RIB Diving and the Highland Brigade

I took out the branch RIB last Sunday (5th July). Me, Karen, Ricky, John and Julia aiming to do the Highland Brigade and the Luis, both just South of the Isle of Wight.
It was going to be a long day with a 5am start from Dunstable and a likely finishing time of around 11:00pm. This didn’t really appeal and when Ricky announced that he had a 5 man self erecting tent it seemed like a good idea to go down the night before and see just how well we all got on together.
This was the first time that I’ve taken Dunstable Diver on a trip without Alan, our trusty boat officer, to hand so while I spent the previous week checking out the dive details, (height of tide, positions, slack water etc) and sorting out the boat, everyone else sorted out food, campsite, air (there isn’t any!!!), transport, and all of the other things that I forget.
And so it was at around 8:30pm on Saturday, Karen, myself and Dunstable Diver arrived at “Rickys Place” to be greeted by Ricky, John and Julia doing all sorts of useful boy scout and girl guide type tasks and trying to ensure that Rickys tent stayed up all night. Things seemed to be going well – I hesitate to say “to plan” as, apart from the diving plan we hadn’t got to creating one. John and Julia decided to go hunting for food, Karen and I unloaded the table, chairs, hammock, bath, wardrobe etc from my trusty Focus (or Tardis as it seems to have become) while Ricky learnt how to operate his car keys (with tuition from me) and scouted the local area for dangers…. By the time that everything was ready at base camp John and Julia had located, killed and cooked dinner, - fish and chips.
With a few beers and a bottle of wine the witty banter continued into the evening until at about 11:30 it seemed a good idea to get to bed. Miraculously we all got a good nights sleep although I did at one stage have to kick Ricky in the head to stop him snoring.
06:00 Sunday. I get up and scramble out of the tent only to discover that the electronic keycards that let you into the toilet block only seem to work once and you have to wait cross legged until someone else arrives.
Returning to base camp there is little sign of life from the others so being an early riser I take the cover off the boat, power up the electronics and start to play. Having downloaded the GPS manual from the internet I spend half an hour finding out how to do things and inputting positions.
By this time tea and coffee is on the go and and Karen and Julia have lit the Aga for breakfast. Sausage and Bacon butties. The smell is sheer temptation and any thoughts of being on a diet disappear completely. Breakfast over I go back to the boat while the others clear the campsite.
We leave the site a little later than anticipated, but no worries the slipway at Eastney is only half a mile away. Rickey and I, Karen and the boat head for the slip. Miraculously, John and Julia, with John at the wheel, get lost – and their mobiles are off….
Reunited 15 minutes later we pull up together at the slip, get the boat ready and our diving kit loaded. Time is beginning to get a bit tight. I have also underestimated how long it takes to get from boat on trailer and kit in car to boat and kit on water and divers on board. 30 minutes turns into around an hour and the fudge factor in the dive plan is seriously eroded. Never mind with a calm sea and a good run we can still get two waves of divers in the water during the 70 minutes of slack water. At this stage Luton club ask to tag along as their GPS has stopped working and they need a hand to find the Highland Brigade.
With Karen at the controls and everyone else hanging on we start the 12 mile trip South. Karen follows the little highway on the GPS screen and all seems to be going well. Then, after about 2 miles the outboard decides to take a rest. For some reason it (she?) thinks that 3500RPM on a Sunday morning is a bit fast so she drops to around 1000RPM for a couple of minutes before getting her second wind and charging off again at full speed. She does this a couple of times and by now we have completely lost the fudge factor in the dive plan. Despite Karens best efforts we are going to miss the first part of slack water. I decide to change the plan. If we put Karen, Ricky and John in together they should still get a good dive and Julia and I can look after the boat. We are still not sure what the problem is with the outboard so I will stay on the boat and think….
When we arrive there are three other RIBS on site, so after exchanging pleasantries we use the shot line that is already in and put our divers in the water. They have a really good dive, in slack water and good visibility. Julia and I play with the boat, do bombing runs with echo sounder and GPS and ponder the outboard which is now running OK.
With everyone on board we head to Shanklin where Karen and I know a good ice cream shop, for lunch and a sunbathe. We have 3 hours to kill before setting off for the Luis and the afternoon low water slack. Ricky goes for a swim without his suit on.
Ricky and I take the boat for a quick spin to see if we can diagnose why the outboard was wheezing earlier and come to the conclusion that it is probably fuel starvation, maybe dirt in a filter or a blocked breather in one of the tanks. She is running OK now.
Julia and I are first to dive on the Louis, once again using a shotline that another boat has put in. It’s the first time that we have dived together and we have a good
30 minutes exploring the wreck and following the propshaft. Karen then dives with Ricky and has another good dive with Ricky finding a shell that, owing to “insufficient tools” he just can’t shift.
All are recovered into the boat and John takes us East along the southern edge of the Isle of Wight before Ricky takes over on the high speed Northerly leg of the journey. Having shown him how to use his car keys earlier I gently suggest that the throttle on the boat has more than just two positions…….
We recover the boat at low tide using a rope from the trailer to the front of my Focus and reversing up the slip with Ricky lifting the nosewheel of the trailer to keep it from digging into the sand.
Boat recovered, everyone dekitted and dressed we head home via a very nice carvery and arrive at the boatsheds about 11:15pm to put her to bed. On Tuesday evening she gets a hose down and the engine flushed with fresh water. A good time was had by all.

