As happens every year, Tobias organised a deep trip, this time depth limited to 50m.
Sad to report that a few of us were insane enough to say “that sounds great” and join the trip! And so, five of us, a record number of advanced divers, committee members, and boat handlers on one trip, set off to explore the deep wrecks of Portland. As we were the first ones down in Dorset, Laura and I used our time wisely, and started the weekend with a walk and a visit to one of our favourite pubs, the Cove House Inn, where we were treated to a stunning sunset with a crisp cider!
We started the first day off with a 9:30 AM ropes off, which according to some (French) people was way too early. Since I hadn’t managed to finish my depth progression ahead of this trip, we kicked things off with a quick bounce dive to 45m, followed by a visit to the Stern of the Black Hawk!
The Black Hawk was an American Liberty Ship, which now rests at about 48m. She was sunk in December 1944 by a German sub (more on that later!), and broke apart as she was towed to harbor. The first wave consisting of Laura, Tobias and Nathan set off to explore, with Laura completing her trimix certification dive! Thibault and I followed close on their heels, getting absolutely narc’ed (despite the trimix!) before finding the wreck. We saw a few massive pollacks, a few conger eels and just a beautiful wreck that stands pretty tall. We followed it back up, deco’d and then we were done!
For the second dive of the day, everyone cavern certified (that is, everyone except for me) went to check out a new (to us) dive site, Stair Hole. While very stressful for the boat handler due to the number of other water users, I was thoroughly entertained by watching the climbers while the others were under water. Thibault somehow managed to flood his rebreather during this dive, so he ended up on pure O2 mode on this dive. Whoops! The diving reviews were overwhelmingly positive though, so I’m sure it’ll be added to our regular rotation of dive sites for SD+ trips!
A few weeks before this trip, Tobias used my need for ‘boat handling practice’ as an excuse to explore a new-to-us site, and check out the coordinates for a new wreck! Having confirmed where she lies, the U-322 was chosen to be the dive site for Sunday!
On Saturday evening, we ordered some pizza, and over some pints and wine, I researched our dive site more. As it turns out, the German sub (Type VIIC/41) was commissioned in 1944, and conducted two war patrols before it was sunk on December 29, 1944. She was responsible for sinking two ships: the SS Dumfries off the coast of the Isle of Wight, and the SS Black Hawk! Yes, the same Black Hawk we dived earlier in the day! As you can imagine, this was very exciting news for us history nerds. The U-322 was sunk the same day as the Black Hawk, by one of the Black Hawk’s convoy escorts, using depth charges.
For Sunday, we set off at 9 AM, for a repeat dive of Stair Hole, since it had been confirmed to be safe for me to dive the day before! Thibault got to the marina early, as after flooding his rebreather the day before, he was expecting “an unknown amount of faff”. Thankfully it was limited, and we still managed to set off on time(ish). As expected, the dive was really beautiful, with loads of light, a beautiful swim-through, and very pretty kelp outside of the rocks. Thibault, as boat cover, did confirm my thoughts about the site though; it’s not super safe with all of the climbers jumping in all over the place, and we should be limiting diving to times other people aren’t likely to be there (ie. early mornings & off season).
We are also happy to report that our Marine Champion Matti has had a positive influence, and over the course of the two dives, we collected an unprecedented number of lost items: a snorkel, a carabiner (now holding our new waterproof speaker!), a sock, and three pairs of sunglasses! Very exciting for me, the proud new owner of some Prada sunglasses!
For our second dive of the day, we made our way over to the U-322, with Tobias and Thibault diving in first! Afterwards Laura, Nathan and I hopped in, and had a bit of current on the way down. The shot came right by the periscope, and after Nathan filled the liftbag, we made our way over! We had to work a bit to stay on the wreck, but followed along for a bit. Pretty full of life for being so far down! She was definitely broken up, but we didn’t see an impact site specifically. Really interesting wreck, and this won’t be the last time we’ll visit her for sure!
After our dive, the sea state had picked up quite a bit, and unfortunately, the liftbag hadn’t come up! Our attempts to pick the shot up failed, and we ended up having to drag the shot off the wreck by boat, and then manually pulling her up. So much for not working hard after diving! We managed to get everything up, but unfortunately at the expense of almost flooding the boat. While Nathan, Thibault and I brought up the shot, Laura valiantly tried to keep the water at bay with a tiny little bucket. She had limited success, so in the end, her job was holding down gear! Pictured in the photo above is Thibault looking very happy, despite being up to his knees in the water! Mind you, this is after Tobias started clearing the water!
Anyways, despite these minor hiccups, and major detour on the way home due to a wildfire, everyone made it back to London healthy and happy! Thank you to Tobias for a lovely trip, and as always, for the great trimix instruction and depth progression for Laura and myself!