Phil Buckley, Photo’s courtesy of Nick Starmer-Smith

This years trip was a combination of stunning weather, great dive locations and patient divers meant that the trip passed with lots of fun and no major incidents.  

Nice view of the fleet lagoon

Thursday
Some divers arrived on the Thursday night for dives on Friday organized by Rob Harrison. We immediately got to work for the good of the club, testing the bar at the Royal Breakwater Hotel on behalf of the divers arriving the next day.  After a hard night of research we wended our way to the Portland YHA, full of good spirits for the next day’s diving.  

Friday
After a unique dawn chorus from Rob, we got up and prepared for the first dives of the weekend.  Jon Bramley was attacked by the shower, but that aside we managed to get out of the hostel without incident.  We dived the Countess of Erne and the viz was excellent, about 5-10 metres.  Lots of big wrasse watched us watching them, and the swim throughs were clear and stuffed with fish.  A great start to the holiday.  We then had lunch, followed by meeting up at 2 for the run out to the M2. 

Chris is mesmerized during his 574th Countess of Erne dive briefing

The ride out to the dive sight was a little rough and we arrived at the site with some of us feeling a bit green.  Once we were kitted up and in it was ok though and we descended into the depths. The wreck was great but a little crowded.  One group of divers were traveling line abreast from one end of the sub to the other.  As this line of lights headed towards us it looked weirdly like the sub was being photocopied! Exploring several small holes in the casement revealed a conger eel, which eyed me up, then lazily mooched through my torch beam into the darkness.  After a bit of floating round the wreck Richard Cooke and I sent up a bag then ascended gently back to civilization.  The tide had turned in the meantime and it was slightly less hairy on the way back. 

Saturday
Everyone was at the Castletown slip at 9am ready to go, a truly impressive sight for Canterbury Divers.  Unfortunately I decided at 8.45 that we needed more fuel and sent Simon into the mother of all traffic jams, whilst everyone else sat and quietly poached in their dry/semi-dry/steamy suits for an hour.  We finally got going and the first wave dived on a dredger,  just outside the harbour, next to HMS Hood.  The visibility was great, the wreck was ok as well, broken into at least two sections with a section of muddy sand in between.   The  shallowness of the water and lack of current made for a good first sea dive for the trainees, and the wildlife on the wreck, together with nooks and crannies in the nearby harbour wall, made it alright for the experienced divers as well.  The second wave got out at around 1pm, and went to another wreck, the ‘Spaniard’ after finding lots of other boats positioned over the dredger.

  

  

For the second Saturday dive we made our way to the Countess of Erne.  The viz was worse than it had been the day before (possibly 1-2m) and the wreck was relatively crowded, but most people came up smiling! Due to the late start we didn’t manage to get the last divers into the water until about 5.30. 

Three gorgeous rubbery lumps steam into Lulworth Cove

Sunday
On Saturday evening I’d sat down with Tom and we’d planned to avoid a repeat of Saturday’s time slippage.  The weather was a little more cloudy than the previous day, but still quite warm.  To my intense relief the boats arrived at Lulworth almost on time, and the slick machine that is Simon whipped off the fuel tanks and was back with full tanks whilst some people were still kitting up.  The Nature Trail was a  fun dive, with lots of kelp waving about, and plenty of spiny spider crabs to harass.   In a first for underwater fashion, Nick Starmer-Smith proved that in the absence of a hood you can dive in a woolly hat! 

As his brain boils in the sun, John takes refuge in the pub

The second dive was a ‘fin assisted’ drift past Durdle door.  We dropped in to very little current but plenty of life, including several lobster pots containing lots of sheepish looking edible crabs.  After half an hour or so of rocky gullies we surfaced and headed back happy with the days diving.

Simon went off and got more fuel, then  Kay, Chris and John motored back out to sea, heading for Portland. 

We then made ourselves presentable and met up at the Royal Breakwater for the end of trip dinner, organized by Claire and Fiona.  There was good food, and plenty of it, followed by Mr Ted’s now notorious sat down stand up routine.  He told awful jokes with great timing, and at one point Terry Greenan had to lie down on the stairs outside because he was laughing too hard to stand up!   We rounded off the night with Mr Ted conducting a version of Good King Wenceslas sung in the style of various animals (The Ballan Wrasse section was  particularly tuneful!)

Lulworth Cove

Throughout the dive the boats performed reliably, engines all worked, and in a break with Weymouth tradition none of the boats were towed back into harbour.   The Valiant was particularly reliable, in that the hull could be relied on to fill with water every couple of hours.  This was more of a feature than a problem as we had an auxillary pump that pumped the water out of it every time we needed it.  The other two boats were great. 

