Thankfully this year we had no restrictions on travel or diving that may impact on the final dive of the year. We drove into the cove around 0845 to queue for 5minutes with all the other cars, eventually we got to Gary on the gate. They had been open since Boxing Day and never been so busy for a long time. Things were obviously picking up. We entered the main car park and pulled up next to the others, smiles all round, it was good to be doing some exercise after the malaise of the Christmas period, and always a nice way to finish the year.

Shaun, Ameya, Antara, joined myself and Helen, Ross popped up a few minutes later. Along with Ameya’s Mum that made the diving group complete. Helen and Antara (who had gone to Uni for the first time in September) were going to do a training dive but really it was just to get Antara back into the water and chase off the worries we all have from not diving regularly. Shaun was taking Ameya to the Stangarth. That left Ross and myself, Ross had just started his Dive Leader training, so I wanted to extend his experience in the Cove. The plan was for him to lead the dive to 30m and then we would go to the right-hand side and the Cessna, then decide what we were going to do depending on how much air I had left.

Anyway, Ross and I had an appointment with the 30m mark, we had gone down last year but my DV started to free flow and we ended up sharing from about 25m to the surface, not a nice situation. However it was a good learning experience that things can go wrong at any point with anyone. We had to do this to give Ross the experience of knowing what the Cove was like at depth. We have always said that 30m in the Cove was equivalent to 50m in the Sea, due to the depth and darkness that was there.

We got down to the bus stop, where I told Ross he was leading the dive, we kitted up and did the usual checks. With everything in order, Ross entered the water first, I then followed once he had surfaced. The water was cold but not bitterly so, at 8 degrees it was reasonable. With a quick ok we descended to 6m, Ross then indicated for us to go straight over the edge to the road (well that’s what it used to be, it is now marked with sleepers and used to be the railway down to the bottom when it was a working Quarry). I checked by gauges about 10m down, all ok, on we went. At around 18m the post that remains at the point where the 20m shelf starts stood all alone in pristine visibility, this looked good. The old Blow out preventer stood silently on our right, a quick ok between us and off we went down the road into the depths.

Visibility was stunning, but in front it was dark green, doubts started to occupy my mind of poor visibility at depth, however we got to the 30m mark. A line had been attached to the rocks obviously going on into the pit, initially we followed this, suddenly the line vanished into the dark green soup that had come from the algal blooms that had haunted the visibility all year round. This had collected in the deepest point of the cove. I turned to Ross and indicated we should turn round; this was not a good place to be even with torches. This was 31m our deepest for a while in the cove. We ascended to about 25m and started to go round to the right-hand side of the pit following the sheer wall. We needed to come up to about 15-18m to ensure we came out of the pit at the right point to allow us to enter the right-hand side of the cove and not carry on round the pit and get ourselves lost. At about 16m I realised we were at the bottom of black rock, this is a slightly over hanging sheet of Granite that starts at 6m and goes down to around 15-16m, I call it black rock to show its definition and colour. The overhanging of the rock face meant that there is no silt or freshwater mussels (tiger mussels) growing on it, hence why it was black.

We were on track, we swam round and into the right-hand side, the visibility was 20-25m horizontally, again stunning to have such clarity. It is normally better here than anywhere else in the cove as it is such a long swim, not many divers go this way. Swimming at 16m I looked down to see a large Pike lying asleep on the silt, I contemplated going down and disturbing it, then had second thoughts as it was quite large and would have been a shame to annoy it. After another four or five minutes I could make out the shape of the Cessna light aircraft lying with its tail pointing up the slope to the surface. It was clear, swimming under the wings, I entered the doorway, collected my dangly bits of kit so they did not foul, a quick turn right and out the back door. I was hoping Ross would follow but he came over the top. I looked in front and there were several divers coming towards us. Surprising as the vis was very good, they had not been stirring it up. Our air situation was good, I signalled for us to swim to the left and cross the blank silty bed of the quarry, immediately I could see the Barge sloping from 12m down to 18m. The visibility must have been 25m, it was obvious nobody had been to this as it was gin clear.

We swam over the wooden decking, and I could then see a shadow off to my right, I indicated to Ross, and we started to swim in that direction. The two MG BGT (I think) cars were sat cleanly on the bottom, the second one you could even see its white upper paint work. I looked into the windows, the leather seats were in position and all the glass appeared to be in place, it was obvious they did not get many visitors. They would have been good to clean up.

We started to ascend to around 9m, my air was ok, but I knew it was a long swim back, I sensed Ross was cold as he was swimming faster. I looked up and saw the trees, they had grown when the water level was lower and as the water level rose it had preserved them. They now stood vertically but black and rotten with age. Many were broken over the years from divers visiting them. We swam slowly back, Ross slightly in front trying to keep warm at 9m, a long decompression stop basically. As we came round Ross pointed out something, initially I could not see what it was, then it turned sideways, it was another Pike looking for food. Apart from us these are the largest animals in the Cove and the top predator. As we reached Black rock six divers passed below us with a mixture of side slung tanks and rebreathers, all had helmets on indicating they were carvers/ technical divers. Something we had toyed with doing but soon realised it was a young person’s occupation, not for old fossils.

Soon we reached the bolts that are set in concrete in the wall of the rock, some at 6m and some at 8m its always a good navigational marker on the return from the far side. I had 75bar left and was confident now of getting back now with plenty of spare. The 6m ledge loomed and we started to enter the realm of the trainee divers where the visibility was reduced, although it was not bad. I was immediately struck by the fact that I was light and reached quickly for one of the many rocks that litter the ledge. I checked my computer, we had cleared any deco and Ross signalled up, I dropped the rock and slowly floated up. We had been down 56 minutes with a max depth of 31m, work that out on the tables!!

For once I was glad, I had used a 15L tank, I would have been ok with a 12l however it would have been less that 50 bar on surfacing. I had forgotten that the 15L tank is lighter at the end of the dive than at the beginning so should have still used the same weights as I was too close for comfort. Ross was frozen, which always happens to his hands.

So in conclusion what a fantastic dive.

I went back in for a second dive  with Shaun and Ameya , and George (the camera), Shaun struggled with his ears so Ameya and myself went down to the Wessex and swam through. We met up with Shaun on the 6m shelf and continued the dive to see Nessie and the Christmas tree. This had been bugging me throughout the first dive as we were hearing music, like a ring tone all the way through the dive. All coming from the Christmas tree. Just shows how sound travels in the water! I took various shots of Ameya and Shaun on the Viscount with mixed results as I have been playing with the camera settings a few weeks ago, but some good shots of Nessie. This time I did notice the cold and was only too pleased to head back to the exit and escape the water. Great day, good vis but it was cold after two dives. Russell and Vicky joined our group later for a feed at the Pub, and Javier arrived as well, so 9 in the end, not a bad day for the club.