Very acceptable start meeting at around 12.00 noon and the boat was already in the water. As the sea was looking a bit lumpy, we decided to go for Dave’s Plan B which was the Bottle Wreck as it was thought the Gascony could be a bit too far out. Lots of room on the boat with only 4 of us ending up going and a quick trip out to the Bottle Wreck. Took a while to put the shot in but skipper was happy with the placement. Stuart and Dave went in first and although Dave managed to reach the shot Stuart was unable to swim against the running current! Obviously not slack!! Both divers were recovered and the decision was made to do a drift over the scallop beds and try to find some food! Retrieved the shot and Paul blasted us over to the scallop beds, where of course the tide wasn’t running any more!
Dave & Stuart dropped in and obviously had a good shopping trip as both came up with goody bags of scallops. Paul and I went in next and found no scallops, and not much else!! A gentle drift looking at deadmen’s fingers, algae, sponges etc and then we found some scallops. Paul managed to manhandle a large crab into my goody bag (crab salad on Sunday!!) before we ascended.
Quick race back to the Arun and a careful manoeuvre into the harbour at very low tide. (The life boat followed our line in!). Left the boat in the water for Sunday’s divers so a really easy day’s diving. (JH)
