Luke, Dom, Nic, Hayden, Steph, Elaine, Nigel, James, Jason, Jack and Paul all headed to St Andrew’s Lakes in Kent for the first group dive of the year.

Buddy pairs were organised by Luke and everyone was keen to get kitted up and into the water when we arrived. It was a grey day with showers and the wind was very cold but the water was reasonably clear.

• Dive 1
• Divers: James, Jason
• Max Depth: 14.3
• Dive Time: 14 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details: We walked in on the submerged planks and descended to carry out a bubble check as James had recently serviced his equipment. We continued to descend and found the aircraft cockpit.
  After a little look around here, we continued along the cliff towards the pontoon and towards the van on the cliff. On the way there Jason indicated that his neck seal was leaking and a quick exchange of messages indicated it was a substantial leak.
  We surfaced promptly carrying out a safety stop while ensuring all was OK.
  Once out, Jason dried his thermals and inspected his neck seal ready for dive 2.

• Dive 1
• Divers: Dom, Luke
• Max Depth: 21.5
• Dive Time: 32 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details:

• Dive 1
• Divers: Hayden, Steph
• Max Depth: 24.8
• Dive Time: 35 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details:

• Dive 1
• Divers: Elaine, Nigel
• Max Depth: 25
• Dive Time: 20 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details: Stride entry off platform and surface swim to buoy. Descended and when both comfortable Elaine led the way to the lorry cab and van. We then followed a rope leading to the container. We returned back and exited at the shore.

• Dive 1
• Divers: Jack, Paul
• Max Depth: 14.6
• Dive Time: 19 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details:

• Dive 2
• Divers: James, Jason
• Max Depth: 22
• Dive Time: 25 minutes
• Water temperature: 7 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details: We walked in from the pontoon and descended immediately heading for the van. Jasons kneck seal seemed better on this dive.
  Once we found the van we swam around for a while before a quick air check and then proceeded to swim through the van. Jason went first but aimed for the van passenger window rather than the open van door and quickly realised his mistake when he couldn’t get through.
  We followed the line to the container and looked on the top of the container being cautious of our maximum depth agreed.
  We turned the dive here and headed back to the van before heading up the cliff to carry out a safety stop and exit.

• Dive 2
• Divers: Dom, Hayden
• Max Depth: 21.5
• Dive Time: 32 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details:

• Dive 2
• Divers: Luke, Nic
• Max Depth: 33.4
• Dive Time: 24 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details:

• Dive 2
• Divers: Elaine, Nigel
• Max Depth: 26
• Dive Time: 26 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details: Stride entry off platform. Descended to 4m then 6m platforms. Followed a rope to the speedboat at 12m depth then further along to a plane at 9 m. Continuing on quite a distance to a submerged static caravan. We did a return journey exiting via the shore.

• Dive 2
• Divers: Jack, Paul
• Max Depth: 21.1
• Dive Time: 34 minutes
• Water temperature: 8 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details:

• Dive 3
• Divers: James, Jason
• Max Depth: 15.6
• Dive Time: 25 minutes
• Water temperature: 7 degrees C
• Viz: 1-4 metres
• Dive Details: With a stride entry off of the pontoon we headed out to the bouy tied to the platforms. We descended the shot line and then descended down the staircase of platforms to the bottom, not at about 10m. From here we swam along to the cliff to the speedboat – aircraft and finally the postbox. We returned along the same path to the platforms where Jason had a play with the functions on his dive computer and James checked he could reach everything on his new twin 7l setup.