Thursday 20th March to Monday 24th March
The weather reports for the weekend were looking horrendous. Karen’s thoughts on Wednesday night were to not bother towing the rib all the way to the coast but we decided that would be to defeatist for a bunch of hardy divers.
Dave and Marc arrived on Thursday night around 9.00pm closely followed by Karen and Pete with the Rib who conducted a thorough search of the caravan site looking for their home over the next 4 days. Under instruction from Mel, we decided to drink enough wine to keep us awake for her arrival at midnight.
Day 1 – The day started with the caravan shaking in the strength of wind forcing us to a late start and a ballast of sausages, bacon and eggs. A quick stroll to the beach to assess the sea state meant the diving was off and the hike was on. Armed with his map and compass Dave led us off into the unknown. The destination was Abbotsbury, 8 miles away. After the first mile medical assistance was required. Marc had developed blisters already! Thankfully Dave had some foreign gel plasters and with Marc patched up, on we went. We troughed through the shingle on the beach and found two wrecks, possibly the only ones we would see over the weekend. Eventually hit West Bexington and straight into the nearest café. The plan then quickly changed to discover the nearest pub which was a short walk up the hill to The Bull at Swyre. Marc’s feet were getting worse so, as a nice gesture, Mel offered to give him a piggy back home. After discovering he is heavy than her twin set she asked him somebody else to carry him, just like she does with her dive kit. One pint later we were back on the track only slowed down due to comfort breaks for the ladies. We arrived back at the caravan 6 hours after setting off, covering over 9 miles and missing all the rain!
The decision for Friday night was to try and eat all the calories we had worked off during the days exercise and this took us to The Anchor in Burton Bradstock. Pete and Karen had been before and Karen advised us not to have a starter, so we ordered a combo for four between the five us and it was sufficient for our main course. We then had our main course. Gluttony on such a scale, Pete almost passed out when he stood to try and leave.
Back at the caravan, with no central heating, we sat under blankets and coats. Pete was the first to bed nice and early. Karen decided to be sociable by staying up with the youngsters only to fall asleep on the sofa. We never did get to see flopper at the Caravan Parks ‘main bar’!
Day 2 – Despite the less than encouraging text messages to lil' Kev we awaited his 10.15am arrival by getting out of bed at 10.30. When he hadn’t arrived after breakfast at midday we decided to text him for his ETA. He replied “well I’m running a bit late cos of the snow on the way down, it still looks pretty windy but I’m in a car” (stupid boy cant he take a hint). Finally arriving after crashing into a fellow caravan’er he managed to convince Mel to get wet. It was an afternoon of outdoor activities, Kev’s mate was going swimming, Dave and Karen were off for another hike, Mel and Kev were going diving and Pete and Marc became boat bitchs for the day!
The dive – Due to some great team work, Pete and Marc managed to shot the Baggy on the second attempt. Kitting up for Mel and Kev was not easy in the high winds and choppy waters but thanks to the supporters they managed it without incident. Pete prepared to drop them off at the shot but miss judged the wind resulting in Mel hitting her head on the boat but at least managed to grab the line. Kev missed the shot altogether. The next attempt in getting Kev to the shot was done by holding on to him and dragging him through the choppy waters. After getting near the shot once more and missing it again Pete and Marc man-handled Kev back in the boat and left him face down flapping like the catch of the day and prepared for a third time lucky…. And it was.
Mel and Kev had a surprisingly nice dive, the vis was not as bad as expected and there was no snow. Unfortunately the same could not be said at the surface where Pete and Marc were suffering the sleet, snow and heavy winds awaiting their fellow dive buddies to come back. On their return Kev was once again man-handled back into the rib. In true newbie style he came up one side of the boat and struggled over to the other side to feed the fish.
Unfortunately in all the excitement Mel forgot to untie the shot. It was firmly fixed at the bottom and we ended up having to abandon it there. If anyone is reading this and planning a dive at the Baggy, could you please kindly return the semi-permanent shot to SNBSAC.
Meanwhile in a parallel universe the sensible ones who had selected to remain on dry land were trying to retain their footing in 40mhp winds. The views over Chesil beach and onwards to Worbarrow were stunning, as were the views back to Lyme Regis where they could see heavy snow falling over the dive site. A short 6 mile circuit resulted in an early pint just as the hail started. We all arrived back at the caravan around the same time only to find there was still no central heating. We settled down to hot cross buns and a brew and discussed our days events. The divers told the walkers what they had missed including Kev’s throwing up. Karen later asked the question ‘was it lumpy’ obviously referring to the state of the sea. Marc could not quite believe why Karen would be so interested in the texture of vomit.
The evening led us to The Bull for more food and wine and then back to the caravan for even more wine, snuggled under pink blankets due to the fact the caravan had no central heating. We agreed that no matter what the weather bought us the next day, we were going to set our alarms and go diving!
Day 3 bought tropical sunshine, flat calm seas and no wind…. we were then awoken by the sound of heavy rain, high winds and once again no central heating! We all conveniently forgot we planned a dive ‘no matter what’ and went on an Easter egg hunt instead. This was not too hard and didn’t involve getting cold and wet. It was on the table. Followed shortly after by a Full Monty. After a quick discussion we decided to cut the trip short and go home a day early.
The trip was not a success in terms of diving due to very poor weather. However, with great company, lots of wine, some beautiful scenery and a lovely caravan with no central heating..... we all had a great weekend!
Pete, Karen, Dave, Mel & Marc
