Portland Training Weekend - A Trainees point of View

Attendees:

Mike Robinson, Rick Jenkins, Chris King, Steve Jones, Wendy Martin, Rachel Millar, Peter Bond, Helen Pettersson, Fiona Gill, Alex Gough, Pat & Barry Hunt.

Accommodation : Aqua Sports Hotel
Very reasonably priced at £25.00 per head per night. Location is everything.  Right at the waters edge.  All the facilities we needed.  A café to warm up in after the dives.  Air filling station. Drying room for the wet suits etc. Rooms basic but clean, warm and loads of hot water in the showers.Staff were friendly and accommodating.  Allowed us all to keep our rooms until 3 p.m. on the Sunday, so we could shower after the last dive.
Dive Platform : Old Harbour Divers
	Ian and Felix were fantastic! Couldn’t do enough for us, even helped Chris on with his fins!  They were reassuring and helped encourage and coax us.  They even went as far as taking Alex for a boat ride when the rest of us were having lunch. When I had an anxious moment, because by regulator was making a noise, they calmed me down and offered encouragement. Really helped us enjoy the trip.

Dive Sites:

Mulbury Units :
Countess of Erne :	In its prime the Countess of Erne was a paddle steamer, but was used in later life as a coal hulk in Portland harbour. It sank in 1935 after its moorings broke lose. The site is within the shelter of the harbour, parallel to the northeast wall next to the white lighthouse - there is usually a fixed shot marking the stern which is the north end of the wreck. The wreckage lies upright and is still intact, although much of the superstructure has gone. The visibility can be really bad because of the its location inside silty Portland Harbour. There is some fish life however, and a few holes in the wreck to inspect. It lies upright on the sea floor and some of the holds could be entered if the visibility allowed it.
Visibility was so poor the neither the skipper nor the instructors felt we should leave the safety of the harbour.

The instructors did a fantastic job in poor conditions.  It was extremely cold; the visibility was very poor (less than 1m).  They gave us lots of confidence and re-assurance.  We all achieved lots of firsts.  For Barry and I , first time off a boat, first time down a shot line, first time off a running line, first time on a wreck, first time trying to get our weight belt and equipment off in the water.  All of these firsts made possible, because the instructors were there offering support and encouragement.  The skipper and Felix were also brilliant.

Considering the Instructors give up their time and even pay for their own accommodation to help train us.  We both learnt a lot and thoroughly enjoyed the weekend.

Overall the whole weekend was well planned and executed. When we first joined ‘Stortford Divers’ Barry and I wanted to Dive on holiday abroad and had no intention of diving in the UK.  It’s a shame we didn’t see very much this weekend, but we intend to put our names down for Pembroke and the Farne Islands.  Even if it’s just to enjoy the company.  We learnt a lot and had some good laughs.  

By Pat Hunt

Some of the photos