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

A Shoal of Pike!

Stoney Cove

25th November 1997

5am and the diving mantra - "I love diving, I love diving, ..." - can be heard in the wilds of Essex. 8am, the chant is the same, but the location has shifted to the wind swept car park of Stoney Cove. 9.30am and the objective of the day - to aquaint Anthony with the delights of Stoney - have been meet, and the serious task of trapping bacon and sossie rolls is under way.

11.30am - too early to go home, so a second dive is planned. A quick look at the "Map Board" shows a 'beginners route' to a pseudo-wreck in 7m at the back of the cove - this looks like fun. Entering the water, the main training area is rapidly left behind and with it the PADI trainees and associated lack of visibility. At the end of the training ledge is an old 'block house'. Looking through the doorway, the opposite window and ground beyond are perfectly reflected on the quick-silver like qualities of the air trapped in the roof - then Anthony shatters the image into a thousand shards by exhaling! Beyond the block house the ledge ends in a vertical wall which drops to 30m - very reminiscent of Southern Ireland - but not a place I would want to bring a 'beginner'! Cruising along the wall at 8m we come across a large pike hanging on station about 2m below us - the only sign of life so far! After 20 minutes of strenuous finning from the start, the "wreck" comes into view. (20 minutes of finning! And this is supposed to be a 'beginners' dive!!) Another large pike is seen, then another, then a massive brute, easily 5 feet long, and whats that in the gloom but another beast. I never knew pike shoaled! There's only so much 'pike watching' that you can do in a day, so after a brief tour of the wreck we proceeded on our way. After a few more fin strokes we decided to surface - at the far side of the cove - and surface swim back! Now who was it who had previously been making sarcastic comments about divers who surface away from their exit point!

All in all, an excellent dive but not one to recommend to beginners or to start with only 130bar in your cylinder!

William Howard