Club members joined another Seasearch day with Sussex Wildlife Trust, surveying marine life on one of the Rampion windfarm turbine legs – where the variable blenny popped its tentacled head out from among the mussels. 

After lunch, Francis managed to find a little seahorse on a gentle drift on the Shoreham Harbour rocks before we headed back to Brighton as the wind picked up and large white horses reared their heads. 

Chips and drinks at a harbour hostelry to run through the survey forms – what a good day out!  

September evening and we were at the boatshed doing a spot of maintenance on the trailer rollers.  

Always a pleasure to introduce someone new to diving with a try dive in the pool – going on alongside some skill practice among our members and new kit check-over by a guest.  

Sun still shining, and at last the wind was in the right direction to launch from Selsey East Beach and we headed out for a beautifully clear dive on the wartime Mulberry Harbour unit, now covered in life and surrounded by fish. 

What a pleasure to welcome two new people to our August pool session – one refreshing his skills before a holiday and the other embarking on rescue training after inspiration on a holiday! 

Another hot sunny day and we were steaming out of Itchenor, this time heading for an un-named wreck which we quickly found and marked with a shotline.  A very pretty little wreck covered in marine life and full of brave and beautiful tompot blennies – so to us the wreck is now called The Tompot!  

Great day’s diving on the Bracklesham Barge in the mid-July heatwave.  Lots of marine life, reasonable visibility, warm water and good company! 

Orange inflatable buoys popped up from the bottom of the swimming pool in July – practice in deploying these safety buoys to mark our position on a dive to the surface cover party.  Also great to welcome a new couple for some skills practice and confidence building before going on holiday. 

A couple of members were out on Sussex Wildlife Trust’s June Seasearch survey on Dan’s Reef, just west of the Rampion windfarm.  Comfortable ride on the Stormforce RIB from Littlehampton in calm conditions, and back for lunch before the wind started to pick up!  

Perfect conditions for a relaxed shore dive to the beautiful Selsey reef off the lifeboat station.  Sun-warmed inshore water, great vis and flat calm sea and our joint navigation efforts brought us exactly back to our welcoming shore cover party who had been relaxing in the sunshine while watching our SMB!  A shoal of juvenile bib were swimming over the lush summer growth of seaweeds harbouring delicate spider crabs, small fish and painted topshells, among a lot more.