facilitated by Diver Coxswains , assistants and instructors from the club . Experience levels ranged from a newly qualified Sports Diver up to Advanced Instructor .
Our members kept a close eye on the weather forecast and were delighted when the day dawned bright and sunny , although a bit windier than expected . Due to the falling tide , Condor had to be moved from her mooring in the Outer Harbour to the Golden Ball slip before her berth dried out at 6am , a delicate but well-rehearsed operation . The Force 4 wind made close-quarter manoeuvring somewhat challenging , but the boat handling team of Diver Coxswain Anne Morrison , Clive Warrington , James Hartley and Phil Robinson worked together to avert calamity when Condor got a bit close to some mooring lines , enabling her to escape the Outer Harbour with several centimetres of water to spare .
What goes Booom ?
Ropes-off was a strict 8am , and as the divers began to arrive and load up the kit , final boat checks were done and insurance paperwork confirmed with the harbour authorities . This had to be a slick process due to the ever-falling tide , but also because the slipway is used by fishing trips and speedboat tours .
At this point , it was Booom ’ s turn for a moment of drama . Divers noticed that she was taking on water and , after a quick but thorough inspection , this was traced to a missing bung . However , SBS divers are resourceful , and it was again James Hartley
PHOTO : DAWN WATSON
Rob Spray dives at Peak Steel
to the rescue , whittling a makeshift bung out of a handy cork and a bit of Gaffa tape , while Emma Devine manned the pumps to keep Booom afloat until she could be sealed again . With the boats ready , kit loaded , and paperwork signed off , the SBS boats departed the harbour and headed north towards Robin Hood ’ s Bay . On the way , teas , coffees and bacon sandwiches were supplied in abundance from Ship ’ s Cook Anne Morrison in the galley on Condor , before everyone kitted up and got ready to dive .
The first site , Peak Steel , had a maximum depth of 13 metres . On descending down the anchor line , divers found a reef of huge boulders covered in a layer of silt . We saw lots of sea urchins , dahlia anemones , lobsters , edible crabs , velvet swimming crabs , Devonshire cup corals , ballan wrasse , small cod , plumose anemones , nudibranchs and hydroids . Swimming off the reef in any direction led to a sandy seabed .
The viz was a milky 3m , so distance lines were used to ensure return to the anchor line for the ascent – all but one pair who seemed to be trying to swim back to Scarborough and were picked up by Booom after their dSMB was seen against the horizon . The second wave of divers from Booom , Phil Robinson and James Hartley , then dived the shallow , broken-up wreck of the Fred Everard , which sits just off Ravenscar in 10 metres . The Fred Everard ran aground and broke her back in 1965 but in 2024 it was a hive of activity ; divers were followed around by a grey seal and also saw a free-swimming dogfish .
Dawn Watson inspects a boulder at Peak Steel
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PHOTO : ROB SPRAY