Fortunate on the Fortuna for Meridian Divers

The plan had been to Dive the City of Waterford on Sunday and with the weather continuing to be fantastic lots of other boats were out in force on the Channel. As we approached the Waterford site it was clear that quite a few others, mainly fishing boats, had the same idea.

A brief chat with Mick skipper of Sea Zones soon saw us back tracking to the Fortuna where there wasn't a another boat in sight. Hang on a sec,as soon as we arrived we were joined by two other dive boats which wasn't too bad, better than mixing it with fishing lines I suppose.

After the dark dive on the T.R.T last weekend the water colour looked very promising especially after the shot was dropped you could see the line quite a way down so we kitted up in anticipation. I ummed and aaarrrred about taking the camera in and decided to give it a go.

Once in the water we headed down the shot and it soon became apparent that this was going to be a cracker of a dive. The wreck opened out below us covered in fish visibility easily 8m+ torches were only needed to light the holes to say hello to the congers and crabs.

I have always been lucky diving the Fortuna when it comes to viz and this dive was not an exception. Diving on Nitrox gave us plenty of time to explore the cargo of cement still stacked in the holds destined for a long forgotten building project and poke around the machinery lying long abandoned on the now collapsed decks.

The stern looked amazing with the light filtering through the exposed ribs and huge shoals of fish meandering like the traffic on the M25 during the Monday morning rush hour, going nowhere fast.

With the camera capturing the the scenes before us I was so glad I had made the decision to bring it down to the wreck.

All to soon it was time to head back up to the surface and enjoy a nice cup of the hot stuff and Micks tasty home made Sea Scones much to the envy of his own dive club aboard one of the neighbouring boats, it seems the Sea Zones Sea Scones are legendary.

After a relaxing chugg in the sun back to Seaford bay we kitted up for the second dive on the Gullies. I chose not to take the camera in for this and it was a wise choice due to the ripping current and trying to stay still to film would have been impossible.

All the usual suspects were back from their winter holidays plus a very large grumpy looking lumpsucker guarding its eggs which is a first for me off Seaford. The viz was about 3m. A great day was had by the MD'ers aboard and our thoughts went out a (little bit) to those who couldn't make it on the day due to a an untimely dose of Man Flu.

Divers : Trez , Tracy , Simon , Jim , Ernie , Tad

Thanks to Mick Luff of Sea Zones for looking after us again and being a great Skipper. A video of the Fortuna dive will be posted shortly once its edited. Fortuna photo courtesy of Sea Breeze

Tad