June 2010
by Richard Booth
The forecast had deteriorated over the previous with the result that the planned club dive out to the Farnes was going to be a non starter. Instead, the Diving Officer reorganised the weekend‘s dive programme to a club dive down at Ellerton for those individuals who were still desperate to get wet.
Sunday dawned bright and sunny with a nice blue sky. Arriving in the car park at Ellerton, it was clear that a lot of the North East diving community had reached the same conclusion as our illustrious DO and headed over to this small lake for a dive. Fortunately we all managed to get parked reasonably close to the entrance point into the water.
Even more amazingly, despite the volume of divers in the water, the underwater visibility was a good 5 to 6 metres, especially in the areas which managed to escape the attention of some of the visiting trainee divers.
Pulling ourselves gently along the underwater lines, and taking every care to avoid stirring up the bottom with our fins we passed through gin clear areas of weed forest that reached up towards the sunlit surface. (pic 3) Moving on, we explored the large cobble wreck before heading back across the lake coming across a variety of other sites including the small yacht, the cabin cruise, the caravan and an assortment of sunken cars and vans.
After 60 minutes it was time to return to the shore for bacon butty and a hot cup of coffee.
Indeed the first dive was so good, as the diving at Ellerton goes, that everyone opted for a second dive. By now however, the sheer volume of divers fining up and down the lines for most of the day had clearly taken its toll, with the underwater visibility deteriorating to only a couple of metres. Sadly there was still no sign of the pike that are usually to be found hanging around the sunken Nissan car despite our best efforts to locate them in their usual haunts, although we did come across shoals of perch, some of which appeared to be of reasonable size.
Thanks to Gordon for organising this club dive.
