Sustenance and an exciting day!

When you have a full days diving ahead of you a hearty breakfast is just what you need!!!

Our first dive today was the Dredger... I did this wreck a month ago exactly and knew what it was going to be like. We were being joined on the dive by J as he didn't have a buddy and we were more than happy for him to be tagging along with us. He will be doing the Pulpit this afternoon as well.

As we were kitting up A & T who we met at the bunk house arrived back from their dive with an exciting story to tell. They had done their dive, and on their successful ascent to the surface found no rib there... they had to be rescued by a close by hard boat. It turned out the rib had, had an issue in which it had got ripped and one side of it had deflated, the whole thing had nearly sank and was having to be rescued by the nice chaps Weymouth Coastguard with a little help from the RNLI rib and another dive boat helping to tow it in.

R our skipper and owner of F&B (and all round star man) took us out to The Dredger we did our dive which was just awesome... the vis was far better than it was a month ago and amount of marine life was far greater! A number of crabs and a number of different species of fish. Spectacular. The wreck itself is very broken up and it is really only a shallow dive but enjoyable all the while and I was grateful to be doing that dive after the issues with my hayfever fuelled sinuses the other week and the associated issues with my ear canals. I had no problems what so ever which was a big relief. We made our ascent and met up with R on the rib and he had our much welcomed hot ribena and also little freddo chocolates. He also had news that the Pulpit wasn't going to be diveable today so we were looking at another dive site instead and also he asked us if we could help him retrieve his rib which had been banked close by. We were more than happy to do this. So...

R dropped us off at the rib and he headed back to the centre and picked up the van and trailer, meeting us back at the rib. We managed with a bit of help from others to finally after about an hour or a little more (of bailing and draining it out and putting lots of weight on to the van so to give traction... it was quite a sight!) get the rib out the sea and on to the trailer and get it back to F&B. R is just magical with these things and despite everything it had been through he had managed to get it working again engine wise by the time we had got back from our 2nd dive! I can imagine it'll be straight off for repair to the tube tomorrow and back in service before not too long.

We had a break, drink, got our tanks refilled and it was then time for our 2nd dive of the day and on this dive we were joined by A & T. It was also RD and I's first drift dive and subsequent 1st time using an DSMB and J kindly volunteered to look after us with it. (its a device that allows our rib skipper and other craft around on the surface know where we are at all times as you pull it along with you as you are enjoying the delights below on your dive)

Our 2nd dive P was skipper and having been the skipper of the fateful rib in the morning there was a number of jokes going around! But he got us to our dive site Baly Bay in one piece and the 5 of us chose to stay together and did our descent. RD had our DSMB and J deployed his DSMB and then took RD through it... the only thing was, the vis wasn't as good as this mornings dive and RD had made a bit of a surge upwards towards the surface out of sight while doing the DSMB... J was very close after him and myself, A & T waited a minute or 2 for them to return, knowing that RD was perfectly fine with J and the skipper could see where we were, we continued the dive and arrived back at the rib before J and RD who had managed to make another descent before reaching the surface. I'm a bit of an air guzzler which will slow down as I grow in confidence so the dive wasn't as long as it could have been, in fact T had 50 bar more air in her tank than I did when we got back on the rib! But I had been having a bit of mask flooding too. But we all had good dives and we can take away some positive points and some learning points!

I was first to de -kit and get on to the rib, alas the sea had become quite choppy and I ended up on the floor of the rib feeling quite tired, drinking my hot ribena, however... I soon started to feel a bit queezy with the motion of the rib standing 'still' on the sea... by the time all were on board and the freddos were being handed round I was starting to look a bit green round the gills and the freddo was the last thing I wanted... and before long the contents of the mornings full English had reappeared over the side of the rib complete with ribena colouring! If I hadn't felt so ill... the sight of purple mushrooms would have been hilarious! Once the rib was started up and making its way back to the centre I was fine and the fresh air as the rib motored along was much welcomed making me feel better. At least I have provided a purple story for people to tell!

Once back at the centre it was de-rig, dunk kit, change, pay and pack the car. We eventually set off for home at 6pm tired and happy after an eventful and very exciting day!

After getting stuck in traffic and stopping for diesel and food, dropping RD off, I got home at 11pm, dropped all my kit in the garage, showered and got into bed and fell asleep telling the lovely R about the days events!

My dive log book is now up to 11 dives!!! Double figures at last! Still a newby diver but gaining experience all the time and I have now clocked up 5 Salt Water dives within that 11! I hope to be back down in Portland September/ October time but have some diving in South Africa to look forward to. :-)

What an awesome day!