27 Nov
Portland
Joe and Marcin
Aelian Sky
12 degrees in the water, 1m vis and a cuurent. Overcast and about 10 degrees.

Well not a great deal to say about this dive other than it was good to be back in the water, get some skills practiced and make ready for the winter to come. The seas were flat and the sunrise had seen a clear crisp start to the day. The clarity did not last and it clouded a bit as we headed out from the dock at 09:00 for the 45min trip to the wreck. On site we jumped in first - geared up and in with little kerfuffle. A good start.

Six minutes later we reached the wreck. Yes, 6 minutes to descend into a current and we did not get a sight of the sky until we were on top of it. Our plan had been, once again, to head for the accomodation block and then try to get to the engine room. Well 20minutes of swimming who knows which direction and that plan was out of the window. We kept on swimming around - Joe managed to have a diver fin his head repeatedly as we got to, er, well, I'm not sure where we aere. That was the highlight, although I dare say not for Joe.

Other highlights were the huge ancjor and two - yes, just two - fish, one a tompot. Forty minutes up we bagged from the wreck and made for the surface, which we got to on the hour after breathing 50/50 from 21m. On the bottom Joe and I used the EAN28 we had from the aborted October trip and Marcin was on trimix.

We did our gas switch quickly and easily and then played practiced shutdowns at 6m, and then, hot choc on the baot and it was all over. All over because the conditions in the water had been that crap that we decided to pass on the afternoon dip n the M2. Roll on the new year...