Instructor Janey and Dive Master Lorraine were taking Sue, Gwayne and another Julian on speciality courses such as Peak Performance Buoyancy and Deep diving. As fellow club members we all parked along side each other and assisted whenever possible, making a point of alternating teams in the water. It's great to get back to the car and have someone help with buckles and the removal of gloves etc. Our second dive was to lesser depths, we dropped in at the bus stop again and descended to the ridge, this time we went in the opposite direction, we skimmed past the nose of the Nautilus, a mock submarine of some amusing realism, from there we headed to the Stanegarth, an old Thames Water tug which stands upright and provides a swim through. The tug gives a novice such as me a good idea of what a wreck might be like, although I suspect that realistically, a wreck will in most cases be very rusty and pretty much fallen apart compared to this tug. It's a great feeling though when you ascend the side of the hull and the drop down on the deck. Julian dropped down inside and swam through to the bridge. We left the Stanegarth and headed off to find the coach/bus that was nearby. Having three way communication failed us though, I followed David who ended up at what's left of an old series Landrover, Julian caught up and then lead us off in the right direction to the coach. Of course there were signals of "fares please" from Julian which I just didn't grasp and thought he had something wrong with his fingers!

I was extremely lucky to receive a call from Julian on Friday asking if I was heading up to Stoney, fantastic, Julian is a great buddy and has covered many more dives than myself. Huge respect to him, he's a pretty chilled guy who has the beneficial affect of making one feel relaxed. Also diving with us was David, another pleasant and relaxed chap who has a similar experience level to myself.

We kitted up and prepared for our first dive which was to the deep Hydro-Box at 36 meters. I was quite anxious as this was my first dive to this depth. We dropped in at the bus stop, awesome!!, we were the first in and the vis was superb. We descended to the top of the ridge and then finned along, dropping down onto the old quarry road taking it really easy and getting relaxed. David and I sorted out a bit of reluctant ear equalisation and we moved on down the road gradually getting deeper. Before I knew it we were leaving the roadside and heading down to the Hydro-Box, at this point the depth alarm on my computer was sounding as we had reached the 30m mark. A quick fin around the box after which Julian beckoned to me. I arrived at his side where I found the way to get the deepest reading on the computer was to put ones wrist in a hole ! After congratulating myself for reaching this depth without getting "narked" I waited for Julian and David to remove their clown outfits and tutu's before I checked my hair in my compact and we made our way to shallower depths. We pottered a bit on the way back, did our safety stop on the 6m ridge and ascended. The computers reading 4 degrees celcius in the water. Brrrrrr.......

David, Gwayne & Julian

The third and last dive was going to be a shallow dive on the ridge just taking photo's and having an easy bimble. Having once again dropped in at the bust stop, we descended and were in a bit of a quandary as to which direction to head in. The visibility was now spoilt by the amount of sediment kicked up, this made photography pretty difficult, but we managed a few shots through the haze. Julian took us past the aircraft cockpit which looks as if it crashed some years ago, but is actually just the cockpit and merely provides a photographic landmark. We came across a couple of very obliging pike which seemed to pose quite happily, and were patient enough for David and myself to get a few shots. Some very large perch followed by the rest of the shoal which consisted of smaller, timid fish. We finned our way along the ridge to the bottom of the pub and Dave took some photo's of a couple of perch that were interested in Julian stirring the sediment on the bottom. A huge shoal of small roach were in the area but were much too fast to photograph. There were many more divers around us now, a number of which were obviously completing or undergoing training courses. I started to get cold because the shallow depth meant only a little air in my dry suit, there's a lesson learnt, next time I'll wear a thermal base layer under my undersuit. After draining, airing and packing away our kit, we all settled in the pub before the journey home, which of course, included a 30 minute snooze stop.........

Janey & Lorraine