2007
In August 2007, fellow Ashford Dive Club
member Rick Stewart and I travelled to Stony Cove for a full days diving - my
dives 1472 to 1474 inclusive. Unfortunately the visibility underwater was poor,
generally 2 to 3 metres although in places on our first dive it did reach 5
metres. I selected a Nikon17-55mm lens for this dive and after entering the
water we dropped down to the quarry bed, finned past The Stanegarth,
and followed the anchor line to the other side
of the quarry. Although we did see some pike, a tricky subject to photograph
well at the best of times, the poor visibility made photography very difficult.
Rick said that it was probably the worst visibility he had experienced on a
weekday at Stony Cove. On our second
dive, by way of an experiment, I decided to put a 1.5 teleconverter onto my
60mm lens to photograph crayfish under the block house. I had not
heard of anyone else using this setup and hoped that I might be able to achieve
an image that looked a little different from the usual crayfish pictures. Bad
idea! My experiment failed completely as I found that I could only get the
crayfish in focus by moving some considerable distance from the subject which
inevitably resulted in poor images. Worse was to follow. Rick agreed to us
aborting this dive so that I could remove the teleconverter and then return to
the blockhouse with just a standard 60mm lens setup. But in my haste to remove
the teleconverter, I allowed a minute amount of moisture into the housing and
my Subal flatport misted up with condensation for most of this third dive.
2008
In early August
2008 Rick and I returned to Stoney Cove for two dives, my dives 1557 and 1558.
Once again the visibility was poor, mainly 2.5 to 3.5 metres although in places
it was briefly up to 5 metres. Upon entering the water Rick’s dive computer gave
a low battery signal and then failed to work. Apart that is from beeping
throughout the entire dive! We set off in search of The Stanegarth but found a bus and a drop-off instead. We begun to descend deeper but with
Rick’s dive computer not working, changed our minds at 33 metres and ascended
to shallower waters where we finally found The Stanegarth. I used my 60mm lens for this and the second dive intending to switch
to my Tokina 10 to 17mm lens for the third dive. However we took too long over
our surface interval after the first dive with the result that we only had time
for two dives. I photographed the crayfish in the blockhouse on the second dive
and we slowly finned clockwise around an eight metre shelf in the shallows of
Stoney Cove. We came across a total of five
large pike but my 60mm lens was an inappropriate choice for these large pike as
the visibility was simply too poor.
Three weeks
later poor weather forced Rick and I to abandon plans to dive off Sussex
and instead we made our way back to Stoney Cove for another three dives, my
dives 1560 to 1562. And this time the underwater visibility was excellent, up
to 10 metres in places. I used my Tokina 10 to 17mm lens for all three dives
and was much happier with the resulting images than on my previous visits to
Stoney. Rick and I made our way to the Viscount cockpit where Rick posed inside
and then, a first for me, we explored the barren west side of the former quarry.
We visited The Stanegarth for the second dive, after which we finned in a southerly direction towards the far side of the quarry. As we ascended
up the wall we saw three pike hanging over the drop-off above us. And after
that the dive just got better and better.
Rick and I had never seen so many pike on a single dive, at one point we
saw five pike next to a six pound common carp. After a short surface interval we
concluded our days diving with a shallow dive around an eight metre shelf
giving me yet another opportunity to photograph pike.