tim(Offline)

Hello,

I'm not sure this really counts as a DIR trip (it was a mixed group of diving friends I'd got together from a BSAC club), but having had some really nice dives this weekend I thought I'd write them up to pass on the information. This was easy RIB and shore diving which I'd aimed at Open Water / Ocean Diver level for newer divers to show them a bit of what the Dorset coast had to offer.

After a winter plagued by injuries and bad weather it looked from the forecast as though we were in for more of the same on the latter front, with gales and heavy rain forecast. On Saturday we based ourselves at Castletown and started the day with an easy dive on the Countess to let people who hadn't been diving in UK waters for a while get back into the swing of things. The viz was on the order of 4-5m, with lots of wrasse, ascidians, blennies, and LOTS of divers taking shelter from the impending northeasterly gales!

Looking at the conditions, we were fairly sure that there would be areas of coast sheltered by cliffs and if we got close enough inshore we should be able to find shelter. Our initial plan was to see what the conditions were like round the British Inventor wreck, but the sea was a bit on the lumpy side for RIB diving so we ended up tucking ourselves inshore in the shelter of the east side of Ringstead Bay and doing a slow (~1/2kt, I guess) dive in the current heading west-southwest.

Depths were ~18m and on arriving at the sea bed it initially looked as though it was going to be a very dull dive indeed, with nothing but sand and serried rows of small shingles. I've underestimated those kind of dives before, though, so we kept on going, and it was more than worth it! Over the forty minutes of our dive we saw four thornback rays, which astounded me as I've seen a grand total of one before (in a similar area of the Dorset coast). They were extremely docile and didn't seem at all concerned when we got close to them to examine them. Of the four, two were large (I guess on the order of 45-60cm across), one was about 30cm across, and one was a juvenile about the size of my hand. It was extremely encouraging to see that they appeared to be breeding, and we reported all four rays in to the local marine wardens, including two more sightings from other divers on our boat.

As well as the rays, the initially 'lifeless' sea bed turned out to be full of life, with some scallops (which ended up on our dinner plate, and were delicious!), lots of hermit crabs and spider crabs, lots of tubeworms, and a lot of empty abalone shells. The visibility was again good - on the order of 5-6m all the time.

By the time we finished diving the wind was really picking up and we were very glad we had stayed in the shelter. The run back to the harbour at Portland was fine from where we were but could have been quite unpleasant had we had to battle our way into the wind!

With really nasty gales and rain forecast for Sunday we decided to base ourselves at Kimmeridge, and were pleasantly surprised to wake up to calm conditions which soon changed into a gorgeous sunny day with only residual swell at sea. Some of the more wreck-minded in the group went out to dive the Aeolian Sky, the rest of us enjoyed near-ideal conditions in Kimmeridge Bay for very long, very shallow dives helping out with an ongoing survey for the local marine wardens.

This was some of the nicest shore diving I've done for years - rarely more than a two or three metres deep, with a profusion of colourful seaweeds lit by the bright sun and with shimmering patterns of light playing down through the small waves. Rocks were jealously guarded by gobies and blennies who took extreme exception to cameras coming near them and were quite fearless in attacking the camera lens (great for photos!). All kinds of wrasse moved slowly and quickly through the rocks and seaweed, there were more shellfish than I could count. As I'd hoped, we found a huge cuttlefish which after an initial period of being cautious with divers around soon relaxed and drifted along to the side of us, again a great subject for my buddy's camera. I reckon we had about 8m viz and 14 degree water - superb conditions.

More than anything, it was fantastic to get some ocean diving done after a winter where I've had all but two ocean dives cancelled since end-August. It was wonderful to get back in the sea again.

If you like spending a couple of hours on a really nice shallow dive with beautiful colours, rocks, forests of seaweeds, and lots of fish and other life, I can highly recommend Kimmeridge Bay on a nice sunny late-spring day!

Tim

jonesor(Offline)

Nice report Tim. I've also seen Thornback Rays in that area (and nowhere else). I'm off down to that part of the world next weekend so hopefully my diving will be as good as your's sounds.

neilh(Offline)

Nice report Tim - glad to see you managed to get in and had some cracking dives to go with it

tim(Offline)

Cheers! It was good to get the diving season started ... finally

Stathis(Offline)

Thanks for sharing that Tim and good to hear that you enjoyed it. Personally, I'm rediscovering the joy of fresh water... No salty aftertaste and you don't have to rince kit afterwards...

tim(Offline)

Both very good points, Stathis .. for places like the Lake District I agree entirely, but Stoney and Gildy have lost any appeal they might have once had, especially given the cost of entry!

Tim