Saturday 12th June
Portland
Wrecks of the Countess of Erne (14m) and Landing Craft (17m)
Temp approx 15
Vis bloody awful
No tide or current as inside the harbour
Clear skies and warm
Buddies Scott and Sean
Diving from Saracen, RIB

On Friday I had called to confirm that we were booked on the dives and that our hire gear (a plate/harness/wing plus a couple of tanks) were all good to go. ALthough I did not pass the news onto Sean and Scot, I had been told that the conditions had been great and that vis was very, very good. I was looking forward to getting the camera in the water and clicking off some shots of the Countess' bow.

Up early on Saturday for the little under 2.5hr drive. I stole 15minute sleep whil waiting for Underwater Explorers to open and then went over to collect my brabd new twinset - Faber 12ltr with Scubapro manifold, rubber knobs and Highland Mills bands, straight out of the DIR handbook. I picked them up, had a chat with Nina and then went to get an air-fill and put my kit together. I don't know what it says about me, but I am still like a kid at Christmas when I have new toys. I put the gear together and took a look at it. Damn fine, even if I did think so myself. And with the newly fixed number-plate letters 'KF' on the cannister light and 'KF' writen on the plates storage pack it looked very hardcore (far too hardcore for such 'soft' dives!!)

Scott and Sean arrived at around 09:00 and we went through the motions of getting them ready for our fist dive at 10:00. I was feeling a little flustered as I like to have plenty of time to spare, but need not have worried undeuly as we made it to Saracen with seconds to spare. We would have to cross fingers that harnesses were sized correctly (or near enough), and in my flusterdness I decided not to take the camera. As it turned out this was no big deal.

Sracen had 10 passenges, which is still OK for the vessel. Our skipper Simon asked that we de-kit for the short trip over the harbour, which was a pain as my harness is snug and getting back into the twins on a RIB was not somehting I was looking forward to. But skipper is master and commander, so off the kit came.

It was a leisurely motor across to the Countess. We hung back until the other passengers were well under way with kitting up and then I helped Scott and Sean a little with their kit. I was pleased to be able to slip into my rig quite easily, and then got he OK from the skipper to roll in. At which point i fwlt the wetness around my left foot. Just were the newly fitted boot connected to the suit. It was not a flood of water and certainly not enough to call the dive right there on the surface, but enough to really annoy me as this was the first dive after having Hydrotech, the DUI warranty agent in the UK, fit new boots to my suit. Scott and Sean did their final checks - probably more throughly than they had for sometime as they were now DIR kitted and in unfamiliar gear. Then they rolled in, we met up at the shot and away we went.