The main reason the trip went  well was that so many people jumped in to help.  The vast majority of people took on one or two tasks often at short notice.  Major thanks are due to the boat handlers, advisors, boat towers and everyone who got bits together before the weekend.  Also, every single diver on the weekend was willing to wait patiently for their dives, even when the timetable started to slide which was much appreciated.  Thanks to Kay for being a great treasurer amongst other things. 

A group of 10 divers arrived in Ibiza for a spot of diving in blue water – something I had never done before (except for just one dive in Jamaica at Christmas). The plan was that we would dive twice a day, starting Saturday and Sunday, have a day off Monday, dive again Tuesday and Wednesday then a final day for sightseeing etc on Thursday before heading off home on Friday. We were diving with the Sea Horse Sub Aqua Centre, located at Port des Torrent  and the area we were diving is just off the west coast of Ibiza in the Cala d'Hort Marine Nature Reserve close by the centre location (see the dive centre website at http://www.seahorsedivingibiza.com). The centre is run by Jeff Richardson, ably assisted by Therese and Sam.

L-R: Colin Council, Jeff (dive shop owner/guide/skipper), Dave Clements, Sheila Clements, Sue Weaver, Derek Greenan, Chris Weaver, Terry Greenan, Therese (dive shop staff), Mr Ted Giles, Sam (dive shop staff), Kay Skinner (note the grin on my face – it was there all week!), Dave Roberts

The start to our diving week didn’t seem too promising as we had a terrific thunderstorm on the Friday evening that we arrived and when we took all our kit to the dive centre, the sea was choppy and it was quite windy! However, not to have worried as the Saturday morning dawned much brighter and the sea had calmed down a lot. As our hotel was around a 45 minute walk from the dive centre, Jeff had kindly agreed to pick us up from a jetty that was only a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and ferry us to the dive centre.

Saturday 13 October

Dive 1 - Dick's Point We arrived at the centre and were greeted by the extremely friendly and helpful staff there, Therese and Sam. We all located our kit and transferred to the boat ready for our first dive. Dave R had a few problems initially as he was borrowing a wetsuit from the centre and needed to find one that would fit! So, after kitting up and putting all our gear on the boat we headed out. The sea was still a bit choppy after the storm of the night before, but Jeff found us a nice sheltered spot known as Dick’s point and gave a very thorough briefing about the site. There were apologies for the lack of clarity of the water but all I could think was wow!! I can see the bottom! I was buddied up with Mr Ted and we were the first pair in the water. (Note: Jeff timed us from first pair in the water to last, and it only took us 17 minutes total!).
What a great time to try out my camera and housing, only I managed to mess up the settings somehow so I decided to just leave it in my pocket and enjoy the dive. This dive site is fairly shallow and this was deliberate as one or two of the group hadn’t dived for a while so it was decided to take it easy for the first dive.  My max depth was only around 9.5m, although Derek and Terry managed to get a bit deeper as they went further around the headland trying to site the dusky grouper that was reported to be around, but with no success. Mr Ted and I just bimbled along (Jeff had suggested that we might want to go for a diddle, but we corrected him and pointed out that we enjoyed bimbling) looking at the abundant sea life and enjoying the sight of the various weed, fish, sponges etc and all the myriad colours. There were giant clam type shells that stood around ½ metre proud of the seabed and I also saw my first octopus and a cuttle fish. I looked up as we approached Dick’s point, a tall rock named for obvious reasons, and I could see the clouds in the water as it broke over the rocks above. Throughout the dive my mask was constantly flooding and it was only as we got back onto the boat and it was commented on that I looked like a Cheshire Cat, that I realised the reason for the flooding was because of the huge grin of enjoyment I had on my face! This was the state I remained in for the rest of the week – a constantly flooded mask and a huge smile. This diving was so fantastic – I could see further than the hand in front of my face, the water was warm (23◦C), more fish than I’d ever seen before in beautiful colours as well as the other marine life, a great dive buddy and the enjoyable company of the other divers: what more could I ask? I even got a 52 minute dive time on a 12L cylinder!

