We still have that slab of high pressure sitting over us now as we did on Sunday, which was a perfect opportunity to get to some of the more 'exposed' sites.
There was only myself; Dave H, a sports diver; and Oli, one of our new trainee ocean divers. It was my turn to organise the dive so the previous Thursday I brainstormed some ideas with the other instructors Andy and Paul. We ruled out places like Hallsands and Lulworth Cove, and wanted something different than what we normally do. We agreed that Chesil Beach in Dorset would be ideal as a shelving shore dive, and the abundance of rocks and pebbles would ensure at least moderate visibility.
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It took an hour and a half to get there from Tiverton, but we arrived at the civilised time of 10am. We planned to dive off the far eastern end of the beach, closest to Portland. The sea was a flat calm and almost deserted despite the end of summer holidays, that is save for a dive trio that were just coming out of the water. They were reporting visibilities of 10m in places! Tropical! Jenny my wife carried out marshalling duties while the Dave, Oli and I kitted up and did our buddy checks. These are always essential even for the experienced diver (especially for the complacent diver) as I had accidentally attached my weightbelt to my BCD!
We put our fins on in the water and Jen took lots of photos of us all hopping around in the mid-surf!
We got ourselves organised and descended to about 6m initially. Dave was the only diver with a compass (mine is still ratting around Babbacome beach somewhere) so he lead the dive. We navigated straight out in a southwesterly direction. Visibility was good, although I would have said not quite 10m, but enough to impress and ocean diver trainee on his third ever dive! Oli was very enthusiastic and was powering on ahead, so not only was he using his air a lot faster than Dave or myself he was missing all the scenery! He slowed down on the way back after he was the first to reach 140bar. I was having a lot of fun holding different static positions underwater thanks to my loaned semi-drysuit, for instance I really enjoyed hovering upside down and looking under rocks that way! We spotted three wrasse, two lobsters (one of them was truly gargantuan but too embedded in the rock to retrieve) and a lonely cuttlefish, which was Oli's spot.
We exited a few hundred yards to the west of where we set out, and it was a steep climb up the stoney beach back to the drybags and lunchboxes.
Once again I had worn a semi-dry as my beloved drysuit is still at the menders. But you know what? I think I've been converted!
