Swanage Plunge: Tanks, Crabs, and a Side of Pasties
By Gabriele
Our adventure began, as most club expeditions do, on the Tuesday before the weekend of the trip, when a delegation
of us met at the pool to pick up kit and organise logistics.
Off to a good start, we quickly discovered that the stock of filled cylinders available to borrow was inexplicably
depleted, but the issue was soon overcome thanks to an apparently plentiful stock of extra vacation days that club
members could use to take Friday off and go to our destination to fill cylinders in advance. To whoever tried to
sabotage our trip: try again.
And so came Friday. Photos of fellow divers enjoying a sunny day by the sea accompanied my contrarily very long
working day, but soon I’m also off and my actual journey can begin, as all do, with a train delay.
I thus arrived fashionably late on Friday evening to find most of the crew deep into critiquing underwater
cinematography on their phones. The voice coming from the YouTube videos they are watching sounded familiar, and
glancing over the small screens I recall making a sour comment about the renowned visibility of UK waters (note: this
was my first UK trip – excluding training in Wraysbury and Stoney). “Surely it won’t be worse than that” I said. Reader,
it was.
Saturday
With a 6am wake-up call that felt more like a punishment than a plan, we stumbled down to the pier before opening to
beat the crowd and meet our noble vessel, Viper.
Waiting for us was not the captain, but a faint drizzle and sky so grey you could barely tell sea from cloud – truly, the
very pinnacle of English summer.
First up: Peveril Ledges, a relaxed drift dive with max 20m depth and a gentle current, perfect to ease into the diving
weekend. Visibility? A generous 2–3 metres. Water temp? A balmy 18°C. Yes, this report is for the 26-27 of July trip.
After some hot drinks and good surface time, is ropes off again and we head to the Valentine Tanks. For those who
don’t know, these tanks sank whilst practising for the D-Day landings in Normandy. And so it happens that whilst
everyone was fantasising about military drills, we found ourselves having VIP seats for an airshow by the Red
Arrows (the aerobatics display team of the Royal Air Force): an unexpected highlight, courtesy of Swanage Carnival
weekend.
Back to shore, we squeezed in a shallow dive (or some might say an extended safety stop given the max depth of c.
5m) under the Swanage Pier. This served the noble purpose of helping me tick off my dive assistant module of Sports
Diver training, so thanks to everyone who “enthusiastically” participated.
Saving the best for last, the group got on board again to sail for the iconic Kyarra, a massive 126m, 6,953-ton luxury
passenger/cargo liner. Given the 30m depth at which the wreck sits, this was available only for Sports Diver+
Dinner at the Black Swan was well-earned. Stories were shared, laughs were had, yawns were yawned, and Iggy
may or may not have started planning his pasty run for the next morning.
Sunday
True to his word, Iggy braved the early morning chill to fetch pastres for the group. A hero among divers.
We kicked off with a dive on the Fleur de Lys (c. 13m deep), where visibility was either better or worse than Saturday,
depending on who you asked – anecdotally, I didn’t notice much difference whilst demonstrating mask removal at
depth (ticking off another box of SD). The water had warmed up to 19°C, which felt practically tropical.
Our final dive was on the Clan McVey, another cool wreck sitting at 20m depth. Importantly, everyone managed to
accomplish their secondary targets: Justin and Harry successfully located the wreck, Abi easily returned the shot to
the surface using a lift bag, I ticked off DSMB deployment, and the fisherman captured most of the crabs in the area…
oh well, almost everyone.
Final Thoughts
Despite the weather, the early mornings, and the pea-soup visibility, the trip was a blast. Huge thanks to Sira for
organising everything, and to the rest of the crew – Abi, Harry, Iggy, Justin, Laura, Louise, Rufus – for making it a
weekend to remember.
