This weekend kicked off our UK RIB diving season, and what a success it was! 4 of us started the day early to leave for Selsey Bill. After evaluating our chances at the first launch site (East Beach) to be slightly outside of the capabilities of the family van towing our boat we settled for tractor launching from Bracklesham (via a quick fact finding detour to Bognor to find the slip there closed).
The Foreshore Office there were very helpful as they proceeded to effectively build us a way down to the beach with their tractor, before launching us into the waves. Luckily we had warmed up the engine on land, as we had to make a quick exit from the swell.
Once out on the water conditions were perfectly flat, cruising at 20 knots? Easy! We went round the headland to the Mulberrys, well marked and buoyed meant we didn’t have to spend time looking. Underwater we followed the chain from the buoy to the wreckage for a quick swim around (because of the late launch we were limited on time). A few crustaceans and nudibranchs later we swapped divers and surface cover, before recovering the second wave and heading back to shore.
This time recovery was a much simpler affair it was approaching low tide. A long day for a short dive but well worth the effort and we will be back again soon!
