Littlehampton Day Trip August 28th 2024

An early start for us all to drive to Littlehampton for 7:30 am to be in time for a planned ropes-off at 8:40am.

Our skipper "Dave" got us all on board his large RIB - plenty of room for all 10 of us, but the plan was to return to base between dives to save us having 10 cylinders on board too.

The weather was kind and the sea calm, so our 30mins trip out to our first dive on the Outer Mulberry was a pleasant one. The Mulberries were artificial floating harbours built by the British during World War II to facilitate the unloading of cargo and supplies onto the beaches of Normandy. The one we were diving on never made it across the channel and is now quite broken up. That makes for an excellent artificial reef - it was crowded with many types of fish and we spotted at least three large Conger eels and some large crabs.

Visibility was 4-5m, regarded by regulars as excellent for the area.

Back to the Yacht club for a comfort break, a quick lunch and cylinder swap before we headed out again.

Dive two was a drift dive. Less sea life to see in terms of fish, poorer visibility of 1-2m and a somewhat variable speed drift current, but a good dive nonetheless, and a valuable experience dive for those newer divers on the trip.

A grand day out, made better for good weather and visibility. Many thanks Russ for organising it.