On 11 August 2006, Chris Powell, Richard Everett and I met at Chris’s home in Ashford, Kent for a 5.00 a.m. departure to Portland in Dorset. After checking in at the Fathom and Blues Dive Centre, we boarded Shiraz, their 6.8 metre Ribcraft for two dives.

The first dive by Portland Harbour breakwater wall, combined the Bombardon Unit and a Landing Craft. The underwater visibility on both dives, 2 to 3 metres and 1.5 to 2.0 metres, was disappointing. Under the circumstances it was hardly surprising that we saw few fish, just a few pollack, bibs and grey mullet on the first dive and on the second dive, the wreck of the Countess of Erne, grey mullet, cuckoo wrasse, two-spot gobies, tompot blennies, leopard-spotted gobies and bibs. The weather was pretty grim; overcast with occasional heavy downpours but this did not prevent us from enjoying our day out.

In the afternoon the three of us made our way to Chesil Beach. Unfortunately Richard’s dry suit neck seal had developed a tear and he had to sit this third dive out. Initially the underwater visibility on this dive was 4 metres but suddenly dropped dramatically. My initial reaction was the Chris had somehow stirred up a lot of sand! I waited for a few minutes but the visibility did not improve and I realised that this had nothing to do with Chris. The swell had become pretty strong. Perhaps the change in underwater visibility was linked to the tide. Whatever the reason, the visibility was now dire and after a while Chris and I aborted the dive.