Report by Andrew Bradford
Divers: George Mitchell, Steve Askew, Andrew Bradford
Early September found us booked on Sea Leopard out of Portland Marina. The M2 had been a year-long object of desire for Steve and after a couple of practice dives out of Brighton we were ready. Conditions were partly cloudy with a gentle south westerly.
George and I were on twins and Steve on a single 15(+pony) so we had carefully planned the dive to maximise bottom time.
The shot was dropped onto the starboard bow-plane by the skipper – we viewed the Hanger first and then moved forward to the torpedo tubes and then worked our way along the top of the hull to the bow…we dropped to the propellor on the 22min mark and then with Steve on a single 15 we moved straight to the conning tower where we deployed a DSMB and left the boat on 27mins, re-joining the skipper topside on 42mins (with no deco incurred). Viz was a little ‘soupy’ at less than 2m so no grand views of the whole vessel unfortunately – in fact Viz on M2 hasn’t been great all year. Water temp was 18degrees.
A single dive boat trip gave us the opportunity to grab some lunch at the marina and then head to Chesil Beach. Park was OK with a couple of clubs out in force. The dive was (as always great)..not so much sea-life until we came across a large Octopus toward the end of the dive which was a real treat. We surfaced after a 56min dive, most of which was spent at about 11m.
Kit – including my indie twins – was hauled up the beach without any noticeable injuries and we were finished by 3pm.
3rd time on M2 this year for me and it still not bored with it.
