Croydon BSAC’s Diving in 2009

So, it’s been a while since our last blog, mainly because the weather has now become decidedly iffy and put pay to our diving plans. At this point it’s always good to look back on the year’s diving and review the good, the bad and the ugly of the Croydon BSAC 23 diving calendar.

The year kicked off with our usual Easter trip to Plymouth, here we had 4 days of excellent diving where conditions were surprisingly good:

Flat calm on the Eddystone Lighthouse.

During the trip we dived favourites including the James Egan Layne, Maine, Persia, Eddystone Lighthouse and Rosehill and enjoyed visibility of up to 10m. Diving from good old Pete Fergus’ boat Venture we were well pampered with plenty of tea and hot food. Thanks Pete! A couple more Plmouth pics:

Between-dive kip aboard Venture.

Up the lift!

Following the Easter Plymouth jaunt we had a couple of days out of Brighton diving from Brighton Diver II and Channel Diver where the visibility was (predictably for this area at this time of year) not all that. Still, not to worry about all that as it’s all about getting wet – getting the visibility is a bonus!

As the end of May approached we headed back down to Plymouth to dive with Pete again off of Venture. Unfortunately we didn’t have such good conditions this time, but we did get diving when several of the other boats didn’t go out. The trip was still enjoyed by all, including a couple of non-Croydon divers who came along as guests who we impressed with our witty banter, good company and fart gags.

The end of May and start of June saw more single-day diving from Brighton and Littlehampton on favourites such as the City of Waterford and lesser dived wrecks like the HMT Balfour. Towards the end of the month we headed off from Brighton on Channel Diver for a 3-day trip to FeCamp in France to dive the Huntsmoor on the way over, 2 wrecks on the French side and the Warilda on the way home. This was an excellent trip where we had decent visibility, good company, good food and barbequed lobster between dives!

FeCamp 2009 crew.

Skipper Steve hard at work...

July provided yet more day diving from Brighton and Littlehampton along with 2 week-long trips. Some headed off to up to Orkney to dive the Scapa German Fleet from Sunrise on Alan Glen’s annual trip, whilst others visited Donegal for some deeper trimix diving off on Loyal Watcher. Both trips were very successful, I can certianly recommend the Donegal diving on wrecks like the Audacious, Empire Heritage and Justicia.

Decompressing after diving the Justicia.

Scapa crew 2009.

Into August and we had day dives booked almost every weekend, however, the big trip in August was our expedition to the Channel Islands. We met Channel Diver on Guernsey and headed over to our base in Sark for a week of diving the surrounding wrecks and reefs. Unfortunately the weather Gods weren’t playing ball, but we got diving every day and made the best of a bad lot. Dives included the M434, Dr Rudolf Warendorhf and the “Tug & Barges”.

Channel Diver at Maseline Harbour.

Dave's crabs.

We finished the year with more Brighton and Littlehampton dives before the weather came in and spoiled our fun. As always we’ll try and get out over winter, but as always we’ll probably get blown out. Still, there is still plenty to do over the winter months including training at inland sites such as NDAC, Stoney Cove, Vobster and Wraysbury, dive planning and research for 2010 (list to be announced shortly) and recruitment of new members.

If you are interested in joining us for diving, training or both please get in touch.

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