In March 2005, Chris Baker, Graeme "Spotty" Hastings and I travelled to Portsmouth, Hampshire for two dives at Horsea Island. This used to be two islands, Little Horsea Island and Great Horsea Island. In 1885 the Admiralty took them over, joined them together and opened a naval research establishment known locally as Hush Hush Island. This island was used for torpedo testing until about 1939. In 1970 The Portsmouth Harbour Reclamation Scheme began and about 160 acres of mudland which separated Horsea Island from the mainland were filled so that it was no longer an island although it continued to be called Horsea Island. In 1995 the Defence Diving School began training divers from the Royal Engineers and Royal Navy at Horsea Island.

The dive site is mainly salt water. It is able to support a wide variety of marine life as it is topped up at high water from the sea. We were advised that we might see crabs, pipe-fish, gobies, lobster and eels. But maybe March is not a good month for sealife at Horsea as the only sealife that I saw in two dives were one small blenny and one juvenile goby. However I did see several sea birds diving down from the surface to the seabed in the hope that we had disturbed the sea bed and exposed food for them. Thermoclines were pronounced on both this dive and the second dive.

Our Surface Interval between dives had to be extended as Chris and I waiting impatiently while Spotty warmed his hands under the changing room hot air blower! We dived "Zone Three" on both dives where there is a the wreck of a Wessex Helicopter, a Land Rover Ambulance, a Naval Cheverton ferry boat, four bridge sections and a recompression chamber.