We were so looking forward to our first sea dive off an RIB at Bracklesham and were somewhat disappointed to discover the night before the dive that the RIB had developed a leak and was no longer available. Determined to find a suitable alternative our Dive Master (Stuart Wilson) decided that a couple of shore entry dives off Selsey Bill would be the next best thing, so our plans and meeting place were adjusted accordingly with an 8.30 meet at Selsey Bill.
The journey was eventful with our driver, (Kathryn), diligently following the directions of her navigators until the front seat passenger (Barbara) thrust out her arm in an attempt to get all concerned to see the beautiful church over to the right on the hill top at Arundel. Unfortunately Kathryn took this as a sign to change direction on the roundabout and veered round to the right, putting Dave into panic mode with shouts from the back seat not to go right and keep left. Fortunately, there was no panic from the driver as she effortlessly continued around the roundabout and came back on course as if nothing had happened. Barbara's arms were then swiftly tied down in order to eliminate any further distractions. When we came back on course we were completely oblivious to the fact that we were then sandwiched between the two cars of our instructors and discovered later that they had been traveling behind us and noticed our change of direction but made no attempt to attract our attention and alert us to our error.
This failure to communicate their presence proved to be catastrophic because somewhere in those last few miles to our final destination the intrepid trio took a wrong turn and ended up in some remote car park at Selsey Bill with no sign of the instructors.
We were now 10 minutes late for our meet and as we were reaching for the mobile phones to call for assistance, Stuart rang. Instructions were given and we hastily retreated from the car park and proceeded back along the road to try and find the meeting point. Twenty minutes later we were still lost and put in another call to Stuart who, to our embarrassment, decided it would be safer to come and find us.
We had expected Stuart to come racing hot foot to collect and lead us back to the meeting point but, as time rolled on, it became obvious that he must be some distance away because there was no sign of him. Then, 15 minutes later, came another call. Our instructors had stopped off at the Dive Shop to ask for instructions to our location and to pick up some doughnuts! Nice to see they got their priorities right. To our amusement, the next we saw were three cars careering down the road in our direction, each one in turn veering off to park up. It was like the cavalry to the rescue.
Unfortunately, those lost 10 minutes had cost us our first dive of the day as we had missed the 'slack'. We greeted this news with long faces and they got even longer when we discovered that the next slack was not until 2.30. We were then faced with the alternatives of forgetting the dive altogether, driving round to the coastguard station to see if we could get a morning dive from there, or waiting for the next slack. The sea from the coastguard station did not look inviting, so we opted to wait for the afternoon slack and returned to the East Beach car park to while away the time.
The weather was beautiful so spending a few hours wandering around the fish market and sitting around drinking refreshments (and eating chips) was not unpleasant. Our instructors were extremely keen for us not to miss the next slack so we drove round to the lifeboat station at 12.30 and moved all our equipment down to the beach and then waited patiently for 2pm to arrive, when we all started to get ready for the dive.
The tension was mounting as the current was still running quite fast but as we watched, it slowly started to ease and eventually we were ready to enter the water. As there were only three pairs of divers it was agreed that Kathryn and Barbara would go in for the first dive with our instructors (Steve and Andrew), whilst Dave and Stuart kept watch on shore. This meant that we would only have half an hour each but we were all keen to get our first sea dive under our belts.
Kathryn went in first and immediately sank straight to the bottom. Barbara was in second and floated like a piece of flotsam. That meant hurried adjustments to the weight belts and then we were off again. This time Kathryn managed to control her descent and Barbara sank slowly, with a little help from Andrew. Visibility was not great but we were off on our first underwater sea adventure.
Kathryn managed to stay with Steve throughout the dive, stopping occasionally to pose for the odd photo. Steve did a very good job of pointing out the sea life, but Kathryn was not so good at spotting exactly what it was she was supposed to be looking at. Luckily Steve took lots of photos and after the dive was able to tell Kathryn what fish she had seen. Kathryn now aims to spend every waking minute in the library poring over pictures of fish so that next time she will know exactly what she is looking at.
Barbara stuck closely to Andrew as she didn't want to lose him in the murky waters if he decided to dart off to look at something interesting. In fact, she was so close that on a couple of occasions Andrew turned and caught the hose of her regulator and nearly yanked it out of her mouth! Fortunately, Barbara's teeth were gritted firmly around the mouthpiece and there was no way that was going to come out without a struggle. Andrew pointed our various interesting bits and pieces, one of which was a stainless steel pepper pot! He also pointed out an infant cuttlefish which, having spotted the divers, started to change colour and back off as its arms waved about in the sea and its tentacles shot up. Sadly the cuttlefish soon retreated out of sight in the murky waters and Andrew and Barbara were left to return to base.
Back on shore, it was now the turn of Dave and Stuart to venture into the murky unknown. They entered the depths, Dave feeling somewhat cautious because Steve had mentioned the area around the lifeboat house was a favourite haunt of the barracuda! They too found visibility poor but Stuart did a great job of pointing out what looked like bits of rock and vegetation but which, to Dave's surprise, turned out to be living creatures. Halfway through the dive Stuart indicated it was time to turn around and the way back proved just as interesting as they spotted lots of small fish and Dave actually found a silver spoon, which he felt might have been a relic from a sunken ship, and so brought it back as a souvenir. Dave's was still thinking about the barracuda and letting his imagination run a little when something grabbed his leg. He could see Stuart was in front of him and had no idea what could be attacking him until he looked around and saw the smiling face of Andrew and not some sea monster out to get him. His heart still pounding, he came to the surface and discovered that Andrew had indeed come to their rescue as he and Stuart had been swimming parallel to the shore and not towards it. This school boy error taught Dave that he should check his compass bearings before entering the water and not to rely on others to do it for him. Dave felt he learnt a lot during that short dive and was glad of the experience.
Despite every obstacle being placed in their way, the now not so Intrepid Trio thoroughly enjoyed their experiences on this trip and are looking forward to their next sea adventure. Thanks to all our instructors for their patience and guidance during our training sessions.
Kathryn Eley
Barbara Terrell
Dave Terrell
This article first appeared in the September 2005 edition of Billericay Diver
