Derek’s Dive Domain

What happens if you take one wreck, one drift current and a pier ?

You get a great weekends diving in Swanage, Dorset - thats what!

To bring my diving blog up to date, this is the report-ette that I put on Yorkshire Divers after our weekends diving down at Swanage in Dorset about 4 weeks ago.

—-start quote from YD—-

Fantastic weekend that was…

After a very sloooooowww boring drive down on the Friday night we arrived and pitched at the campsite, had a couple of beers and collapsed into bed. Up at 6.30 to sort everything out, had breakfast, sorted my kit and ready to roll.
Chris took all the dive kit down to Swanage pier in his home made trailer (This man is just too resourceful!) and we got there in plenty of time to pay and get ourselves onto the boat. We were diving from Swanage Diver

The first dive was a 12-13 metre dive onto the Fleur De Lys, a ten minute ride out on the boat. We kitted up on route and dropped in at the shot bouy. We had a 20 minute or so dive on the wreck, which was somewhat busy with there being 3 boats putting divers on a small wreck, before sending up the DSMB and doing a ten minute or so drift dive before ascending and being picked up by the boat.
Back to the pier, and when we arrived, Smooth Hound was just loading up next to us, so we said hello to Mike (resting rifleman - good to meet you Mike, by the way) and then lounged around on the pier for a couple of hours or so before getting tanks filled and kit ready for the second dive. This one was a drift dive on the Peveril Ledges, and we dropped in and down to 20 metres, before starting off on the drift. Just over half an hour later we surfaced somewhere in the next bay, having drifted the best part of a mile. This was my first proper drift dive and I was amazed at how fast you can drift with the flow of the water, and the way that it just lifts you up and over the walls and ledges.
We then got packed up and reloaded the trailer and went back to the campsite where we had a stonking BBQ over the course of the evening. Even the rain held off.
Sunday morning after getting up early again to dismantle tents etc, we went down to the pier and had a nice leisurely dive under the pier. I know the pier has a good reputation, but I was surprised at the levels of life down there. I saw my first ever Tompot Blennys, which I’ve wanted to see for a long time, but have always evaded me, so that was nice to see.
After fish and chips, it was time for a stroll along the pier tourist style before heading off home, and another long journey.

The weather was pretty good all weekend, which was most surprising given the forecast for rain rain and more rain. Thanks to everyone for making it such a good fun weekend, and hopefully see you all again soon.

I’m sure that getting some salt into my diving diet is going to prove bad for me (read expensive!) in the long run though….

—-end quote from YD—-

Dive Data:

Dive 1 (89) Max Depth 12.8 metres, total dive time 38 minutes

Dive 2 (90) Max Depth 21.2 metres, total dive time 38 minutes

Dive 3 (91) Max Depth 4.6 metres, total dive time 66 minutes