A day at the seaside
Didn’t we have, a lov-er-ly time, the day we went to, er… Bognor.
Well, actually we did… What had promised to be an under-subscribed weekend made for a full boat of people who nipped down to Littlehampton on Sunday for a gentle plop in what turned out to be excellent conditions (underwater at least).
I wasn’t due to go (having another diving trip cancelled then deciding to go at the last minute). I nearly didn’t make it even after all that - only writing down the postcode and no other directional information doesn’t get you very far if your Sat Nav craps out mid-journey. Having used up my reserve time driving round Littlehampton trying to find signs for the Marina, I resigned myself to having missed the strict departure time, so stood on a bridge overlooking the river waiting to at least waive to the boat as it headed out to sea. Fortunately, some last minute phone directions from Alex and a delay due to some London Branch faffing (hard to believe, I know) got me on the boat with minutes to spare.
First stop, the Mixon Hole (or “near-the-Mixon-Hole” for some). Conditions were a bit foggy, but it was just do-able with SMBs. My dive was a gentle drift with Alex S and Richard. Highlights we drifted past were a decent sized Thornback Ray, some kind of pipefish and a handheld radio (OK, so it was funny at the time).
Feeding time at the zoo
After lunch - we all brought a bag of snap to eat on the beach - we then dived the Far Mulberry. The fog had lifted so we moored up on the, er, mooring buoy along with two other boats. I’d worked out that I hadn’t dived this since my qualifying dive for Ocean Diver some years ago. It had broken up a bit since then, but there was still the large shoals of fish that I remembered, plus a cuttlefish which are always cool to watch.
A race against the clock back to the marina who were waiting for us to pull the boat out, all hands to the deck to help wash her down and secure her and we all headed back to London after a thoroughly enjoyable day out.
Thanks to Morgan for marshaling, Keith for driving the Landy, Hannah for baking biscuits, Alex and Richard for being good buddies and everyone else for the company.
London Branch at its best. So to all you recent joiners, get yourself signed up for the next branch trip now!
Joe