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4th February 2012 - Club Seasonal Meal
A total of 28 member's, family & friends enjoyed this popular social event at the Coombe
Lodge. The food was good and the traditional raffle a sucess. A few people had to cancel due to the poor weather conditions,
and many had interesting stories to tell about their journeys home that evening.
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28th January 2012 - Alaunia
A group of four of us got a hideously early start to
be in Eastbourne's Sovereign Harbour Marina for around 06.30. We'd booked onto Mike Kean's SussexShipWrecks.co.uk
boat to dive on the Alaunia at low water slack. After some shilly-shallying around Asda's car park, trying to find where exactly we
were supposed to be, we managed to find each other and the boat a little before the 07.00 appointed hour. It was still not quite dawn when we cast off, but the
atmosphere on the boat was buzzing as we all sorted out our kit and settled down. We joined another group of divers from Nekton
Sub Aqua in Bromley, making a total of twelve for the trip. The Nekton gang were all very welcoming and VERY generous with
food!. We were
under way in about ten minutes and the two hour or so trip to the Alaunia seemed to pass very quickly. It was, when it came,a
bright and crisp morning, and the sea was reasonably calm.The air temperature must have been around 0 deg C so we were all
pretty glad to have our dry suits on even though the boat had ample shelter and was very comfortable. Initially, the dive was supposed to be on the Rushing
Water (a not very well documented wreck sitting at around 32m which only seems to be written up here: http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?80406). but the visibility in store was apparently very poor so we pressed on to the Alaunia. The Alaunia is said to be the biggest
wreck in Sussex waters, sitting on the sand at around 36m. She was a13,405 ton Cunard liner built in steel in 1913.She was
sunk by a German mine in 1916. Our
dive started at around 09.20, and we got to a max depth of around 26m. The visiability was about 3m, which wasn't bad,
but the light was very poor and torches were needed to see gauges,watches etc. The water temperature was, to those of us who'd
been diving in the Kent lakes over the past month, a very balmy 10 deg C, so we were surprised at the lack of aquatic life.
Crabs and lobsters were(apparently) in abundance, but fish were scarce with only a few visible through portholes. We pretty
much stayed on the top of the wreck and our computer recorded the dive time as about 32 minutes. It was a shame we didn't
get to see more aquatic life and that the visability was not good enough to appreciate the full majesty of this ship, but
all in all, we had a really enjoyable dive. Unfortunately,
one of our number had his finger hurt on the dive lift as we got out in water that had become more choppy during the dive
so we elected not to do the second dive of the day, a drift dive over the Oceana. The Oceana is nearer to the coast and the
visability would have been less than on the Alaunia so we were not too unhappy after we'd bagged our first dive.It might
though, have been nice to have had a few of the scallops that the Nekton's crew managed to snaffle on their drift! We were all well looked after by Mike Keane and look
forward to joining him for more winter dives in the weeks ahead. We'd all also like to thank Jackie, the Training Officer
of Nekton dive club. She made us very welcome, helped us with our kit, and cooks a really mean lemon cake. Thanks Jackie!
If you'd like to join us on dives like these, e-mail our diving officer at do@croytech.co.uk or just e-mail info@croytech.co.uk
26th January 2012 - Crystal Palace
Diving Pool
Several members enjoyed an hour or so in the
Diving Pool at Crystal Palace Sports Arena. The pool is 4.9m deep and was ideal to use for testing personal buoyancy. Use
of this facility was at the invitation of Bromley BSAC who use this pool once per month. Our thanks to them.
22nd January 2012 - Holborough Lake
8 Members joined this dive in Holborough Lake. The temperature was 5 degrees C and the average dive time was 30 minutes.
Very good visability was enjoyed for these dives with Jo, Shanie, Neil, Richard and Dave S all completing a second dive.
14th January 2012 - Buckland Lake
5 members on this occassion, average dive time 35 minutes, and 2 dives completed by all. Visability was not so good,
at approximately 2m. We all had a very good dive, exploring the many attractions of Buckland Lake. It was Dave Stacey's
first visit and very much enjoyed it.
New Years Day 2012 - Holborough Lake
6 Members braved the very miserable conditions to participate in our Traditiional New Years Day
Dive.
The average dive time was 40 minutes and the temperature 6 degrees C. We all enjoyed a pleasant dive at Holborough,
which was surprisingly busy considering the weather. The visability remained good even though there were many divers in the
water. An excellant start to hopefully a good years diving.
Late updated by Shirley Painter
on 10th May 2012
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