A table showing ideal slack times on the Alex across a range of weekends
Diving
Statistics on the Alex van Opstal
A hold full of statistics about the Alex van Opstal, from code letters to dimensions…
Alex September ’08 Expedition
The Target: Simple really – finally figure out where the various chunks of the wreck are with respect to one another and make a very crude map of the site to guide us when looking to prduce a more detailed map later on in the project….If only it were that simple….
Weymouth Week Expedition Report
At the end of this year’s ‘week in Weymouth’ event we had one dive on the Alex – in amazing visibility and totally slack conditions. For once we could really see what was going on and get a better picture of the wreck site and it’s surroundings.
Alex Expeditions Summary
A summary of the results from various expeditions, and links to some resources.
Castletown 2010
A stormy July Sunday at Castletown and Portland Harbour.
Burton Bradstock Beach Training 2010
True Grit…..
On a perfect diving day we headed down to Burton Bradstock beach (Hive Beach) which is run by the National trust. Ten divers (John Beer, Kerrie, Ian, Courtney, John Blessing, Kevin, Chris, Grainne, Andy W and Howard) and one sunbather (Josh) set up camp on the beach just to the East of the cliffs that mark the more interesting seabed to the West end of the main beach. A nice set of Gabian cages formed a perfect kitting up bench there so we claimed them for ourselves.
The biggest problem on this day was basically keeping the damn grit out of our kit and suits. Just walking down to the water we found that grit got into wetsuit boots and fins. Once in the water which was nearly perfectly flat calm, we found very good vis – at least 8m in places. Dropping to the seabed there were a mixture of boulders and sandy seabed. Depth was not much more than 7m but lots of like about. We found cuttlefish, dogfish, lots of pipefish fry and several big crabs and lobsters. Depth being shallow we didn’t need to change tanks – Kerrie managed four dives on just two 12Ls. All in all in one day we managed 21 dives between 10 divers which was pretty good going. We kept going on coffee and buns from the beach cafe.
Note for future trips here – the carpark is £5.00 all day and you need change. The National trust run the place and wont let you take vehicles onto the beach so if you want boat cover you’ve got to lug them down there by hand or launch elsewhere and come in from the sea.
Shore Diving Trip plans
Here is a brief set of information and dive plans for some of the shore based diving in the Lyme Bay, Weymouth and Jurssic Coast area.
Information for Training trips on Burton Bradstock Beach and Chesil Cove
Information for diving from Lulworth cove – Bailout site for bad weather
Farne Islands 2010
1st-3rd May 2010 : Diving the Farnes from Glad Tidings VII
Weather forecast Force 5-6 NE – not a great start to the weekend’s expedition to the Northeast Coast at Seahouses in Northumberland. Our Skipper for the weekend William Shiel of the Glad Tidings VII was confident we’d get out but not for all the days of the trip.
Saturday dawned with a fairly windy start but we headed down to the quayside and loaded the boat. In fact it was not so rough and we managed to get out to the islands and dive on their north side where a heap of seals watched us all enter and swim down the shot for our first dive on the Northern Hares. The water was very clear with 8-10m visibility every day, but rather cold – only 7.5C so the two real men (Alex and John B) diving in wetsuits were a little chilly. The whole seabed here is dominated by soft corals with dead mens fingers everywhere. We swum around a dropoff at 25m to the bottom well below. Not so many fish about this early in the year (May 1st) but lots of squat lobsters and crabs along wtih quite a few blue lobsters.
The second dive on Saturaday was on the Longstone near the lighthouse and here we got our first in water encounters with the seals. Diving along a cliff topped with kelp (and the BBC cameraman along for the ride….) decorated with anemones and soft corals and dropping to a stoney plateau at 20m was a fantastic experience. Seals kept coming and tweaking our fins as we moved about – often divers thought they were just touching the bottom when in fact a seal was nibbling their feet !
Sunday was expected to be a bit rough but we once again trouped down to the quayside just in case. The skipper reckoned that we were ok to dive later that day so to come back after lunch. A certain amount of tourism ensued and we (mostly) arrived back at the boat at 1pm to head out through a rather ‘sporting’ sea. Although the waves were pushing 1.5m we managed to get to the islands and have two very nice dives on the Blue Caps (a series of small islands) where diving birds met divers (or was that the other way around….?). We managed a second dive that afternoon on the Wreck of the Abessinia – a steamship wreck dominated by two huge boilers each standing 3m off the seabed. This was the deepest dive of the weekend at ~25m. Much of the seabed was covered by brittlestars waving their arms and collecting plankton.
On our last day weather was if anything worse and we were the only diving group who went out to the Islands. Due to the strong winds we dived the Blue Caps once again but this time with a much stronger current running North along the coast. Vis was spectacular but the cold winds were a challenge for divers in wetsuits. Despite them we all had a good dive and even met the seals once again. Conditions were worsening on the surface so after a cuppa we decided to return to Seahouses and head for Oxford. Pretty good weekend all in all – 43 dives and no problems apart from mild hypothermia.
On our last day weather was if anything worse and we were the only diving group who went out to the Islands. Due to the strong winds we dived the Blue Caps once again but this time with a much stronger current running North along the coast. Vis was spectacular but the cold winds were a challenge for divers in wetsuits. Despite them we all had a good dive and even met the seals once again. Conditions were worsening on the surface so after a cuppa we decided to return to Seahouses and head for Oxford. Pretty good weekend all in all – 43 dives and no problems apart from mild hypothermia.
Red Sea 2010
