Storm Hits the Solent Area on Bank Holiday

An interesting weekend of diving. Saturday was cancelled but Sunday was reasonable with some good viz on the Leopold. Monday was flat calm when we entered the water on the Highland Brigade, but we came up to be greeted by a force 6 squal. Big seas, winds and kit flying everywhere. The photo shows Lee Shepperd holding onto the boat .... and his stomach, having climbed on board. Skipper Pete took Trojan (which is superb in bad weather I have to say) into the lee of the IOW and calmer waters, but listening to the VHF the gusts took a number of sailors by surprise.

Half Term Try Dives

During half term and the school holidays we like to run several try dive sessions for the youngsters in the area to let them find out what diving is all about. This week it was the turn of some of the lads from City Boys School in Portsmouth. 18 of the boys had a go and all of them thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Teachers from the school Mike and Kevin who are also club members, were there to lend a hand. They are hoping to start a dive club there in the near future with our help.

First Aid at Work

A week in latex gloves and messing around with rubber dummies! Who could resist. Many congratulations to Mandy Cox, Martin Walsh, Ian Brown, Pete Hulme and John Marchant on completing their 4 day FAW course. And a really big well done to Mandy, Ian and Martin who also completed their FAW Instructors course following on from the course.

Water Watch Week

Today David and I went to Wimborne school and talked to the children about Water Watch Week and how they can get involved. After the presentation there were some very good questions from the kids. When asked 'What will happen if we don't look after our planet?' one of the kids responded, 'We'll end up like our sister planet, Venus'!!!! eh?? I dunno!!

Carolyn Butler, a teacher at the school (and a PADI instructor) has agreed to start a Kids AWARE club to get them involved with environmental issues, which we will be supporting.

Scientific Speciality Course

Last weekend saw another busy few days of training in Horsea lake. However, it was also a unique occasion. As well as a DPV speciality and 12 students completing Open Water training we also conducted our second Scientific Diving Techniques speciality programme. The course, which is now a PADI distinctive speciality, combines a number of skills used in commercial and scientific diving projects and is the only course of its kind.

Dahab

Nearly all of us went on the boat down to Gabr el Bint yesterday (although one of our group skived off for a massage instead). We had three lovely dives including one on the prestine coral of Gabel Soraya. The sea was like a mill pond. So much so that as we ended the dives it was hard to see where the coral ended and met the surface because the reef was reflected so perfectly. Today some of us went south to Three Pools, Um Sid and Moray Gardens. Again all excellent dives, the highlight of which has to two fairly large mating octopuses. Most people plan to carry on diving tomorrow before our return trip on Sunday.

Hello from Dahab!

We've just finished our first day of diving which included Mashraba and the Islands, and are now sat in the sunshine deciding where to drink tonight (oh and eat of course). We arrived in Dahab at about 9pm last night and headed straight for Totas. I think we all agreed that it felt like we'd never left. There's not much evidence left of any bomb damage, however the town does seem very quiet. The highlight of today's diving is probably a labrador sized puffer fish. Other than that there's been Napolean Wrass, large families of Lion Fish and the odd large trigger fish in addition to the usual smaller fish. We're going down to Gabr el Bint on Thursday and so will hopefully have some dolphins and bigger fish to report then.

Club Members Support RNLI

Good news - 7 club members have now joined in and decided to compete in the Great South run to raise money for the RNLI. Any more who want to join us just give us a call. We have all the sponsorship forms in the dive centre - all you have to do is raise £200.

Another Busy Weekend in the Dive Centre

Just a bit busy! Not much change there. This weekend (13/14 May) has once again been manic. George and Steve have been going through an open water course with 10 students in the pool while Brett, Ian and Mel have been doing drysuit, advanced open water and nitrox courses in Horsea and Vobster Quay. The photo shows the guys down at Vobster, although camera shy Mel is taking the photo. Some of the club went on Trojan to dive the Highland Brigade and a warm welcome to our guests from Essex who normally dive with Adventure Divers, but fancied something different. Nice to see you down this neck of the woods.

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