Castaways Sub-Aqua Club
	A Branch (Branch No 2071) of The British Sub-Aqua Club

"May you live in interesting times" or...
"May you have interesting diving days"

Bracklesham

29 November 1998

Weather was brilliant, couldn't ask for better. Sea was slight (with no white horses first thing in the morning) the sun was out. The surf at the slip was quite high, which was appreciated by all of the surfers.

The boat was a little late launching (due to the shop, not any of the divers), and the tide was rapidly receding. We had a 'fun' 15-20 minutes, getting first the boat off the trailer onto the sand, then the trailer out of the sand, then dragging the boat across the sand until it could float. After that we were knackered.

We dived the Mixon Hole, only just getting there in time for slack. All the books say that the Mixon is one of the best dives in England, they must be talking about a different Mixon Hole to the one we were on. The wall and bottom consist of a solidified very fine, mud, which crumbles if you come into contact with it. At one stage we were (unknowingly) following another pair of divers who seemed to be using a technique of dragging themselves along the bottom by their hands, and the viz reminded me off a salty Guildenburg! Not a lot of marine life, I glimpsed a Baleen Wrasse in the gloom, found a couple of hermit crabs and Gobies. There was a 0.5-1 knot current all the while we were down, and the drift back was quite pleasant.

That got the penultimate Club Diver dive signed up for Darren, and classified as 'drift', 'cold', 'small boat', and 'SMB' dives on the new system of checking off different dive types. Water temp was 10° C, air temp was nearer 8° C.

Boat was left anchored off the beach while we got fills and lunch, so no problem with launching the boat we thought. However, when we returned after lunch the waves were breaking onto the beach at least 1.5-2 m high. Wading out in that surf with kit to load the boat was a struggle, then holding the boat into the waves while they got the anchor in, and timing the jump into the boat so that the cox could meet the next wave bow on under power was 'fun'. Clear of the surf line the sea state was increasing slightly, still not much wind. Everybody was soaked by the launch, my wool hat had about 6 pints of water in it, and Darren who was in a semi-dry was already getting cold on the way out.

Second dive was the Mullberry harbour, "great" I thought good dive lots of fish, shallow enough for a decent bottom time, be able to show Darren a better dive. Ha! 22 minutes on fast spin cycle was not my idea of fun. I have never experienced surge like this. Noticeable surge at the bottom of the shot, "hold on and pray" surge as soon as you went round either end of the wreck. Viz was no more than 3-4 m, but lots more life than the Mixon at least. I would have been happy to call the dive after 5 minutes, but decided to make the best of it and give Darren a decent dive. Patrolling up and down the lea side of the wreck managed to find Bib, Pollack, Edible Crabs, Dragonets, Gobbies, etc. Disorientated Darren enough so that he was 'dead impressed' when I found the shot at the end of the dive. In the end Darren called the dive because he was cold. It was rather disturbing watching his hand shake as he held the shot line on the ascent. Back in the boat, wasn't long before the other pairs started to come up. Moon had risen by now (4:30pm), and twilight was all around by the time the last diver was on board. Extremely exhilarating ride back in the moonlight (including a mid journey refuelling).

Back at the slip or at least 200m offshore from the slip. Viewing the surf crash against the slip was not a sight we wanted to see. Cox decided that trying to recover the rib in 2-3 m breaking surf in the moonlight was not an option. This was especially relieving as we were being swamped occasionally anyway. So the boat was going to go round to a slip inside of Chichester harbour, but how to get the cars there. The next time a Novice moans about the swim test, and how "they will never need to swim while they are diving" I will tell them of the time we swam 200m ashore, at night in breaking surf. Darren and I fared the best out of the swim, one guy had his ankle weights on (Duh!), and only had one at the end, another had his glasses on at the start but not the end.

Now I am sure there was something about not doing strenuous exercise after diving? <FX:Fizzzzzzz>

Despite this little story, I had a great day out, the diving wasn't special, but it was OK. We had to do a little more physical work than I would have liked (and don't I know it this morning), but hey I got 2 dives in at the end of November, and the sun shone.

Anthony Peacock