Derek’s Dive Domain

Next up after my holiday is the seemingly traditional followup dives in Stoney Cove.  Some would say its a bit of a comedown after Ibiza, but I just like to keep wet, and its the only dives in the (almost a) month since I got back into the UK as I have been unable to organise any sea diving.  I arranged to meet Alex at the Cove for a couple of random dives, and we duly met at about 9.20 by which time I had to park up Cardiac Hill.  After a few minutes getting sorted, we kitted up, and dropped into the Cove.

We decided to head down to the 20 metre ledge, and after a big circle around the road, the cairn and the coach, we headed over to the Stanegarth, where Alex  tied off his reel around the anchor chain, and practiced some line laying skills.  This was the first time that I have seen this skill underwater, so I found it quite interesting to watch, and learn a little from.  After this we swam through the Stanegarth before heading back along via the tail of the Wessex, and a nice slow ascent up the wall there, before mooching around on the six metre ledge, stopping by the cockpit to do some hovering practice.  After exactly an hour we surfaced right by the steps and got out for a much needed coffee.

After a surface interval of nearly two hours, we got back in with the plan of heading down the road and over the pit, to find the Cessna on the far side of the pit area.  We went down the road, and proceeded over the pit area at about 22 metres.  I dropped to 25 metres without really realising it before correcting my mistake, which shows how easy it can be to do that.  We reached the far side, and after finning what seemed like a long way, during which I noticed a very dead pike on the botom, the Cessna loomed into view.  It has been a few months since I last visited this area of the cove, and I was disappointed to see that the left wing of the Cessna is now disconnected from the plane, which is a shame, as I have always liked seeing the wingspan loom up.  I wonder whether it just dropped off, or whether it had some outside interference…

We spent about 10 to 12 minutes at the Cessna, where Alex practiced some more line laying, by which time my no deco was down to 1 minute, so we ascended up to 10 metres, with me just keeping ahead of the no-stop times on the computer, never quite dropping into deco.  We came back most of the way at about 8 metres, before heading up to 5 when we got near to the base of the new building, as that area has a lot of fish life, and greenery and can be quite good to look around.  I must do a dive just to this area sometime, as it is one of the few parts of the Cove that I haven’t yet been to.  After this we headed back to the normal ledge, and pottered about on there whilst I practiced some buoyancy skills, and experimented a little with my weighting.   After a total dive runtime of 68 minutes we surfaced at the steps again and got out. 

These were two nice slow dives, and I saw some new skills in action, as well as getting to watch some more rebreather diving at closeup.  Alex is the only rebreather diver that I have had the pleasure of diving with, and I find it quite curious to see in action underwater.

Thanks to Alex for the dives, hopefully I will be back in the water again soon!
Dive 1 (158)  20.2 metres, 60 minutes total dive time

Dive 2 (159)  25.1 metres, 68 minutes total dive time