Banned: Diving the HMS Hood...

Mark Williams wrote:

> Banned *all* diving on the HMS Hood beginning January 2004

Skipper: ...and we'll do a drift as second dive.

12 divers in unison: Oh come on now. We want a wreck.

Skipper: OK. We'll do one. Tide dependent.

< a few hours pass>

Skipper: Well our only choice now seems to be the Hood.

12 divers confer and discover one of them has already paid
for a weekend on this boat later in the year so mutiny and
keelhauling is out of the question.

<sigh> the Hood it is.

Never! Never again! Diving the Hood on a tide is manic.
Slack lasts milliseconds.

nigelH

>Never! Never again! Diving the Hood on a tide is manic.
>Slack lasts milliseconds.
>
>nigelH
>
>

Know just what you mean, I dived it once on "slack" with the intention of
relenting to one of those holes that tantalise and lure me into the 1st deck. I
drifted towards the hulk, holding onto rocks and bits of debris; nearing one
hole I felt the lure.

Not psychological lure, this was a rip roaring stream of water which Mr Dyson
would be proud of, it was taking the easy route through the hole and many
passages inside the hull to find an exit on the harbour side. Instant change of
plan as I drag myself clear of the orifice with the vivid mental image of my
very own Poseidon adventure to oblivion at the mercy of the tide.

People think of the Hood as a fall back dive when conditions are too rough to
get to the real dives. She is potentially a dangerous place to be either side
of slack. With the risk of being swept over, around or through the hulk. With
the tidal force of Portland harbour spilling in and out through the Hood I'm
not surprised that she's collapsing inside.

Don't misunderstand me, I still disagree with the diving ban and would "Drift
onto her" accidentally if I'm scalloping in the area.

Any OH SHIT! moments people wish to share about diving the Hood? Go on- post
anon if you don't want to admit to being imperfect.

On 12 Jan 2004 10:43:13 GMT, rhamp3601@aol.comnojunk (Rob Hampton)
wrote:
>
>Any OH SHIT! moments people wish to share about diving the Hood? Go on- post
>anon if you don't want to admit to being imperfect.

Oh sh1t!, rocks and mud. Wasn't there supposed to be a soddin' great
battleship round here somewhere?

David

>Any OH SHIT! moments people wish to share about diving the Hood? Go on- post
>anon if you don't want to admit to being imperfect.
>
>
>
>
>
>

Mud, rocks, a piece of metal, silt out from other divers....Bang on back of
head, looks up "OH SH1T!" Metal! We're inside the thing! Silt all around us,
How far? Which Bit? Pant Pant, Breathing rate doubles.

Kneeling down on something metalic, OH F***, desperately trying to relax and
save air, waiting still for a few minutes a green glow appears behind us.
Pheeew, The hole! We finger walked towards the light. (Not THE light! thats
meant to be bright white isn't it?)

We came out to rocks and a view as far as the end of my arm. The reel came out
and I lined off from a lobster pot to enjoy the rest of the dive with the
security of my piece of string.

"Rob Hampton" <rhamp3601@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
news:20040112075300.13822.00002690@mb-m10.aol.com...
> Mud, rocks, a piece of metal, silt out from other divers....Bang on back
of
> head, looks up "OH SH1T!" Metal! We're inside the thing! Silt all around
us,
> How far? Which Bit? Pant Pant, Breathing rate doubles.
>
> Kneeling down on something metalic, OH F***, desperately trying to relax
and
> save air, waiting still for a few minutes a green glow appears behind us.
> Pheeew, The hole! We finger walked towards the light. (Not THE light!
thats
> meant to be bright white isn't it?)
>
> We came out to rocks and a view as far as the end of my arm. The reel came
out
> and I lined off from a lobster pot to enjoy the rest of the dive with the
> security of my piece of string.
>

I remember that one :o)


--
Andy C
God invented turbo lag so V8's can have a chance!
http://home.clara.net/andy.c

