With fellow Ashford Dive Club members, Richard Everett, Chris Powell and Rick Stewart, I travelled to Selsey in West Sussex in late April 2006. Selsey is south of Chichester, on a peninsula jutting out into the English Channel . Our plan was to dive under the Selsey Lifeboat Station pier, a construction dating from 1860. Ocean View Diving Services Ltd run a very friendly local dive centre in East Beach, Selsey and were happy to advise us about this dive. Care was needed as currents in this area can be very strong and it is therefore essential to dive at slack water. Entry to this site is from a shingle beach with a short surface swim to the first leg of the pier.

In April every year cuttlefish arrive under the pier to mate. However after a cold 2005/6 winter, sea water temperatures were lower than usual and we had been advised that although this dive was in late April, only a few cuttlefish had so far been seen.

We split into two buddy groups, Chris and Richard and Rick and I. The visibility was 3 to 4 metres. While Chris and Richard stayed near the pier, Rick and I strayed far from the pier with some rather suspect navigation! This subsequently necessitated a 30 minute surface swim back to the shore but we did see two pairs of cuttlefish while Chris and Richard did not see any. Among other local sealife, Rick and I also saw a corkwing wrasse, a pipefish, butterfish and a dead lobster.