Indiana Dive Sunday 18th April

After the Easter diving had been cancelled I was getting itchy fins for my first sea dive of the year . Come up trumps Ocean View who had a space on Chris West's Buccaneer and as I was already down on the coast for the weekend I jumped at the chance to join the OV guys on their trip out to the wreck of the Indiana about 1.5 miles off Worthing, I had never dived this wreck before and as this would be an easy dive, conditions allowing, it would give me the chance to get the camera in for the first time this year.

I like Buccaneer a lot there is a real old fashioned charm about it. Skippered by Chris with Dave as Crew, we left shoreham in warm sunshine and flat calm seas hoping that the vis would be at least a couple metres, Chris had been out on Saturday and they had dived the City of London with a very dark and silty 1-2m vis but at least with the Indiana being very shallow there should be plenty of light.

About 45 minutes later we arrived over the wreck which only lies in 11m of water and the shot was dropped in and me being given the job of tying in I was soon kitted along with Nigel and popped in and down. Guess what we were blessed with around 8-1om horizontal vis and top to bottom vis wow.

Now I wouldn't really call the the Indiana a wreck dives cos there really isn't much that is recognisable as a ship its all completely broken up and flattened more like a reef,but what the Indiana lacks in being a good wreck it more than makes up for in life. With large shoals of bib and pollack following you around, some very large wrasse and some very very large congers, lying under the collapsed plates kept us more than interested for 68 minutes when it was the cold and the strengthening tide that forced us to leave the bottom and head back up the awaiting Buccaneer and hot coffee.

All the divers on board had a great dive. This is the perfect dive for those first ventures out into open water for the inexperienced and even for those with a few years and pounds under our belts there is still enough to keep you interested.

Thanks to Ocean View for the offer of the space and their divers for making me welcome. Thanks to Chris West and Dave from Buccaneer for another great trip out I'll be back soon.

Video to follow shortly