Six of us spent our Sunday rescuing each other (well, mostly Howard, who kept coming back to life!) at Hinksey Lake in Oxford! Ian, our Training Officer kindly organised a whole day, helped by Jorgen from OUUEG and Howard, to go through all the theory at the clubhouse and the practical scenarios in the lake.
Author: Paul Burton
Normandy Here We Come
We’re off – Sat 23rd Oxford BSAC Normandy Expedition
We’re all off on holiday to the lovely delights of Normandy. Endeavour will be joining us at Cherbourg and we’re going to be diving for a week. Wrecks, reefs and lots of exploring await. Check back in a week or so for the report.
Diving Plan 2016
Here’s the Dive planner filed out with our provisional plans from the meeting on the 29th Jan.
New Years Day Dive 2016
Hinksey Lake, Oxford
Three intrepid divers plumbed the not very icy (7°C) depths (2.5m) of Hinksey Lake on New Years Day 2016. Steve Litchfield, Andy Pickering & Howard Thomas completed a 30 minute dive in the fairly gloomy waters of the lake from the entry point next to the pontoons, over to the bridge and back.
Seasearch Report – June 2015
Two Seasearch dives over the weekend. Balaclava Bay and The James Fennel / Boulder maze.
Also did a dive on the wreck of the Alex Van Opstal and a drift over Lulworth banks.
Alien Encounters in Cornwall
This Easter 2015 we headed down to cornwall to dive the beautiful wrecks and reefs there in clear (but cold) water. Nart, Stuart, Kerrie, Chris, Steve, Alex, Nick and Ritchie dived from the beach in Porthkerris, from the hardboat Celtic Kitten and from OUUEG’s RIB ‘Seahorse’. On one dive on the Volnay we found something a bit strange – Aliens infest our marine heritage !
The Handover of BSAC Presidency from HRH Prince Charles to HRH Prince William
On Wednesday 9th of July I attended the BSAC presidency handover in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales, Prince Charles and HRH The Duke of Cambridge, Prince William. I was given this great opportunity to represent my club, Oxford BSAC (British Sub Aqua Club) and promote snorkelling.
The Great Oxford Heap of Scrap Challenge
1st January 2015: Hinksey Lake, Lake Street, Oxford, 10 am
For years the good (and sometime bad) people of olde Oxford Towne have been disposing of their ferrous, and non ferrous waste by dumping it into the old reservoir of Hinksey Lake. Here at Oxford BSAC we regard it as a sacred duty to recover all that unique historic trash and save it from piling up so deep that the lake become a swamp. We think we’ve got rather good at recovering old scrap bicycles, motorbikes and the occasional pedalo from our lake and thus our challenge.
Weymouth Weekend June 29th and 30th
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 stingray 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.
Snorkel Trips Summer 2014
Two snorkellers watch a seal at Babbacombe
|
Date |
Location | Plan |
|
Saturday 25th July |
Babbacombe, Devon | Snorkel lessons afternoon, hopefully look for seals early evening |
| Sunday 17th August | Studland Bay | Lessons and fun snorkel |
|
Sunday 24th August |
Lulworth Cove | Joint snorkel and scuba trip |
| September | TBC |
For more information please contact Debbie White