SUSAC

DM – Anna

Location – Portland

Dive Sites – West side of Portland Bill and the Countess

Launch Site – Slip at ferry bridge (Blue Horizons) - Tractor launch

Weather – Forecast 3-4 NE and Sunshine

Who went – Anna, Chris H, Kerry, Lisa K, Dan B, Bobby P, Adam S and Clair T.



We left the boathard at ~830 and drove down to Ferrybridge (Blue Horizons), which is where we are currently storing the RIB. We were welcomed by glorious sunshine and so the prospect of lots of red faces by the end of the day. The tractor launched the RIB for us and we headed around to the West side of the Bill. Once on the dive site myself, Bobby and Adam were the first to kit up and get in the water. We got dropped in, in about 10m of water with ~7m vis (yes Chris really!). The seabed on the west of the bill is made up of many large boulders teaming with life. There was little current running so we had a gentle pootle around the boulders. Organisms of interest included boring sponge (Cliona celata), Elephant’s Ear sponge (Pachymatisma johnstonia), peacock worms, wrasse (goldsinny and ballan), lobsters, spider and edible crabs and numerous types of algae. My dive was made (as always!) by spotting 3 tompots and 1 huge nudibranch (cannot find a picture of it anywhere so can’t say what it was I’m afraid – need to find myself a nudibranch ID book I think!). Similar tales were told by Kerry and Clair and by Chris, Dan and Lisa although the latter group didn’t experience such great vis but this might have had something to do with the circle they were swimming in (J)! We returned to Ferry Bridge for lunch and cylinder change over and we were swiftly on the boat again to drive out to the Countess, to get some drills done. The vis on the Countess was poorer than the morning dive being ~2m. Life that was spotted included: candy stripe flatworm, cuckoo wrasse (male), blennies and spider crabs. After returning to Ferrybridge, we sorted the boat and kit out and headed home via The World’s End for a quick pint. All in all a lovely days diving in the sunshine! Thanks for Reading, Anna.