Almost a taster for the Winter Warmer scheduled in a few months this was a trip to dive a 2nd World War submarine – HMS Safari which last saw the light of day in 1946; a submarine, isn’t that sort of smooth & boring you say?  Why no, you’d be surprised at how gnarly such wrecks are – particularly after 80 years on the bottom!

Colin arrived in Belle 2 (his new van) just before 7, leaving plenty of time for the trip down for a 10:30 ropes off and the journey was uneventful with the motorway relatively quiet and the weather (mostly) behaving (except for a surprise 20 minutes of rain – nothing forecast of course). Not to worry as Portland seems to have it’s own micro-climate and we emerged into sunshine & cloud.

Having made good time we popped into the garage for luncheon provisions & parking at the marine greeted Russell who had made his own way down and we proceeded to load our various collections of kit onto Scimitar along with our 7 other companions for the excursion – 4 rebreathers (including Russell) & 6 twinsets (including ours: inverted – the right way up of course!).

A round of teas & coffees & then Nick gave us the brief indicating we were going with the wind going out so it wouldn’t be too bumpy – no promises for the return journey – I snagged an additional Kwells from Russell just in case!

90 minutes, a brief rain shower and 20 miles South East of Portland we were on site awaiting slack.. Nick said it would probably be quite difficult to shot the sub:  he’d try to get the bow but in the end it turned out that he was around midships but at least he got it!

Two other groups of 3 went in then us & finally a solo diver. Around 20 metres it was time for torches as it started to get dark very quickly & then before I knew it the sub hull was on my right & we were on the bottom at 41.5 metres. All you could really see was whatever was in the range of your torchlight – I guess visibility was maybe 4 or 5 metres at a push.

With Colin leading followed by Russell & then myself we started along the side of the sub against a slight current & towards the stern, peering into various corroded holes to see many a conger peering back at us & then retreating as such creatures are wont to do. Protruding from the side of the sub at various points were what I imagine were hydroplanes and other items I had no idea about. On the sea bed there was a lot of wreckage of broken hatches and twisted metal which I later understood was likely the remains of the conning tower.

Working our way past the fins & under the stern we started down the other side, now with the current & Russell indicated to go up a bit because we’ve been quite deep for a while so we moved up on top and continued to peer into the various gaps and surprise further congers and to try to work out what the various structures were on the deck, a crab was hiding in the end of a short tube & Colin or Russell spotted a lobster.

Being only 66 metres long there were many occasions where we saw the lights of the other divers appearing out of the gloom. It didn’t take us long to reach the bow though you’d be hard pressed to recognise it as such as it is basically the flat ends of several torpedo tubes which is really nice the rest presumably smashed off when she hit the bottom. Needless to say congers had made their homes in a number of the tubes

It was now time to head into the current again but it was really starting to run & we were coming up on 30 minutes so we opted to drift off to avoid our DSMB‘s tangling with the shot, grab a rock on the bottom & launch said DSMBs.We did manage to stay together for the first 10 or 15 metres of the ascent then the current took Colin & eventually Russell & I were separated to do our deco (a couple of minutes at 15m, 2 minutes at 9m and then 21 minutes at 6m before surfacing into a fair swell but with a profusion of the other divers’ DSMBs (one each) dotting the waves.

Nick picked us up only a few minutes apart & there was one diver that was in quite a lot longer and then when he eventually returned it was de-kit and head on back & despite our worries & a little spray it was absolutely fine & certainly stable enough for a round of tea & biscuits and to get changed.

All in all a lovely dive;  I think if we did it again, we’d probably stick around the top area more as it offered hatches & more & larger holes to peer into the interior as well as being at 38 metres so allowing more time & less deco but regardless it was great.

My thanks to my chauffeur Mr Colin & to Russell for understanding when I messed him around regarding lifts. And of course to Nick Bentall our glorious skipper and his able craft Scimitar.

Would we do it again? I think I’ve already answered that!