T R Thompson Wreck Dive ~ 31st August

Despite dire warnings from the weather broadcasts the Gods smiled upon us today. We had some sunny spells amid what was otherwise a fairly grey day. Eight of us met up at Newhaven at 0945 for a 1030 ropes off.

There were several dive boats in the Marina both local and from further afield. You can go anywhere in the world as a SCUBA diver and almost always find there will be a friendly welcome from other divers and today that kind of dive spirit was maintained by Tunbridge Wells divers who came along side us while we were loading Sea Zones and wished us a good days diving. Though I think it was perhaps too much to expect everyone to be cheery on early start on a grey Sunday morning as there was a lack of 'Yo Ho Ho' in some quarters , probably the effects of the proverbial bottle of rum!!

The sea was also good to us with a light swell on our hour long route out to the T R Thompson. Mick (Skipper) neatly shotted the wreck amidships and Ernie & I were the first down to send up the shot on a buoy. It was pretty dark down there (our Max Depth was 30m) but there was a reasonable 2 to 3 metres of viz whic enabled us to find our way around quite well. We passed the Wreath laid on our previous TRT dive , still firmly fixed to the railings.

Our tour took us along the gunwhales to the area of the steering quadrant, we passed the spare prop blade and the deck gun before launching a DSMB and heading back to hot tea, coffee , chocolate and buttered scones , very civilised!

Moving inshore for a drift dive, the sea looked a little less inspiring (couldn't see four rungs down the dive ladder)! Nevertheless five of our eight thought they ought to give it a go , some made about ten minutes and others about thirty, all said the viz was rubbish, which has been par for the course recently . Oh well (again) better luck next time!