Portland Diving Trip June 2024

22-23 June saw twelve of us off to Portland for some Ocean Diver-rated diving: in the event we ended up doing 4 dives which were completely new to most if not all of us.

Although the weather above the water was very nice indeed the forecast for Saturday was a bit breezy and we were not expecting too much. It did not seem worth going far so we started off with the wreck of the Hartlepool, a 5,500 ton steamer sunk during WW2 by E-boat. Although the wreck is very flat this turned out to be an excellent warmup dive being in only 12m but with plenty of marine life: pouting, assorted wrasse, several congers, lobster, spider crabs, tompot blennies, scallops and sea hares. This could be a new favorite second dive for the area.

The Hartlepool was Emily's first sea dive and I think her smile afterwards said it all! Congratulations to her for completing her Ocean Diver training on that dive, and continuing to do well on the other three dives.

For the second dive we were keen to dive Durdle Door but the swell was just too much so we dived Ringstead Ledges instead. This was not earth shattering for most though one pair did find a beautiful spotted ray on the sand.

On the Sunday it was much flatter so we dived the British Inventor (bow section). This was a WW2 oil tanker which hit a mine in 1940 and was beached: the wreck was cut in two by salvors and the stern towed away to Portland where the oil was unloaded. Subsequently it was towed to Southampton where the engine was removed for use in another ship. What remains in Dorset is the mangled remains of the bow with an absolute profusion of life on it: dense shoals of pouting, many cuckoo wrasse, ballen and corkwing wrasse, lobsters, pink sea fans, scallops and crabs. This was an excellent dive.

In the afternoon we got to dive the sea cave at Durdle Door which was impressive, not least for the pressure waves that hammered through the divers as the waves slammed against the roof of the cave! It was quite a novelty to do this site, many thanks to the skipper for agreeing to do it as it is not an easy site to deal with in the tourist season.

Above the water we stayed in Weymouth where we watched a bit of the Euro football and had a most agreeable meal in the Ship Inn.

The teamwork on this trip was quite a delight and I thank all present for making the weekend go so smoothly. Thanks also to skipper Dave on Waverider for great diving and serving crispy hot pasties just as advertised!