Excellent dive on one of the 14 gas pipelines that run into the Bacton Gas Terminal. Dived as two pairs on
a sonar target denoting the exposed pipeline about 2 miles offshore.

Dive 1

• Divers: Simon, Mark
• Max Depth: 16.3 metres
• Dive Time: 52 minutes
• Water temperature: 15 degrees C
• Viz: 8-10 metres
• Dive details: We started our dive drifting in the opposite direction to Ken and Elaine, then as the tide turned so did we. We followed the long mound of smallish rocks that ran parallel to the coast. We saw lots of small and medium sized lobsters, edible crabs, velvet crabs and a few fish. after turning around we passed the shot line and eventually came across 3 sections of pipeline that were not covered in rocks and had become exposed. This wasn’t a recent development either because they had marine growth on them. We saw what looked like big holes in the pipeline in 3 different places. Ken informed us that these were just holes where the bitumastic used to protect the welded pipeline joint (every 12m) was either poorly placed else has slumped or been eroded away. We ascended to the surface and saw the other 2 divers getting back onto the RIB so we just waited for the RIB to come and pick us up.

Dive 2

• Divers: Ken, Elaine
• Max Depth: 17 metres
• Dive Time: 47 minutes
• Water temperature: 17 degrees C
• Viz: 10 metres
• Dive details: It was good to swim carried along by the gentle current essentially doing a drift dive. Water depth around 17m and visibility 10m. The pipeline was buried in places covered by Norwegian blue granite rocks providing stability and scour protection to the line. Also affording the perfect habitat for the many crabs and lobsters. Other marine life consisted of small fishes, blue and purple sea anemones, weed and starfish. The current carried us about half a mile in the 45 minute dive.