Fortuna Dive 26th June from Sea Zones

I hadn't planned to dive on Saturday as I was hoping to get out on Sunday but other commitments for Sunday left me desperate to make the best of the flat sea's and hot weather. I had noticed on Friday night that Mick Luff had some spaces still left on Seazones for Saturday so a quick phone call bagged a couple of spaces on the hope I could fill the other space Ernie was also booked on to do his first dives of his TDI course. After TXTing out Trez came back first and filled the space apologies to everyone else this was a last minute thing so the spaces couldn't be advertised on the blog.

A perfect day flat calm a real cherry of a diving day got me licking my lips with anticipation. a fire in Newhaven made the journey in a bit frustrating as all the roads were closed and traffic was being diverted but got there in the end.

Boat loaded and we headed out to the Fortuna an old favourite. When we arrived another boat had dropped a shot as was disgorging a deck full of divers "that's the vis gone then" I thought. Soon we were kitted up and it was a relief to get into the water and down the shot. Once on the wreck the vis was a little disappointing being around 4-5m but still acceptable with plenty of light.

We headed to the stern and the steering quadrant and I was hit by how much the wreck is broken up since my last visit. Swinging around the stern we cut back into midships and the holds still stacked full of bags of cement.

We then had a little episode of underwater kit adjustment for Trez before heading towards the bow through the shoals of Bib and Pollack. It was soon time to think about ascending and Trez sent her SMB up but the reel jammed so she had to release it and I sent mine up instead.

Once back on board it was time to tuck into Micks now legendary Seascones and head of towards Birling Gap for a drift but on arrival the water colour was looking very off colour and we opted out of the drift but Ernie and the tekkie team went in to do some skills and guess what a minute later they popped back up not being able to see their hands in front of their faces, although 2 other divers who had travelled down from Bedfordshire decided to dive it out for at least 30 minutes tied together on a buddy line god knows what they were looking at.

Diving over we headed back to Newhaven for a drink and a chat and to find that Newhaven was still closed due to the earlier fire so getting out was very slow going.

Summer is well and truly here England are out of the World Cup but Sussex still offers world class diving. Bring It On.

Video to follow.

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