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British steel, Thai spice and sea life in every direction
Portland dive trip - 28th / 29th June
Team: Angie (Dive Boss, Cox), Chris (Shot line sensei / Cox)
Divers: Sam, Jo, Andy, Paul, Frank
We kicked things off with a dive on the British Inventor, a steamship sunk by a mine in 1940. The wreck was full of sea life — walls of fish, lobsters and crabs tucked into crevices, and eels both swimming freely and peeking out from hiding spots. With 10m visibility, Andy put his eagle eyes to good use spotting everything, while Jo captured the action on camera.
Next up was a drift on Grove Point, where the two teams helpfully headed off in opposite directions — just to keep the coxes sharp. It felt more like a rocky crawl than a drift at first, but when we surfaced, we were a considerable distance apart… turns out the current had been doing more than we thought.
Dinner at Mona’s Thai delivered a different kind of heat. A few bold decisions made and between the chilli levels and general spice intensity, several sinuses were cleared.
Sunday started with a dive on the Countess of Erne, a paddle steamer turned wreck with great viz, plenty of swim-throughs, drop ins and a toilet that looked in need of Angie’s disinfectant. Jo was filming again, capturing some excellent shots including Sam’s impressive wave-and-vanish routine. Unfortunately, she missed Paul slowly drifting off mid-stop while concentrating on his superman pose — next time!
The final dive took us to the HMS M2, a submarine with a fascinating story. Conditions were perfect: flat calm, no wind, no tide. The shot line somehow landed exactly on the conning tower. Chris swears that was intentional. It was so accurate, we should have heard the sound of metal on metal from the surface. The dive itself was a highlight — with the launch bay, torpedo tubes, conning tower and superstructure all clearly visible. Jo and Andy managed to reach the stern too. There’s still more to explore, so we’ll be back.
Huge thanks to the team and especially Angie and Chris for managing the weekend so smoothly and keeping things running both on the boat and below the surface. Great dives, great company.