Dive 2 - Petralis Wreck After an enjoyable lunch and resting in the sun, we headed out for our afternoon dive at the Petralis wreck – a very broken up concrete boat at a depth of around 27m. The sun had come out, the sea was calmer and it was a very pleasant 28 degrees. Still very enthusiastic, I noticed that the anchor line was visible just about all the way to the bottom and pointed this out with an excited “wow! Look at that” – the other divers rushed over to my side of the boat, causing it to lurch a little, only to be a bit disappointed that my enthusiasm was once again just aimed at the fantastic viz! Chris was buddying with Mr Ted and me this afternoon as Sue had chosen to only do the morning dive. All three of us dropped into the water, first again (as was the pattern for the rest of the week) and leisurely dropped down the side of the rock face towards the wreck. The wreck itself wasn’t much to see, just some concrete slabs and reinforcing bars poking through. But there was so much else to see, the colours of everything looked so good. I never realised starfish came in such a variety of bright colours – orange, red, purple, blue, crimson! And so glad I managed to sort out my camera so I have some nice pictures too. I wish I had a fish identification guide, as there were so many about and I don’t know the names of any of them! The whole area was very scenic, with urchins, various pipe worms, hydroids, sponges, corals etc. We had a nice leisurely mid-water safety stop just watching the fish and other divers, and spotted a small jellyfish as we were getting back into the boat.
Total 31 minute dive time to a max of just over 27 metres.

Sunday 14 October

Dive 1 - The Haystack ("es Payaret") "This is a tiny little cone shaped rock about 500 metres north of Torre Rovira and one of the most famous around Ibiza. An easy dive that you can't get lost on, it's a real 'fish fiesta' with myriads of Damsel fish, Sergeant Majors, Moray eels, three different species of grouper but most spectacular, huge shoals of barracuda all watching you suspiciously” – quote from Jeff’s Sea Horse SAC website, and a very accurate description.
We dropped in on the southeast corner of the island to a rock at around 6m that the anchor was secured to. We then had a very leisurely swim clockwise around the ‘island’, as we approached the southwest corner I saw my first lone barracuda, as we progressed further around there were whole shoals of them, what a sight! Mr Ted and me settled ourselves on a rock and just enjoyed the sight of them and the other fish. As well as the fish there were anemones, octopus and various reef life. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see the grouper but saw so much else this really didn’t matter.
Mr Ted and me returned to the rock with the anchor and spent our safety stop watching the other divers below us, as well as small goby type fish that obviously used this rock as their home. They appeared most indignant that we were there, but soon returned to their place on the rock waiting for whatever it is that goby’s wait for!
Total dive time 55 minutes with a max depth of around 18 metres.

Dive 2 - The Abyss, Esparta Island "The best of four great dives at Esparta, it sounds daunting but in fact it is just an exhilarating drop off from 5m down to 23m before carrying on in shelves down to 45m+. The 'good stuff' is to be found between 25m to 30m; a family of grouper that range from medium size "kids" up to four enormous adult monsters, "Big Daddy" being the largest most impressive of them.  For some time now we have had brief sightings of a very big grouper along the wall and this has been confirmed in September with two close encounters with a huge single dusky grouper estimated at about 45-50 kilos with his den safely at 37 m. He was officially named "ELVIS" in October 2004.”
A very gentle start to this dive – Jeff was in the water with us for this one as he was guide along the top of the wall (I think he just fancied the dive). Again Mr Ted and I were first in the water, and we waited around for the rest to drop in. While waiting I saw a stone fish (I think?). I’m still thoroughly enjoying being in clear water and able to see so much. Once everyone was in we all moved off together, except for Chris and Sue who had decided to stay around in the shallower water for a bimble around. I had been told that as we came towards the drop off we would be able to look out into the blue – and that is exactly what it was, absolutely amazing, I’ve never seen anything like this in real life before. I feel as if I’ve been dropped into a film set. So many fish and such blue water, it was incredible hanging in the water to the side of the wall and above the drop off, watching the fish and the other divers around, above and below me. Watching silver streams of bubbles fountaining to the surface from the divers below against the blue backdrop was spectacular.
While finning gently over the top of the wall, with all it’s gullies I saw my first moray eel, greyish with yellow spots along the side of the head and body; it was feeding and extended around ½ metre out of it’s hole. I also saw a beautiful, large crimson starfish plus so many shoals of fish and beautiful growth over the rock.
Total dive time 50 minutes to a max depth of around 19 metres (for me, other divers went deeper looking for “Elvis”, but with no luck, although they did report seeing smaller grouper).

