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.
trip reports
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 !
Wrecks East of Weymouth
9th June 2013
We only dived one day, but the weather was fine and I hope an enjoyable day was had by all.
Only managed to dive on two wrecks, the first, which was new to the branch was the SS Treveal, which hit the Kimmeridge Ledges and sank just outside Chapmans Pool. As described, there is little left of this wreck, but a few people found the deck plates and some of the remaining structure.
A video of this dive by Chris Stevens and Anthony Hayes is available on our Facebook Page.
The second dive was one of our favorites, the Black Hawk in Warbarrow Bay, where the visibility was slightly better, the current was reduced and there are larger chunks of wreckage to be explored.
Many thanks to all who attended, especially Stu for skippering, Chris for assisting and cajoled scribes Rob & Anthony.
Logsheets of the dives are posted on the noticeboard at the club and are available on request.
Isle of Wight (mini report) 2012
Memories from the week-long expedition’s Thursday diving:
Anjali (aka Jelly) and I paired up for another glorious day of diving in the Isle of Wight in tropical temperatures. We started in mid afternoon on the Sandown Bay drifting at about 8 metres over sand with rocks covered in fine fronds of seaweed and snakelock anenomes, like miniature gardens, populated by small fish. We drifted over a couple of velvet swimming crabs spoiling for a fight and uncovered a nursery of cuttlefish eggs clinging to a rock.
Our second dive in the early evening opposite the life boat station was a faster drift around 8 metres with a glimpse of a big ballan wrasse checking us out as the rocky scenery floated by and tiny gobies stood guard by their burrows in the sand and rock crevices. We came up to white topped waves-thank goodness for the easy access on our new boat!
Valentine Tanks
I was invited on a dive from Swanage to dive the Valentine tanks, these were part of the D-Day landing vehicles. There is plenty of info on the net regarding these tanks. We left the pier and headed round and were soon on the shot.
Scapa Flow 2011 Trip Report
July 24th – August 5th 2011
A two week stint in Scapa Flow is any British diver’s dream. Frequently suggested as the best diving the UK has to offer it should certainly be on your to-do list if you haven’t already been, and almost certainly on your ‘must return’ list if you’ve experienced it already.
Once you’ve recovered from the drive – from Oxford it takes about 11 hours + the ferry crossing to reach Stromness in Orkney, far north of Scotland. It really does make sense to fly, but only if you can get someone else to take your kit – excess dive baggage is apparently frequently discarded when planes are overweighted. The drive beyond Glasgow is quite scenic though, as is the ferry from Scrabster to Stromness, so that helps. It is certainly even better on the way south.
Boat Handling Course Report
The Course
As the first stage to qualification for skippering the club boats the BSAC Boat Handler course is now being taught at Oxford BSAC. This equips trainees with the skills necessary to safely take charge of a vessel in open water. An additional 20 hours experience is required before then moving onto the Diver Cox’n (diver coxswain) course which then qualifies us to pick up divers and snorkelers. A bit of a palava, but it then means we are insured, which with an adventurous sport is a bit of a must.
Rebreather Training Report
On June 18th Chris Stevens and I started our 6 hour trip down to St Keverne for a semi closed circuit rebreather course using the Drager Rays we had recently purchased. Most of the first day involved getting to know the kit, i.e. how to assemble, check, test and maintain.
Pagham Snorkelling 26.6.11
Trip Report: Oxford BSAC snorkeling joined together with Dorking Snorkeling Club for a day on Pagham beach on 26th June 2011.
Dive OXON 2010
Dive OXON is a multi club diving event.
This year the Oxford branch took along there brand new drive boat ISIS.
The plan for the Oxford branch was to dive using three (yes 3) dive boats.