Stoney Cove – 12th April 2021
The first dive of the year for 2 members, having not dived since October 2020 due to Covid travel restrictions. On entry to the site, we were warned that the vis at shallow depths was particularly poor and that we should observe our separation procedure, that the water temperature was no higher than last time we’d visited, and that we should take extra precautions, as many divers had experienced regulator free-flows!
The car park was quite empty, but it was a Monday in early April and there was snow on the ground earlier on in the morning so not surprising really. The changing rooms were closed so everybody had to get changed in the car park, fortunately it was a nice sunny day 7 or 8 degrees with only a light wind.
- Divers: Simon, Jane
- Max Depth: 21.9 metres
- Dive Time: 41 minutes
- Water temperature: 5 degrees C
- Viz: 1-5 metres
- Dive Details: The plan was to find the coach as Jane hadn’t been there and Simon had only seen it once. We kitted up by the side of the car and walked down to the quayside to do our buddy checks. The visibility at the 6 metre shelf wasn’t very good, approximately 1-2 metres, the water seemed to be very green. We managed to find our way to the viscount cockpit and followed the slope down to the 20 metre area. We saw a large cylinder or pipe as we turned left and headed off in the direction of the coach. We kept the cliff edge to our right, which dropped down to 35 metres and we swam quite close to the 20m bottom so we’d have a visual reference. The viz at 20 metres was a bit better, probably 4-5 metres and because it was a nice sunny day we turned our torches off. We came across a large square metal box with some reindeer on the top, we carried on until we got to some rocks and a vertical cliff wall. We swam away from the cliff wall and headed back to do another search for the coach but this time further away from the 35 metre drop off. We found a mini car which Jane swam through. We eventually came to a cliff wall again and started to ascend. We didn’t find the coach nor did we see any fish.
- Divers: Simon, Jane
- Max Depth: 21.2 metres
- Dive Time: 16 minutes
- Water temperature: 5 degrees C
- Viz: 1-5 metres
- Dive Details: After a cup of tea and a change of cylinders we kitted up again ready for the second dive. Jane planned and led the dive. We surface swam to the Stanegarth buoy, descended to the deck, at about 18 metres and then followed the anchor chain over the side to the bottom. after a short while following the chain Simon spotted a line coming off to the left side and indicated that it might lead to the coach? But sticking to the plan, we continued along the anchor chain until we got to the cliff wall which we ascended to the 6 metre shelf. We saw a skeleton holding an arrowed exit sign which we followed. We’ve not seen this on previous visits. We kept this dive short so that we had time to do a third dive before the site closed for diving at 4pm.
- Divers: Simon, Jane
- Max Depth: 21.5 metres
- Dive Time: 21 minutes
- Water temperature: 6 degrees C
- Viz: 1-5 metres
- Dive Details: We decided to take a look at the line coming off the anchor chain of the Stanegarth to see if it did lead to the coach. We started the dive in the same way as the previous dive, surface swimming to the buoy, descending the shot line and anchor chain. We followed the line and after a while it came to an end, but where was the coach? A few more fin strokes in the same direction revealed a dark shadow and then the coach came into view. The inside of the coach was full of small perch, Jane entered the rear window of the coach and swam inside along the length and out of the front. We headed North towards the slope and when we came to the large cylinder or pipe, Jane swam through that too. We ascended to the 6 metre shelf and exited.
In summary, we had a good day’s diving. The site was not busy, the weather was perfect given the time of year, and despite the previous warnings, we experienced no kit issues.