So why expend all of this effort on using the RIB when you can hire a hard boat for a similar cost? Two reasons really. The first is that the idea was only suggested on the previous Monday and I was asked to plan it. You can’t hire a hard boat at short notice and they tend to go where they want to. With the RIB we are in control. There is additional work and planning involved but tides and weather permitting you can do what you want to do.
Secondly, it is an adventure. There are times when I am a diving tourist (Red Sea, Maldives etc) but I have never been someone who just wants to sit around and be taken places. Even on hard boats I like to know where we are going, what the tides are doing, look at the chart plotter etc. I don’t just want to be a passenger. On a RIB dive you, and the people around you make it happen. The whole weekend was full of things to do, banter, laughing, learning opportunities and excitement. Virtually everyone drove the boat, we all had at least one dive and everyone enjoyed themselves.
And when it was all over, and your head is about to hit the pillow there is this wonderful sense of achievement. We did that!!!

Phil Wells

DSAC Training

Greg, Hilary and I went up to Stoney on Tuesday 23 June and I was quite excited to read on the noticeboard that there was 5m vis ………. in their dreams. Why has it been so poor this year, or is it just when I visit? (please don’t answer that). Anyway after a quick practice of the tow and rescue we dived and I am pleased to report that Greg obtained a signature for his Sports rescue but even more pleased to say that Hilary did really well handling the SMB as we repeatedly went up and over and around the Nautilus, actually much more challenging than doing it around the Helicopter – the original plan that was changed when we saw the vis. She, for almost a second, did think about following me under the pub but very wisely declined and waved the reel in my face. Despite the vis we saw lots of fish, had a great day and 2 signatures were deservedly earned.

Haydn

Deflated

Ok where has it gone, there was no way out but still it escaped!
In Scapa I noticed my SMB kept going down on me ;-)
Just found out the little round seal in the valve is missing grrr......

Paul

Scapa Flow June 09

Well this was my big event, which could have gone wrong in a monumental way.
I decided to book this trip last year, having always wanted to dive the German Fleet in Orkney. The plan was formulated with 10 out of the 12 flying to Aberdeen and the other two driving a van with all the gear, at this point we all board the ferry to Kirkwall in Orkney. We started at Luton airport, all looking good, the van was on route having left early that morning. The first hiccup was our plane that we had just boarded, we were told that the engine was about to fall off or something similar and we would need a replacement plane. We all assumed the worst, but good old Easyjet had a spare at Luton, so 30 minutes later we were on our way. I must say I breathed a sigh of relief when we were all on board the ferry with all the kit. After that the week was fantastic, surely I am never going to top that weeks diving? Needless to say every one had a fantastic week and all arrived home safely with plenty of stories from the deep.

Tim Martin