"Andy C" <dre@m.on> wrote in message
news:1073926463.84333.0@dyke.uk.clara.net...
>
> "Rob Hampton" <rhamp3601@aol.comnojunk> wrote in message
> news:20040112075300.13822.00002690@mb-m10.aol.com...
> > Mud, rocks, a piece of metal, silt out from other divers....Bang on back
> of
> > head, looks up "OH SH1T!" Metal! We're inside the thing! Silt all around
> us,
> > How far? Which Bit? Pant Pant, Breathing rate doubles.
> >
> > Kneeling down on something metalic, OH F***, desperately trying to relax
> and
> > save air, waiting still for a few minutes a green glow appears behind
us.
> > Pheeew, The hole! We finger walked towards the light. (Not THE light!
> thats
> > meant to be bright white isn't it?)
> >
> > We came out to rocks and a view as far as the end of my arm. The reel
came
> out
> > and I lined off from a lobster pot to enjoy the rest of the dive with
the
> > security of my piece of string.
> >
>
> I remember that one :o)
>
>
> --
> Andy C
> God invented turbo lag so V8's can have a chance!
> http://home.clara.net/andy.c
>
>
OK,

Maybe I dare to pitch in with a different kind of "oh sh*t" story about the
Hood. Well, about channel diving really I suppose?

A couple of years back in March I was coming to London for a business trip.
A local business contact had set me up with Matt S and the good folks at
South Sea SAC for a weekend of diving prior to my conference.

I arrived to Portsmouth via Heatrow lugging my diving gear by taxi. Saturday
morning we gathered at Portsmouth harbour waiting for our hardboat. The
first dive was to be an easy drift at Bracklesham bay. To this date I'm
unshure if there was actually supposed to be something in the bottom, but in
actuality we ended up lookin at the empty sand. Plus, of course, there was
absolutely no current. So, an easy drift it was.... The second dive in
Saturday was on a Mulberry unit somewhere out there and this was actually
quite OK - despite the fact that the guys apparently paired me with someone
nobody else wanted to dive with.

Sunday morning saw us riding Matt's car to Portland to dive THE HOOD. I
mean, look, a famous battleship wreck and all. We waited quite some time at
the carpark for our carefully calculated departure time to get there at
slack. Once we arrived at the harbour entrance, it was quite apparent that
the current was running at a respectable speed and in addition there was a
healthy chop on the surface. The cockswain decided these were not diveable
conditions and dropped us in stead at the Dutchess. OH SH*T, there goes my
battleship! Viz on the Dutchess was about a meter or so, so I felt very much
at home.

For the second dive of the day we decided to do an easy drift (!) outside
the Portland breakwater. So, the boat dropped us at the northern (?) end of
the breakwater and headed south to wait for us. All nice and smooth. Except,
that is, that the current was actually running the other way! After a
moderate push upcurrent my buddy (Brent?) came to me and wrote on a slate I
was carrying: "THIS IS SHIT!!". I took this as a request to call the dive
and so we did.

Sunday evening Matt took me to Havant by car and I took a train to London
and hung my dripping kit to dry in my bathroom at hotel Cavendish. For some
reason or the other, I got some strange looks from the cleaning lady the
next morning.

Now, do not get me wrong. This was a quite enjoyable trip all in all and I'm
still looking forward to get back someday. It's just, well, oh sh*t!

So, despite the fact I have not actually dived the Hood, I still hold a fond
memory of almost having dived her.

Thanks Matt.

timo

Hi Zak,

I just noticed your mention of the survey. That was organised by our
local dive charter association, and covered licenced commercially
operating boats in Weymouth and Portland. We worked out that visitors
diving on charter boats alone bring close to £5m of tourist revenue to
the area. The effort of filling in all those forms was worthwile, as
it has helped us to raise awareness of the importance of diving
visitors, and is very timely given the ban on diving the Hood - the
most popular wreck in the area.

As an update on that, the response from the diving public has
surprised the port, and Central Government have been made aware of the
lack of consultation by the harbour authority. This is where we want
to put our efforts now, so anyone who has not as yet written to
Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport could usefully
do so. Just 2-300 letters will make an impact, so every letter counts.
Contact details and the latest progress on the campagin are posted on
www.divedorset.com.

Thanks again to all the divers who helped with the survey.

Liisa Wallace
Chairman,
Weymouth & Portland Dive Charter Association