Stoney Cove 27 July 2016
A good day of diving by Luke S, Graham & Justin at Stoney Cove on 27th July. Although the weather started wet and drizzly it cleared by lunchtime to a bright sunny end to the day. It wasn’t particularly busy although we did greet a few passing divers underwater.
Our first dive we checked out the ‘Gresham Ship’, a galleon older than ‘Mary Rose’, it was recently featured in July edition of SCUBA magazine, although only at 7 mtrs and an easy swim past the ‘Nautilus’ and other attractions swimming among plenty of fish & Crayfish, there was plenty to see once we reached the remaining timbers of the hull and decks. The wreck is well marked and a little imagination is required to put it all in place. Viz was good at around 3-4 mtrs despite other divers around and fortunately it was warm enough at 18 degrees to not let Graham’s leaky drysuit wrist seals hamper the dive. A practice at midwater DSMB deployments and buoyancy checks rounded everything off nicely.
After a bite to eat and drink and once dried out! the 2nd dive of the day was to the Stanegarth fishing boat at 20 mtrs. This is clearly marked by a surface buoy and shot line to the deck. It was a long surface swim from The Bus Stop to start, but worth the saving on air. Viz was 5-6 mtrs, we also checked out the Wessex helicopter (yes Justin, it was a helicopter, honest!). We then continued on, seeing the Stanegarth anchor chain and an increasingly dissolving Land-Rover, rising from the depths to around 7 mtrs where we were met by shoals of Perch and warmer water at about 18 degrees. A good 48 minute dive and everything stayed dry this time!