The Easter exped this year was held at Weymouth and Portland with diving planed to take place over 4 days around Portland Bill and the Purbeck coast. However with Easter very early this year we could not plan for the weather so as the saying goes ‘the best laid plans of mice and men …’

The first days plan was as follows:-

1^st Dive on the wreck of the Black Hawk at position 50⁰ 36.780N 002⁰ 12.450W Slack water on this site will be between 0900-1030 hrs. Depth 18m

1^st Wave will leave from the Waterside slip at 0800 hrs and arrive on site by 0830 hrs. They will complete diving by 0930 and then return to waterside slip.

2^nd Wave will leave from the slip at 0940 and arrive on site by 1000. They will complete diving by 1045 and return to the slip .

2^nd Dive will be a drift dive over Lulworth Banks. Depth 15m.

1^st Wave will leave the slip at 1230 and arrive on site by 1245. They will complete diving by 1330hrs.

2^nd Wave will leave the slip by 1400 and arrive on site 1420. They will complete diving by 1520 and then return to the slip by 1600.

The forecast was for 5 to gale 8 winds from the north with air temperatures of 5⁰C. With the wind chill factor this was more like -5⁰C

The boat was launched at Waterside slip into a sea with a long heavy swell by roping the trailer down the slip. The swell was such that dive kit could not be loaded safely and so three hardy souls took the boat and checked out the alternative site and the slip at Castletown on Portland. The decision was taken to recover the boat at Castletown and forget any thoughts of diving. Gill Corbin was contacted about the next days diving and he informed us that he could not take us out on Tango to dive the Benidijk so we will try using the rib close inshore.

Day 2 and the forecast is much the same as yesterday. However the wind has veered slightly further north making it more offshore so launching the boat is easy at Waterside. Six divers decide to dive the Countess of Erin inside the harbour while the rest retire to the caravans to keep warm. One pair suffer some kit failure so do not dive but the other four carry out the dive. It is warmer in the water than on the surface. The trip back to Waterside was very wet and cold so no more diving is carried out. The boat was recovered using ropes and manpower to get her over the sand at low tide.

Day 3 and the wind has eased off slightly but it is still cold. The plan is for a drift dive on White Nothe. Six intrepid divers set off but due to the sea state and the sausages eaten at breakfast one diver is sea sick so again only four get in. The underwater visibility is not brilliant at about 1 metre but some scallops are recovered for tea to-night.

Day 4 Easter Monday dawns clear and bright with no wind but very cold. The plan is to dive the British Inventor and then carry out a drift over Lulworth Banks. There are only six divers that want to dive and so the plan is to launch the boat at 0900 hrs and put divers in the water at 1000 hrs when slack is forecast. However the divers are so keen to go they have the boat in the water by 0815 so a slow loading was carried out with the boat eventually leaving at 0845. On site the underwater visibility is around 0.5 metre so one team decides not to dive, another team dives for ten minutes while Del and Ryan collect scallops for 40 minutes. Diving for the rest of the day is abandoned

So ends a very cold and early Easter Exped however everyone enjoyed the trip and learnt some valuable lessons about diving in adverse conditions. It was so cold that no one took any photographs to remind them of the trip.