Four divers met at 9am on Sunday. For most of us it was our first boat dive of the year. Once we had managed to shake the ice from the boat cover, launching went without a hitch and we quickly had the club’s trusty Humber RIB in the water.
Unfortunately, it was when we tried to start the boat that we realised we had a problem. A dead battery. We hitched up some jumper leads but to no avail. We wouldn’t be boat diving today.
Oysterhaven would not be most peoples favourite shore dive. However, determined to derive some benefit from the sacrifice of a Sunday morning sleep-in, three of us donned the gear and finned out to the mooring to give it a ‘haircut’ – then we finished up with a scenic dive, of sorts.
Well, it wasn’t all bad. The vis was several metres (which was several metres more than expected) and some of the crabs were sufficiently agressive to be amusing – pics below:
On Sunday seven divers departed Oysterhaven in gorgeous autumn sunshine to dive the City of Chicago. Conditions were ideal and after descending to the shallow shipwreck below divers enjoyed a variety of activities including a subaquatic golf ball hunt and a spot of underwater juggling. For those looking for more orthodox enjoyment there was something for everyone with dogfish, crayfish, lobster and nudibranchs all making an appearance.
However, as was the case when we encountered basking sharks after diving the Bream Rock earlier in the summer, the dive was somewhat overshadowed by the appearance of a small sunfish half way back to Oysterhaven. There was some commotion on the boat and after a little “will we, won’t we” discussion several divers donned snorkel gear and went for a closer look. For his part, the sunfish was happy to stay near the surface and provide a few minutes of entertainment (and plenty of photo opportunities).
The second dive of the day was at Black Head where there are some nice rocky gullies. Conger eels, lobster, crayfish and friends were all present but for this diver the highlight of the day was the guest appearance by the sunfish.
