A bit of Fresh Water

New fresh water wreck(ex Scottish trawler the “Caroline”) at NDAC

Fresh water dive sites provide useful venues for divers wanting to train, try out new kit, get back into diving after a break or dive when blown out elsewhere. It maybe just because they will go stir crazy if they don’t get wet and it is too complicated to get to the sea.

It can be difficult to always dive in the sea when you live some way from the coast. There are some divers who spend the majority of their underwater time in fresh water, inland fresh water dive sites provide a great amenity to the diving fraternity.

I prefer to do the majority of my diving in the sea, which I feel is more unpredictable and exciting than fresh water sites. Fresh water seems black & white compared to the vibrant colours of the marine life in the sea. I will however, still complete a good number of fresh water dives each year. Not needing to wash kit post dive is a big plus!

I am fortunate enough to live almost equidistant from three excellent centres, each have their own merits and each provides a great service to divers who visit them from far & wide. National Diving & Activity Centre, NDAC near Chepstow, Cromhall just off junction 14 of the M5 and south of Bristol, Vobster near Frome in Somerset.

I visit all of these flooded fresh water quarries and will no doubt speak about each one of them in these blogs.

NDAC perch, the population grows significantly over the summer, some years large shoals are present in the autumn.

Quarries can make for good dives in their own right, especially if you don’t visit them too often or if (like me as a photographer) you have a project to work on. Freshwater wildlife while not as colourful as marine, can still be interesting and challenging to photograph. Mating toads in Cromhall, freshwater Crayfish in Vobster and colourful Perch in NDAC spring to mind.

My most recent excursion was to visit NDAC near Chepstow, one of my regular buddies had not been in the water for a while and wanted to check kit & skills and get back in the groove. The plan was to have a dive around the attractions sunk for divers.

Dayhouse quarry better known as the National Diving and Activity Centre

We would be running Air diluent in our rebreathers so would not be heading to 70m. I had an ulterior motive for my visit which was to take some images of the recently sunk 11.3m long steel built 35tonne fishing boat Caroline, now lying in about 25m.

Fresh water dive sites generally have reasonably good visibility. Just like the sea they can suffer from algal blooms as the water warms but they tend to be short lived. Heavy rain can mess things up and when lots of divers swim around there are no currents to disperse the resulting stirred up silt. A midweek visit will generally have better visibility. The cold winter months can also provide some exceptional visibility, again this may be due to less diver traffic.

Fairly good viz on the BAE 146 fuselage, I have seen it better.

During the height of summer the surface water of these quarries can get to 20°C and feel quite Mediterranean. The temperature will drop significantly as you descend, below about 20m the water will be less than 10°C, I recorded a minimum of 8°C.

Devon aircraft

You will see swimmers training for triathlons in swimming costumes only and trainee’s in semi-dry suits in the shallows. With any extended stay at depth you should be wearing your trusty O’three!

Another selfie, 3 O’3’s!

We did not want an early start and arrived at about 10.00am to find the car park virtually full. I immediately had visions of hundreds of divers stirring up the silt and the viz being like mud. I was pleased to see commercial dive organisations who had made the journey from as far away as Kent & Nottingham, NDAC obviously has a draw.

Full car park at NDAC

You have to take the bus down to the pontoons where the kitting up takes place, this always seems a bit of a chore. On this occasion 2 vans were operating & we didn’t have to wait at all, it was well organised.

Converted minibuses take you & your kit from the carpark to the pontoons

Divers who had arrived early had completed their dives so I was pleased to see the pontoons were not busy.

Giant stride

We jumped in and descended in a group of 3 then toured around the attractions. I knew the new wreck was close to a helicopter but we went to the wrong one first!

Mk5 Wessex helicopter, close to the drop-off and not near the new wreck.

Double Decker

At last the new wreck, Caroline

It was odd to come across the cleanly painted wreck sitting there. When the fresh water algae and weed colonise it, it will have a more atmospheric feel. The viz was not as bad as I feared it might have been. NDAC often has better visibility than this but I was still able to get a good view of the wreck. I would like to return when it is better, to take advantage of the numerous photo opportunities this wreck offers.

Sweet Caroline

We spent about 70 minutes on our dive. I was trying for the first time my O’three heated vest, it worked a treat. I will report on this in the future. I took all the underwater images illustrating this blog on this one dive.

Good viz in the shallows at the end of the dive

An advantage NDAC has over the other venues is the choice of refreshment following the dive. Decompression continued in the bar and a pint of ale certainly helped the banter flow. We just needed a bit of Neil Diamond playing in the background……