UKDIVING
That evening I wandered around Weymouth , where holidaymakers glowed a complimentary red as the sun set behind the harbour . This light show was complimented by a raucous procession across the town by a troupe of giant puppeteers , to mark the culmination of Inside Out Dorset , a two-week arts festival . The towering figures emanated ghostly light as they swaggered along St Mary Street towards the Jubilee Clock Tower .
Light remained a constant theme the next morning as I drove east towards Swanage , the low sun illuminating misty fields . All very romantic , but at times it was hard to make out the road and we were relieved to make it to the pier before all the parking spaces had gone .
As a dive site , the best thing about Swanage Pier is its dynamic nature .
It always seems to offer something unexpected , a new mystery to be unlocked .
On this occasion the novelty was schooling fish , sand eels and smelt , which had accumulated in shifting shoals . We positioned ourselves at the end of the pier , gazing up as silver streams of fish rippled through the water column . And that ’ s all we did , for two long dives ... As the day progressed , incremental changes in the sunlight created a different cast on the water , catching the flanks of the fish as they danced in and out of the shadows .
All the same , I ’ m glad I occasionally looked down at the seabed , or I ’ d have missed a Sergio Leone-like standoff between two male tompot blennies . There were no surprises – the big lad on the left sent the challenger packing after a high speed dust-up .
The darkness beckons
The Dorset shore had one final surprise in store for me as I convened with some locals for a night dive in Portland Harbour . Where exactly I cannot say , as they swore me to secrecy as to the location . I was again diving with Paul Pettit who convened an informal group of underwater photographers he called the ‘ FOMO Group ’. The idea is they ’ re so competitive and dedicated , their collective Fear of Missing Out has become a defining characteristic .
A night dive needs proper darkness , so we fussed our kit while gloom gave way to twilight . Then finally , buddy checks and a short amble in full kit across the beach and into the water . We turned on our dive lights and the bay was illuminated by several thousand pounds ’ worth of highly priced artificial light .
PHOTO : SARAH HICKSON
Clockwise from top left : Wemouth Harbour sunset ; European squid , Portland ; tompot blenny standoff ; sand eels under Swanage Bay ; Dundu and the Worldbeaters perform in Weymouth
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