| For me it all started
well, loaded up the van, picked up Sue & off we went. Swanage
hear we come. On the M3 we got stuck in a traffic jam so took
a short cut. Then onto the M27 got stuck in a traffic jam so
took a short cut, went through Bournemouth took a detour so
instead of it taking three & a half hours it took six hours.
Reported to the reception at Ulwell I told her my name she
said she knew, she did have a funny look in her eye. Unloaded
the van then took Sue for a meal out. That is, out meaning
fish & chips on the sea front. Sue looked impressed. That’s
when it started to rain, so we sat in the van eating the fish
& chips. Sue looked impressed. Well it was Haddock. Back
to the caravan, Sue in the kitchen get things ready for the
following day.
Friday morning Big Pete, David & Keith arrive. Bacon
butty’s I got served last. We then loaded the van &
made our way down to the pier. Met up with Bill & Ted.
Then Tilley & Melvin arrived. Tilley had a yellow plastic
duck on his head?? Tilley & Melvin wanted to do a dry
suit buoyancy test.
One pool night I will get Tilley to show you how they entered
the water off the pier steps interesting??
Vis nil, water cold. My legs were playing up from doing a
weeks diving in a shortly in the warn, clear waters off Tenerife,
so for safety reasons I decided not to dive. The boat wanted
to pull away, but Big Pete had forgotten something so we had
to wait while he went back to Bills car (yes he was talking
to some one on the way back) the boat pulled away with water
in my eyes thinking, had I made the right decision to stay
behind, would the divers think I was a wimp, would they see
stuff under the sea that I could only dream off, would they
be enjoying themselves while I went to get a hot drink. All
this went through my mind as I walked down the pier into the
warm café.
As I sat in my warm van with the heater in I saw them waddling
back down the pier. None had a smile on there face. Hi lads
I said how was the dive!! I can't repeat some of the replies
but lets say they were colourful and others just rattled their
teeth. I will not go into details about the dive or in one
case lack of dive (ask the person with a duck on his head).
We made our way back to the caravan where Sue had spent the
day cooking. Chickening casserole was served up. Sue served
me last??
Kit was taken out of the back of the van & off the lads
went. As it was raining very heavy we decided to stay in for
the night.
The following morning Sue cleaned the caravan as we had to
be out by 10 30hrs. Not like last year when I got a telling
off (again) for leaving kit in the caravan till 15 30hrs.
I went to load up the van only to find some silly so &
so had not closed the back doors properly. Hence the battery
was flat.
My thoughts went something like this. Oh dear, someone has
not closed the back doors ) I did ask a chap with a Volvo
but we couldn’t find the battery. So I put the battery
on charge & took Sue for a walk into Swanage then we went
shopping, then we went more shopping, then we went on the
steam train, then back to the caravan for a nap then. I put
the battery on the van started her up. We got home at about
21 30hrs instead of 13 00hrs .
Going by the weekend it looks like we are going to have a
great 2010 dive season.
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