WW ’25

After our restart of the Winter Warmer last year in Portland following a break for COVID we decided why not go back!

With 4 last year we were so almost 6 this year (one member got a better offer: Phillipines – difficult to beat!) so we were (in no particular order): Tim, Russell, Kevin, Nigel and Colin.

The happy Band of Brothers – let’s see if they’re still smiling at the end!

We left Bristol in misty low-cloud conditions for an uneventful journey down (always the best kind!) and met in the Marina car park to unload & load up onto Waverider after boarding permission from skipper Dave was granted. Nigel almost got himself left behind but made it & we set out.

5 other divers had joined us for a total complement of 10. Russell was rocking his rebreather alongside another couple of rebreathers, a few twinsets (the wrong way up), twinsets the right way up 🙂 (ours) and some singles & ponies, so we had the full set.

Kevin advises Colin about inappropriate hand gestures near U-boat wrecks, Russell does technical CCR faffing & Tim checks his solar panels

From the misty start the weather was now simply cloudy though the sun was trying to get out and the surface was really quite bouncy as we moved round Portland Bill to the western side then off towards the M2.

Saturday: Dive 1: M2 (34 metres)

The M2 was the world’s first aircraft carrier submarine! It had a very sad and tragic end. Google it

It was very interesting to respectfully look over her, now covered with diverse and abundant sea life.

Kitted up we followed the rope down with visibility not brilliant – I’d say 3 m at a push but it really didn’t matter a lot. Nearing the end of the shot I wondered where the wreck was & then shone my torch to the left to be faced by the hull not more than a metre away!

We explored the bow with the anchors still in place on their mounts on each side and then worked our way back towards the conning tower and passing various gratings and structure until we got to the to the stern I dropped down and had a look at the aquaplanes before moving back up & rejoining the others as we worked our way back.

The astonishing thing was the sheer abundance of life – in addition to all of the bib that were absolutely everywhere there were more congers than I’ve ever seen on the wreck before and a many of a serious size – some of them must’ve been 25 cm wide at the head! In addition to the congers there was a smallish lobster that retreated into a pipe – others saw a giant! Other sightings included a shrimp or a prawn (not sure the difference) and edible crab.

It would’ve been nice to see the size of the wreck but you can’t have everything!. We did our 40 minutes and then Russell and Colin blew their bags and off we went up. Tim & Nigel likewise headed up. Then it was up for a nice crispy pasty a cup of tea and motoring on to the next dive.

Saturday: Dive 2: Drift

Colin and I decided to skip the next one – a drift, potentially a scalloping dive; the rest of the guys went in anyway but their reports indicated it really wasn’t much – Nigel and Tim lost each other and both came up after about 20 minutes. The weather remained overcast (at least no rain) as we headed back to port.

Nigel wonders if a career in modelling might be his true calling!

We left the core kit on the boat, taking our cylinders along to Oona in the Portland Gas shack and then got ourselves changed and down to the Portland Outdoor Centre,

Colin & I took a somewhat circuitous route that involved a tour of the Boll but we got it right on the second time and Colin managed to park relatively close (guarded by the Sherman Tank outside the museum!)

We were on the second floor in room 11 which was quite nice with 6 bunks (4 made up) & overlooking Colins’ van. Tim cracked a six pack of Stella & I sampled two, Nigel said he needed to rehydrate – but apparently despite being 99.9% water doing it with beer is not a thing 🙂 so I pointed out that the star was 99.9%

We had a table at the Cove House Inn for 6:30 so we headed over there (10/15 min walk) arriving pretty much bang on time and had an evening of really good conversation and a superb meal I think two or three of us had the burger (really good but missing a salad/coleslaw), Tim had a fish pie which was also really really good all lubricated with plenty of beer before heading back for the night.

Breakfast was 8:30 in the Portland café; I went for the vegetarian as did Tim, Colin claimed a cup of coffee contained all the essential vitamins and minerals (each to their own) and the other guys had various other items from the menu all very good. I had overestimated my appetite and couldn’t finish it.

Sunday: Dive 3: ~~UB74~~ British Inventor (22m)

Picked up the cylinders and loaded to the boat. Dave (now ably supported by partner Debbie) indicated the wind was a bit worse today and so the UB 74 (which formed the 2nd part of this years’ submarine theme) wasn’t going to happen 🙁 instead what we did was the British inventor – Russell said he had done it at some time in the past but couldn’t recall specific details.

The British Inventor. A 7101-ton oil tanker that sank in June 1940 after striking a mine near St. Alban’s Head. While the ship was extensively damaged, the bow section remains as a wreck, and the rest was towed away and repaired. It is a popular diving site, also known as the Scallop Wreck, and lies on the Lulworth Banks. It’s pretty smashed up and we thoroughly explored it before letting ourselves slowly drift off. A lot less life on this one.

Debbie provided us with the very welcome warming pasties & plenty of hot drinks during our surface interval.

Today we not only had our expert skipper but also his better half, Debbie who ensured pasties & hot drinks just kept coming!

Sunday: Dive 4: Black Hawk Bow (22m)

The Black Hawk, a US Liberty ship was torpedoed in December 1944. The bow section was towed into Worbarrow bay and beached after the stern section broke off and sank in 45m off Portland Bill. Many years later the bow was dispersed with explosives to make way for the Winfrith nuclear power station pipework

Dave dropped us around 100m short and we then drifted onto the southern part of the bow; there’s nothing recognisable in the sea of twisted metal with some scattered life and some life (we saw a crayfish). There is a lot more of it (than the British Inventor) with many sections a few more metres proud. When we realised we’d seen the crayfish twice it was time to go up and head back to port (a lot less bouncy than the trip out).

Can’t have been that bouncy on the way back to judge by this snoozing bunch!

All in all a pretty successful weekend: one superb dive on the M2 accompanied by a dive most of us hadn’t done before and two others that gave us a chance to enjoy ourselves, a wonderful meal and some great company – My thanks to my fellow divers for joining me, the very friendly and very capable crew of Jurassic Aqua Sports dive boat, #Waverider: David & Debbie and here’s to next year!

Special thanks to Tim & Nigel for variously the background on the dives and a number of photos & video