5th June 2015
by Nicola Faulks
Typically Friday 5th June was a calm day with blue skies….. The diving was organised for the Saturday, which in true British summer fashion dawned windy, dark and not very summery. The forecast was for westerly winds of up to 80kmph. However a phone call to Allan returned the response that it was a westerly, of course the diving would go ahead. So we all met up on Spellbinder, and headed down the Tyne.
After a quick brief, Richard Moore took on the Dive Marshall (DM) job, with Hong and Jack being the assistant DMs. The wind was getting stronger… The decision was made that the first dive would be the Oslo Fjord as it is shallow 12 metres and fairly close in shore, so should be sheltered by the land with the wind being a westerly. So the shot was dropped and we all jumped in to undertake the dive.
Visibility was poor about 1-2 metres, but at least we could still see the superstructure. After about 20 minutes of not finding much life, I did find some nudibranchs to harass with my new macro lens; finding that there were some species that I hadn’t knowingly even seen before! Simon was more interested in the 303 rounds and other ammunition.
On surfacing it was obvious that the wind had become stronger. As the boat came in to pick us up, Si managed to grab the lift and I just swept on past. So once Si was on board the boat came back for me. On coming in a second time, Allan had to keep the engines (jets) running to stop the boat blowing away, however this meant that the water at the back was all turbid. No matter how much I swam and grabbed, I managed to totally miss the dive lift again. Within seconds the boat and I were 40 metres apart again. Third time lucky, I came on board no problem. As we picked up the rest of the divers, it was apparent that the conditions were now quite difficult. A decision had to be made.
Once every one was out of their kit, we all gathered in the wheel house. We all decided that it was a good call to postpone the remaining dives, to rearrange for another day, when there will be (?) less wind. I felt there was a palatable air of relief on the boat, so we headed in, dreaming of a future day with no wind and good visibility. As I had my new camera with me, I did also take a good few above water shots too….
