T R Thompson Wreck Dive ~ 6th September

The weather gods were smiling Sunday morning when the group from Rother Diving Club and Meridian Divers met up at the Sussex Yacht club at Shoreham to join Chris West's Hard boat Buccaneer. The plan was to motor out to the MD project wreck The T.R.Thompson.

After the appalling weather of the last week we were not expecting miracles but the sea was glassy smooth and the sun was shining and warm.

After an hours motor we reach the site and there was already a rib packed with divers from TWSAC waiting for slack. Buccaneer crew member Roger popped in and tied the shot in for us.
Soon it was our turn to dive but the sky had become overcast so we expected darkness down on the wreck. Exiting Buccaneer is a little unconventional but not a problem so Nicky Steve and myself rolled in and descended into the gloom or should I say pitch black and before long we hit the wreck and after a bit of searching we had soon orientated ourselves and set off to enjoy the dive. We swam over the engines and down to the railings and winches. even though it was pitch black we were really enjoying the dive as when conditions are like this you tend to see the smaller things with more detail. In fact we were enjoying the dive so much we allowed ourselves to go into a little deco time but all too soon we had to think about our ascent and stops on the way up.

Getting back onto Buccaneer is as interesting as the exit and in fact Steve enjoyed it so much he popped back in (unintentionally) and did it again.

We had planned to do a second dive but as the conditions were picking up and becoming lumpy we canned it and headed back to port. On the way back just off Brighton we were greeted by flipper a lone Bottlenose dolphin playing near a net buoy, no doubt looking for a free lunch which was a nice touch to end a great day on.

A big thanks to Chris West Skipper , Roger and Dave the Buccaneer crew. A nice little boat and great crew will definitely take up Chris's offer of some more dives and midweek stuff in the near future.

Thanks to the Rother Diving Club boys and Girls for joining us and can't wait to do it all again with you and Thanks to Graham at OV for passing on the dive to us.

Divers
Nicky
Steve
Tony
Ian
Andy
Simon
Ernie
Tad