Vobster Halloween Night Dive and Debbie Redbare Fettling

Two relaxing dives with Ossie and Debbie at the Vobster Halloween event last night. The weather was not as cold as we expected, which added to the enjoyment. Using the Seahorse Scuba Diving Club group account, we were allocated a waterside kitting-up bench at the far end of the schools area. There was ample room for four divers and plenty of room for us two divers. A little remote from the gas shed and catering van, but an easy water access by giant stride. Arriving at 14.00pm, the plan was to plunge at 15.00pm and 17.00pm, departing around 19.00pm. We were supposed to meet up with the Newbury Scuba Diving Club chaps, but timings did not align. We bumped into some Southern Divers group.

I’m still having to fettle with my CCR. Named Debbie Redbare (don’t ask), she has had the VMS handset/controller replaced by the Nammu Atlas controller in August – a long story. Suffice it to say that this is a replacement Atlas handset, a replacement to the first faulty one. This replacement crashed twice to a blank screen mid-dives last week. Enough on that, but my objective was two more shakedown and fettling dives. For Ossie, I think he was just glad to be in the water.

Dive one was a giant stride entry to descend the wall. We descend from our kitting-up area to around 12m, around 5m west of the maroon Escort. Ossie was leading. Off to the wheelhouse, down to (what was) the caravan, then across the desert to the small boat on the far side. Turn around and come back, a slight westerly bearing to come back to the tunnel entrance and exit at the ramp.

Surface interval was a posh affair. Ossie had sparked up the kettle in his camper, and he served hot, strong builders’ tea in Denby handcrafted ceramic mugs!

Dive two was a plunge around 17.30pm, a little later than expected. It was dusk now, but there was still enough light to kit up as the main building lights did not illuminate this more remote area of the site. Speaking to Tim Clements, he asked us to do some crayfish spotting, which formulated a plan. Giant stride again and pass the Escort and plane to the pipes. Find the chain and drop to 24m. Keeping the wall on our right, swim along to count any spotted crayfish. I saw zero, Ossie one. We then ascended the wall to the 12m shelf around the area of the glider trailer. Following the shelf edge, we continued to the end of the ‘road’, turning to return over the Nautical Archaeology Society site, planes and the normal ramp exit. Loads of crayfish at the end of the 12m shelf.

No problems with Debbie, so information will be fed back to Nammu Tech. Ditto, crayfish data fed back to Tim.

My car was parked in the kitting-up area, and Ossie’s camper was in the main car park. Kit was off and packed away. I went over to see Ossie, who was in his van. I could smell bacon. He was in his element! Sitting in his camper, bacon and sausage sizzling in the pan, buttered rolls on show, sachets of sauce robbed from Wetherspoons in the jar and more Denby hot tea! What a cracking idea and a lovely surprise!