days.
On Saturday the 31st May, we headed out from Weymouth to Dive the St. Dunstan, the shipwreck of an old Bucket Dredger, sunk off Lyme Bay in 1917 by a German Mine. Visibility was 3-4 metres, but the Go-pro Black has not done a bad job of capturing some snippets. The weck lies in 27 metres, upside down, and generally has the best visibility in Lyme Bay.
There was lots of room on the boat as there was only 4 of us. We had lunch on the boat, and in the afternoon, headed over to Chesil to dive the wreck of the James Fennel, nestled in amongst huge bolders.
On the Sunday, 3 divers joined us from Cardiff, making our numbers up to 8, but there was still plenty of room on the boat! We headed of arounf Portland Bill to dive the wreck of the M2, a submarine wreck sunk in the 30s, with its own mini aircraft hanger. Wreck sits upright on the bottom at 34 metres, and is adorned with marine life. Underwater visibility was about 2 metres.
After lunch we did a drift dive on Stannis Ledges, a series of reefs across Lyme bay, blennies and dogfish abound, approx depth- 24 metres.
The next club hardboat weekend is scheduled to take place on 16-17th August, see Martin for a place now!
