A Day with Wittering Divers - May 06
Meeting down at Bracklesham Bay for a club dive arranged with Wittering Divers, I was looking forward to diving the Mulberry Harbour that I had heard so much about.
I had been intrigued by the history of these incredible constructions for some time. They are huge prefabricated sections that were built here during the Second World War and then pulled/floated over to France to become part of several large harbours. Dozens of these units were built and dragged over to the French coast line for D Day. They were to be used to land fuel and ammunition for the assault troops but one or two such as this one, never made it and now has become a natural reef for a myriad of marine life.
Unfortunately my strobe for some reason was not working so the day wasn’t quite as successful as I had hoped. However, one thing that really intrigued me about this dive were the bold pollack that swam round you on the shot line. I have never experienced this in the UK; only in warmer waters have I ever found fish to be this confident. It was lovely to watch them swimming round while we did our five metre stop.
The second dive was a drift over the fossil beds which was a little boring (and I got cold) but this could have something to do with the fact that we never found any of the fossilised sharks teeth! Having mainly a sandy bottom there is very little to actually see apart from the occasional retreating fish and odd bit of weed.
The boats from Wittering Divers came along the coast and met us in the bay for this diving. They are a very professional outfit with obviously a good knowledge about the area. However, I found getting out and back to the ribs very tiring as this involved lots of kitting up and dekitting in and out of the boats and water each time and finally a very long walk up the beach and slipway as the tide had retreated by the time we finished the second dive.
