Weymouth October 2008

Indepth Diving embarked on a weekend trip on 17th, 18th and 19th October to Weymouth in search of clear calm seas and some fine wreck diving with a healthy dose of "apres dive" afterwards.

Divers   Non Divers

Alex Heroys Paula Cullen
Chris Thorpe Joan Thorpe
Jenny Barnes Vanessa Heroys
Gwaine Cook Isabella Heroys Peter Askew Zoe Cook
Jamie Slater
John Stewart
John Cousins
Greg Nicol
Phil Massetti

Friday 17th October

We left at about 1pm for a short afternoon dive on the Blackhawk wreck, very pretty, slight current about 16m depth.

The seas were calm although some of us were a little green around the gills after the dive!!

The Blackhawk

The bow section of the Black Hawk was taken under tow to Worbarrow Bay and was landed on the beach. The bow was finally destroyed in 1967 by a deliberate explosion to make way for the Winfrith pipeline. The wreck is badly broken up and unrecognisable but makes a very scenic dive with an abundance of marine life.

Saturday 18th October

James Fennell and the Gertrude

Naval Trawler sunk in January 1920 on Blacknor Point. The stern remains intact and you can also find a boiler and engine towards mid ships. We also drifted onto the wreck of the Gertrude, I don't know the history but it was a lovely collection of smashed up steel!! I saw a large anchor!!

Lulworth Banks

This dive was to collect Scallops, which we did by the bucket load! They were cleaned and cooked up by John, Pete, Chris and Jamie. Thank you very much for that. They were delicious. The visibility was rubbish but all quite exciting with a strong current and us flying along at warp factor 3

(variable, about 9-21m depth, approx. Position: 50 35.7N 002 17.3W). About 2miles offshore, an area covering 4 square miles of rugged underwater scenery, including underwater drop-offs, high rock bluffs with rocky pinnacles, horizontal rock strata, down to the deeper gravelly sandy patches famous for scallops. Many large (5 inch diameter) brass shell-cases have been found dating from the naval gunnery range here in the 1950s. Tides can be strong at times, (westerly-flowing ebb is stronger than the flood) making for a good drift dive, or slack water is about 1hr before HW Dover and 6 hours later.

Sunday 19th October

The Spaniard, the Enecuri.

Also referred to as The Spaniard, this 3000 ton Spanish Steamship has very little history prior to her sinking. On 28 December 1900 during a force nine north-westerly gale she dragged her anchor and went aground on rocks close to the Breakwater Fort. All the crew escaped to safety as the vessel took some time to finally sink. The following day, the ship still resting on the breakwater, the Captain boarded the vessel with his dog and made no attempt to escape when she finally slipped off the Breakwater and sank. Years later, divers working on the wreck discovered the skeletons of the captain and his dog in the cabin. Lying now at the foot of the breakwater, in 12 metres of water, the bow section is totally intact standing 6 metres.

The Bombardon Unit and Landing Craft

Lying in 17-20 metres of very silty water this wreck is fairly intact. LCT is one of many tank and infantry landing craft found lying in Portland Harbour.

As always we hope everyone had a good time and look forward to the next trip.

All the best.

Alex , Helen , Steph and John.

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