Report by Andrew Hubbard
Olivia & Dave at the end of their dive
After a positively sedate start at 10.30 preparing the boat and breakfast we set off in bright sunshine down the river and headed East to about a mile off Worthing pier. The Waypoint on the satnav revealed a seabed doing a good ironing board impression – so we headed for the wreck symbol on the chart instead. After a little searching some spikes appeared. A circle round confirmed the spikes so off went the shot. This showed it was nice slack water so Dave and Olivia were kitted up and dropped in (at 13.20 – HW at Littlehampton 14.49 at 5.5m). 30 minutes later Olivia’s DSMB reappeared next to the shot but then drifted “miles” in the next 10 mins before they surfaced to inform us that even having done a textbook circular search pattern to 25m out from the shot there was no wreck, although there were odd bits of wreckage and it was an “OK” dive.
With slack now well gone, Andrew and Jenny opted to go in for a drift. After sending the shot rocketing skywards on a lifting bag, Jenny’s DSMB was duly deployed and we drifted off to almost immediately find a small bit of wreckage but also a huge shoal of Bib. We were clearly very near the wreck. So near but so far! The current dragged us away over shale with a few small rocks – a nice, easy drift in reasonable vis and good light but not very interesting! After 30 mins we set off back up to “our world”. By this time the wind and waves had got up and a sharp squall came in so a second drift was abandoned and we headed back to the Arun in the rain and gathering gloom.
