Club News Story

Weymouth Weekend 18th & 19th April - Skin Deeper

On the weekend of the 18th & 19th April 10 members of Merseyside, 1 Member of West Wickham BSAC & 1 Member of BSAC Branch 001 enjoyed superb weekends diving in Weymouth on board Skin Deeper (Sister dive boat of Skin Deep). The group arrive on the Friday at The Skin Deep B&B and were immediately made to feel at home by Margaret Smith. The Diving Began on Saturday on the Aeolian sky. The Sky as she is known locally was a Greek container vessel that collided with another vessel in the middle of the English Channel in 1979. She tried to make it to shore but took on water and sank off St Albans Head. A very large wreck and although the subject of much salvage work is still very recognisable. Lying on her port side the stern and rear accommodation area are relatively intact and stand some 12M. There is much evidence of her cargo within the wreck and strewn across the seabed. This is a great dive especially for those new to wreck diving. Max depth 30M With all the team back on board we headed inland for lunch and plenty of tea & coffee. Following the surface interval the team kitted up to dive the Black Hawk (15-20m). The bow section of the Black Hawk was taken under tow to Worbarrow Bay and was landed on the beach. The bow was finally destroyed in 1967 by a deliberate explosion to make way for the Winfrith pipeline. The wreck is badly broken up and unrecognisable but makes a very scenic dive with an abundance of marine life. A great days diving! On Sunday the team dived HMS M2 (36m, 9m high, top of conning tower at 20m; 296ft long, The M2 was built in 1918 and sank in 1932 killing all the crew. This unique submarine was adapted to carry a small seaplane in a hanger built on to the coning tower, replacing the gun on her forward deck. It is thought that whilst practicing emergency diving the hanger door was not properly closed, quickly flooding the ship and sending her to the bottom. The wreck is classified as a war grave, and now lies upright on a sandy seabed. She is an amazing dive, virtually intact apart from the loss of the crane for aircraft recovery and her propellers. An excellent Dive! We then headed over to Chesil Cove to tuck into lunch, enjoy yet another nice cuppa and set up for the final dive. Our final dive was just along from Chesil Cove. We crossed 2 very broken wrecks plus rock and reef areas. A pleasant drift to finish the weekend off. The group were very well looked after by Skipper and Owner Ian Taylor - Thankyou. Skin Deeper is an extremely spacious and well set up platform. A great experience for some of the newer sports divers – they may be spoilt for life now! Well done to everyone for making it a successful weekend. We hope to have photo's up soon - please have a look Steve B.