On the icy weekend of 6th and 7th of December 2008 a hardy group of divers braved the cold for a last weekend of diving before the close of the year.

Our first dive was in lobster alley, just along the cliffs East from Lullworth. Vis was truly awful with a very milky green sea making for a dark and glomy seabed at 15m. Torches were vital. Even so we kept on bumping into sponge covered rocks and the occasional crab.

Second dive on the satuday was an attempt at visiting the Aeolian Sky which despite careful planning was a bit of a disaster. Slack was supposed to be around 3.30pm but never seemed to come. Diving to recover the shot we found we’d managed to drop it into a porthole in the wreck and wedged it between two decks inside the ship. A bit of effort got it out of there but alas the rope was already abraded on the sharp edge of the hull and the weight dropped off when we tried to recover it later. The wreck was nice though – lots of jewel anemones on it and much better vis than earlier near the shore.

Getting home after dark we repaired to the Sea View for chinese and sunday we started out to do a little easy diving on the Jurassic coast. A fery frosty morning greeted us but diving in Man – O -War cove and on Ringstead bay was surprisingly good with shoals of Bib and small Pollock about. Despite the cold one hardy diver made two dives in a wetsuit! Well done Terry. Weather was excellent all weekend and a big thankyou to Bob for his efforts in skippering.

Chris S.

WinterWeymouth08