In September 2006 Chris Baker, Graeme “Spotty” Hastings and I travelled to the National Dive Centre in Gloucestershire for our last “Boys’ Days Out” trip of 2006. The National Dive Centre is located at Dayhouse Quarry, just east of Chepstow near Tidenham and has a large array of underwater attractions including an Alvis Stalwart amphibious vehicle, an Alvis Saracen troop carrier, a Devon aircraft, a small two man diving bell and a barge wreck.

Unfortunately the visibility on our first dive (my dive 1323) was only 2 to 4 metres and we looked in vain for pike and perch. However we did find the two man diving bell, a Mondeo car, a cruiser and swim-through tubes. As we began our ascent from the quarry floor, Spotty developed a sinus problem in his left eye cavity which gradually grew worse and he had to terminate the dive.

Poor Spotty felt it prudent to stay out of the water and took charge of my surface camera, taking photographs of Chris and I before and after our second dive. Spotty was able to capture Chris' “subtle” dive entry which ensured we did not see any pike and perch at the beginning of this dive either! Still Chris then more than redeemed himself as he knocked small pebbles together in the shallows to attract perch and then waited very patiently while I tried to photograph them. The visibility on this dive was even worse than the first, just 2 to 3 metres. However Chris and I found a containers swim-through and a multi-purpose utility vehicle before completing the dive.

Returning to my Landcruiser to change, Chris developed a sudden worrying interest in trying to pull my shorts down while Spotty took photographs!