July Newsletter – Upcoming Diving/Snorkeling
July 2013
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Dive Reports
June 29th and 30th
Snorkel Trip to Penzance
Successful trip to Penzance to snorkel with basking sharks. Long journey but well worth the trip, hoping to repeat next year. After a long search we found the basking sharks not easy in 2m high waves.
Lovely time watching the seals as well.
Kimmeridge trip on Saturday 6th July, meet at the beach by the concrete pill box at 11am, we will be having a go at the beachcomber course £5 per person and the snorkel trail.
Can those who plan to snorkel at Torquay please let me know so I can start planning lessons and trips?
June 29th and 30th
Dive Trip to Weymouth
The sea is getting warmer. The visibility is improving. Summer is here and the sun is almost certain to shine. With these thoughts in mind a diving weekend was planned for the last weekend in June targeting dives on the Aeolian Sky and the submarine wreck of HMS Sidon.
By the end of the weekend, and having switched to plan C, we had dived on 4 sites; Ringstead Bay Reef, the Aeolian Sky, the Countess of Erne and a drift along White Nothe Reef. The sea temperature has increased to 14°C and visibility was around 4 to 5m.
Saturday began with a dive on Ringstead Bay Reef which is a rocky reef in about 10 meters of water. The shallower parts are covered in kelp with the deeper parts and surrounding seabed clear of seaweed and home to fan worms, anemones and the odd spider crab. This was followed by a dive on the Aeolian Sky which is a large wreck in parts standing 13m above a 30m seabed. Plenty of tompot blennies and jewel anemones were seen as well as the shadowy forms of many larger fish swimming about on the edge of the 4m visibility. Barring a bit of seasickness this was a very successful and enjoyable day.
Sunday started with heavy fog and we decided to dive within Portland harbour while the fog remained. For us this meant a dive on the Countess of Erne. While this wreck is well known to many there is always plenty of life to see such as the Nudibranch below photographed by Alex Gibson.
The fog began to clear after we surfaced so we moved on to another rocky reef near White Nothe for the second dive. Here a current was running which carried divers east over a rocky and sandy seabed where spider crabs, dogfish, cuckoo wrasse, the odd scallop and even a sting ray were encountered.
In all a very enjoyable weekend.
Many thanks to all who came and especially skippers Stuart Allen and Paul Minto and dive manager Alex Gibson.
Upcoming Dives
NOTICE
All boat dives will now be advertised internally as soon as they are announced, 6 weeks prior to the trip any unsecured places will be advertised outside the club.
For more details see ‘Forthcoming‘ section on our website
6th and 7th July
Anyone wanting to dive this weekend please contact John Waterhouse. A great weekend for taking the boat out – need six divers to make the trip viable.
13th to 21st July
Get Wrecked – Weymouth
See additional webpage for more details
Join a week long expedition to Weymouth. A full week of wreck diving for all you wreck heads – plus scenic diving for those of you with less of an obsession.
The trip will run from the 13th to 21st July and is a great opportunity to dive some of the lesser known wrecks in and around Weymouth.
27th to 4th August
Torbay Expedition
See additional webpage for more details
One of this year’s week long expeditions is in the English Riviera from the Saturday 27th July to Sunday 4th August.
The current plan is to take Endeavour round from Weymouth on the 27th and base her in Brixham harbours. Diving will be available from the Sunday through to the following Saturday. Endeavour will then return to Weymouth on Sunday 4th.
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Contact DO Stu Allen to discuss or arrange dive trips/training for the season.
Upcoming Snorkeling
6th July
Kimmeridge
Joint trip with Ruislip Snorkel Club
Contact SO Debbie White to discuss snorkel trips for the season.
Items For Sale/Wanted
For Sale
(Reasonable offers accepted)
Aquion Pro Membrane Dry Suit
To Fit 5’ 8” to 6’ , Shoe size 9 – 10
Very good condition
£300
Scuba Pro Tex wings with back plate
Faber Twin 10 ltr 232 bar steel cylinders (out of test) 3 years old
£395
Pony 3 ltr with bag and straps (out of test)
£45
Many extras
Undersuit, hoods, gloves, SMBs, reel, knives and much more
Contact: Oxford BSAC
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For Sale
All my equipment will be up for sale to include:
Suunto Vyper computer and interface
Panasonic TZ7 camera and housing
Pony set including Northern Diver mounting kit
10ltre cylinder in test till 2014
and much more
Full inventory available soon.
Contact: John Beer
10% of all sales will be donated to the Diver Diseases Research Centre.
Extra’s
We have a Facebook Page – why not join it and find out what we are up to?
We also have a Facebook Group although this has very few members – so why not join it and give it a boost?
Finally there is the BSAC Southern Region group which has over 300 members and grows every day.
Full details of all courses are available on the ‘almost impossible to Google’
BSAC Southern web site, which you can find with this link.
Our Home
OXFORD BSAC
LAKE STREET
OXFORD
OX1 4RP
We are an Enthusiastic club with over 80 divers, dozens of snorkellers and social members too.
Why not have a look at all the reasons to join our club?