August 2010

A Mid-Week Diving Bonus trip

On the 3rd August Graham decided that we owed it to ourselves to take advantage of some of the great mid-week diving deals put out by Mary Jo down at Swanage, and persuaded 3 other club members it was a good idea too..

Once we had got over the idea of a very early start, Tuesday morning we drove down to Swanage and lined up at 7:10am with a queue of other keenies waiting for the pier to open. We parked on the Pier, and began trolleying our gear down towards the waiting boats. It looked a promising day, dry, warm, and calm flat waters. This mornings dive was popular, both Mary Jo and Sidewinder were heading out for the Avanti, with the esteemed company of John Liddard on Mary Jo. (Of the Wreck Tour series fame)

The journey time took about 40 minutes in calm pleasant conditions and we slowly kitted up, waiting for the arrival of slack water. This didn't take long, and we were soon lining up to hurl ourselves over the side.

The clarity of the water did not disappoint, and we had a very pleasant descent down to the seabed at 42 metres where the broken remains of the Avanti lay. Underwater Viz was a good 6 metres with traces of sunlight also travelling down to this depth.The largest part of the wreck was the two boilers, located close together, forming an avenue to swim down. We saw wrasse, Pollack and a large Conger lodged in a broken pipe.

We were diving with twinsets and deco tins on assorted Nitrox mixes, whilst other divers were on rebreathers. One of these was John Liddard spotted in a comfy postion sketching the wreck!

The Avanti was a 2128 tonne ex-Danish steamship 273ft long by 40ft beam. It was torpedoed by a German submarine on Feb 2 1918. Of the crew of 24, 21 men were killed, including the Captain. She carried a cargo of iron ore.