Monday 15 October

Dive 1- Islas de Margaritas An extra dive day added in for those of us who fancied some extra diving – that was me then! What a day for me to forget to charge my camera battery!! I had just enough charge left in it to take a couple of photos of the surface of the dive site, but no more – on the other hand it meant I could just drop in and enjoy the dive. Mr Ted and Sheila had decided to have a day off from diving, but Dave Roberts was with us again, having missed the Sunday diving. Dave had started the day with not being able to find the dive computer he was absolutely convinced he had left in the back of the dive shop. After much searching he had borrowed a computer from Jeff, all the while muttering that it must have been moved/picked up by someone!
This was an absolutely stunning trip to the dive site, we headed out of the dive centre and turned east to travel along the coast. On the way Jeff explained some of the geological background to the formation of the island and pointed out many features along the coastline, including a fresh water spring. The dive site itself was incredibly impressive with a large low arch with a backdrop of imposing high cliffs. When we moored at the site the water was again incredibly clear and I could see the anchor line all the way to the bottom. This was another dive where Jeff was in the water to guide us, so we all kitted up and waited until we were all ready to start the dive. Derek and me were in the water first and waited a while for the rest to get in – this turned out to be because Dave had discovered where he had safely left his dive computer, in his fin, and had to suffer a red face and ribbing by those left on the boat!!
The topology under water, Jeff had explained to us, was like swiss cheese with lots of interlinking holes with openings on the outside, like windows. There were two start points to the dive, one at around 27m with a swim through to exit at a point at around 23m which is where the second start point was. I had intended to drop deeper with Dave C and Derek to do this, but unfortunately had problems with my ears so had to start at the second point with the rest of the group and watch as Dave and Derek swam towards us through the tunnel.
Once we were all together as a group we set off, following Jeff. This was an absolutely brilliant dive – we swam through under a shelf of rock then turned and swam back over the top of it, passing through a curtain of bubbles which was the air filtering through the porous rock from where we had swum through previously. We then passed across a ‘garden’, under the arch (seen in the photo) and back to the boat.
This was so good!! I saw a stone fish, moray and conger eels hiding in their holes, numerous sponges and corals in amazing colours, anemones, sea cucumbers and fish that I still don’t know the names of. The garden was a riot of colours and textures and absolutely beautiful. This was a totally different dive to anything I’ve ever done before, but I hope to be able to repeat the experience at some point, it was so amazing.
Total dive time 38 minutes to a max depth of almost 24 metres.

Dive 2 - Organ Pipes This dive site was chosen as it was fairly sheltered and was able to protect us from the wind and the sea, which had both picked up a bit. A young lad, Jake, from the dive centre was to be our guide and Jeff was taking Sam in for a lesson before joining the rest of us. There were only four of us for the afternoon dive, myself, Dave C, Dave R and Derek and I was buddied with Dave R.  This dive site is relatively shallow and named organ pipes due to the vertically cracked rocks which stand proud from the seabed in large tubes and are full of holes that look like, well, organ pipes! I dropped into the water to find Dave C attempting to encourage an octopus to come out to play, but with little success.
Another great dive, with great visibility; I saw a moray eel hanging around a metre out of his hole, stone fish, myriad other fish, yellow anemones, orange starfish and a large black starfish, sponges, cucumbers etc. The really odd thing to watch was as the fish would emerge from the vertical rock features and then swim parallel to them – straight down the side of the wall.
Total dive time 37 minutes to a max depth of just over 22 metres.

The original plan was to go in for a night dive tonight, but unfortunately this was called off due to deteriorating weather conditions. Jeff told me later that he was also concerned that if he turned round during a night dive and caught me in his torch beam a large set of smiling teeth would give him the “willies”!!

Tuesday 16 October

Dive 1 - Hannibals Cauldron The weather was not too good today, a bit windy and cloudy with rain showers so Jeff took us round to the back of Conejera Island to a site known as Hannibal’s Cauldron for a drift dive. Although as it turned out there wasn’t a great deal of current. I buddied up again today with my good dive buddy Mr Ted, together with Chris and Sue Weaver and we all dropped in for a gentle fin/drift. On the surface all was a bit grey, but once under the water this changed completely.
There were so many fish, in so many colours again on this dive. The sea bed and rocks were covered with weed and life in an array of colours – I’m still so amazed at the variety of life and colour under the water, it’s all so beautiful.
At one point I had been filming some short video clips of a shoal of fish, but then they appeared to have all gone and I was following Mr Ted, Chris and Sue admiring the scenery. But when I looked behind me it was like a scene from the film Finding Nemo, with a huge shoal of fish following behind us – my mask filled with water yet again as it made me laugh!
Again, so much life to see – more barracuda hanging gracefully in the water, starfish in red, purple and orange, a small conger and a spiny type crab scuttling under the rocks and of course shoals of fish of all types everywhere.
Chris and Sue ascended to the surface a bit before me and Mr Ted as Sue was starting to get a bit cold. It looks so good being able to watch divers ascend to the surface and the water is so blue! This was despite surfacing to a lot of rain, wind and grey sky.
Another beautiful dive for 44 minutes to a max depth of 15 metres.

