Yo-Han Cha is desperate to go diving , but will the famously fickle South Coast winter play ball ?
UKDIVING YO-HANCHA
Consolation cafe
Yo-Han Cha is desperate to go diving , but will the famously fickle South Coast winter play ball ?
“ I
going to put off by poor visibility or the
don ’ t care what the conditions are like ! I ’ m going diving tomorrow !” I wasn ’ t
cold or the rain . Or anything else Mother Nature could throw at me . Storms Babet , Ciaran and Debi had cancelled any diving plans for the better part of two months and I was desperate to get wet . Desperate .
So , despite locals saying that the conditions in Swanage were awful , I packed my car and set my alarm for a godforsaken time in the morning . After a two-and-a-halfhour drive , I arrived at Swanage Pier to be greeted by a swelly brown sea . Despite all of my bluster , common sense kicked in and I went for coffee and breakfast in the pier café instead . I was frustrated but I knew these weren ’ t diveable conditions .
What made this autumn worse were my friends in Scotland languishing in what social media portrayed as near perfect diving conditions - blue skies and flat calm seas . Their photos left me feeling very happy for them . Full of envy and jealousy , but so , so happy for them .
There are usually other sites available , plan B or C or D . But this autumn , the South Coast of England has proven a washout , thanks to a series of named storms blowing everything out . Here was me believing that the weather down south was better than up north ! Ultimately , despite making pointless drives to the coast , there was nothing I could do but to wait for Mother Nature to provide a wee window of opportunity . I briefly flirted with the idea of a trip to Scotland but the lack of annual leave and earlier promises to spend quality time with my other half meant that none of those ideas came to any fruition .
So I waited … and tried to be patient . Most of my club thought I was mad , as apparently the dive season ends in October and doesn ’ t start again until Easter . This apparently , is the time to drop our kit off for servicing and enjoy the weekends by being cosy and warm . I ’ ve never heard of such nonsense in my life ! [ See Editor ’ s Welcome , January 2024 ]
So , when Ryan Stalker of Isle of Purbeck Sub Aqua Club messaged me to say that the conditions had finally improved and invited me to go for a Friday night dive with him
“ Most of my club thought I was mad , as apparently the dive season ends in October ”
and his wife Sandra , I jumped at the chance and was on the road to Portland within minutes of my working day ending . It was a two-hour drive for a two-metre pootle off Sandsfoot Beach , but it felt great . At a toasty 12 ° C , the sea was warmer than the air , and I was more than happy spending my dive taking photos of prawns and gobies to my heart ’ s content .
Encouraged by this heartening , albeit brief , glimpse of underwater England , the following weekend I again drove down to Swanage to go for a day ’ s diving . Apparently , we should have been there ‘ yesterday ’. It had been just fine ‘ yesterday ’, we were told , but overnight rain had turned Swanage once again into brown gravy . And what do we do when life gives us gravy ? Well in my case , it meant another day in a café and a round of bacon and egg sandwiches while I cursed my luck .
All the same , I ’ m not giving up on winter diving – Mother Nature surely has to give another opportunity . She has to , right ? �
Gazing forlornly into the coffee coloured winter water at Swanage Pier
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