Dive 2 - Snakes & Ladders The weather this afternoon was not too good, the wind had picked up a lot and the sea was choppy so we went out to a dive site in a sheltered cove just round from Torre Rovira. Jeff told us this is a spectacular trip through canyons and gullies full of colourful sponges and corals and he wasn’t wrong! This was another dive that Jeff was leading us so, as had been the norm for the week, Mr Ted and me were first in the water with Chris waiting for the others to get in. We waited for around 20 minutes for the rest of them to get in the water due to some tomfoolery on the boat in our absence! Although this time wasn’t wasted as we found an octopus and I managed to get a video clip of it as it left it’s home and shot off – my amazed exclamations can be faintly heard in the background and my mask filled with water again.
Eventually we were all together and Jeff led off through the maze of canyons and gullies. They were full of sponges, soft corals etc all in amazing colours. Buoyancy and control were definitely in order to avoid bouncing off the walls of the canyons and damaging any of this delicate life. As we worked through the gullies we came across a cave with a small grouper sheltering in it. The whole area was truly beautiful, although a bit dark. As we were working our way through the final parts of the maze of rocks we could only travel in single file, and I remember thinking to myself who could possibly be using the flash on their camera so much? As we returned to the boat and looked up I could see a milky haze outlining the boat and the rain on the water and, as we surfaced, the noise of the thunder and the flash of lightning! So it wasn’t camera flashes after all!
The sea had turned really choppy for the ride back to base and Jeff suggested that we all leave our hoods and masks on – it was just as well that we did as the boat was awash on the way back; it felt just like a Hollywood B movie with buckets of water being thrown over us. Jeff even commented that I was still smiling and that it wasn’t supposed to be fun, although I thought it was and looking at the faces around me I wasn’t the only one!
Total dive time 56 minutes to a max depth of 20 metres.

Wednesday 17 October (final day diving)

Dick's Point The plan had been to dive the Haystack again, but the weather was against us so we returned to Dick’s Point. This time the plan was to drop in and swim off in the opposite direction to our first dive towards a reported roman wreck on a flat sandy site at around 18 metres.
Mr Ted was again my excellent dive buddy for what turned out to be the final dive of the week. This was a really gentle dive, just bimbling along to see what could be seen. I found an old piece of flat pot, but nothing to speak of. Colin found a fishing rod and was seen using it under the water! My mask filled up yet again!
There were a number of cuttle fish and octopus on the sandy bed and Dave C found one and had it on his arm, much like a falconer with a bird of prey.
As we made our way back there were large clams on the sea bed standing around ½ metre tall. There were also the obligatory fish and I’m told these included bream, weaver fish (and divers!), blennies, gobies and wrasse and probably lots of others that I still don’t know the names of.
Total dive time 46 minutes to a max depth of 18 metres.

As mentioned earlier this turned out to be the last dive of the week as the weather and sea conditions had deteriorated to the stage that Jeff was unhappy to take us out in the afternoon.

This was my first real taste of diving in blue water and was absolutely fantastic and I can’t wait to go again. My apologies to the rest for my childish over-enthusiasm for everything during this week, but I couldn’t believe the clarity of the water, the visibility, the colours and the sheer amount of life in the water. I spent the entire week with a huge grin all over my face (and I wasn’t the only one) and my mask permanently half full of water, much to Chris’s amusement. Not only was the diving brilliant but the company was as well – the meals out each evening were almost as much fun as the diving. My thanks to everyone for making my first dive trip abroad such a pleasure:
To :Mr Ted my excellent dive buddy and stone fish impersonator.
Sheila for organising the trip and talking so much she lost her voice by the end of the week!
Dave C for looking out for me all week.
Chris and Sue, cross dressers extraordinaire, I still don’t understand how Chris managed to fit into Sue’s suit – and Chris’s grin matched mine all week!
Derek with his complement of cameras and Jeff’s comment that he hadn’t seen his face all week
Terry, finder par excellence
Dave R, “I’m sure I left my computer in the shop” – what was that action you did to the side of your head? Whatever!
Colin “would you like to pick an egg?”
Jeff and his team for looking after us all week and for his excellent briefings on all the sites we dived.

Kay Skinner
The Cheshire Cat

Friday - The Pomeranian and Spaniard

The Club's annual start of season trip to Weymouth started off with 8 of us going down a day early to get a couple of extra dives in, and on Friday we went out on Breakwater Diving’s Hardboat Top Gun to dive the Pomeranian.

2006 Club Trip to Ibiza