Sovereign Divers BSAC Scuba Diving club in Eastbourne, Sussex

• Home
• Training
• Photographs
• News
• Contacts

Recent and forthcoming events

---

Egypt Trip with Bernie and gang (Geoff, Mike, Dave & Gary)

by Gary

The diving trip to Sharm in December went very well despite the cold UK weather and the Egyptian powers that be trying to stop all diving activities following the (well publicised) shark attack incidents.

The trip started with a delay getting away from Gatwick on Tuesday morning while the runway and aircraft were repeatedly de-iced, but as the airport was closed the next day we can only count ourselves as very lucky!

The hotel, Coral Hills, was good with nice rooms, a couple of pools and the Elite Diving dive office attached.

As I had to leave Egypt on the following Sunday (to go to Namibia for work) I dived on the Wednesday at Ras Mohamed, while the others had a chilled out day by the pool. There was a snorkeller attacked on that day and the word was that all diving would be cancelled, however this was changed later in the day to allow diving to continue (but only at Ras Mohamed...) So we all dived from the Thursday onwards.

The diving was very good with lovely warm, clear waters. The abundance of sea life was marvellous and the dive company were very friendly and well organised. The shark attacks continued however with the constant threat of all diving being stopped.

My last dive was on the Saturday, this was on the wreck of the Dunraven and a very nice dive it was too. but the shark attack fatality was also on that day and the Egyptian authorities reaction was (as always) no more diving! The others had a few days more to go and I know that they did some more dives so I am not sure how that worked out for them (although from Daves pictures on the Yahoo group it would seem to have been interesting....)

This was my first trip to the Red Sea and I was well pleased, next time I might try to find somewhere a little less developed but all in all a very nice mid-winter break! - thanks Bernie.

---

Excellent vis - a wives tale...(From Claire)

What a dive last Saturday! (08/05/10) It was touch and go whether a dive was even going to go out that day at the club meeting last week. Kiernan had put his name down to Cox but needed a mentor to oversee him as he has not been signed off as a fully fledged Coxswain yet. By Thursday evening Steve had got on board and had convinced Phil to go out as the mentor. Sign up continued with Jim Harvey, Jon Baldwin and Dave Burton (this being his maiden dive after qualifying as a Sports Diver in his new bright yellow dry suit).

Steve phoned me on Friday night and told me it would be the English dive of my life following a report from Graham Smith having had 20 metres viz on a dive the previous day. I announced to Kiernan I was going to dive too, this was met by the was grumblings of Kiernan, "You havent tried out your new suit yet", I will wear my old one I retorted. "The shopping needs doing" was his reply.

The dive was to the Clara at 34 metres. It was a cold and wet day, miserable by all accounts. The arrival at the dive site was early, the initial shot was lost through the tides pulling it under and Phil had a bit of a swim through miscommunication. What else could go wrong? At 17 metres down, the whole of the wreck could be seen. No need for torches, no need to stay close to buddies, fish life excellent, many a good meal for all, plus some!

My dive? Nil, zilch and diddley squat. I did the shopping as a good 'wifey' should. I met them all at the lock with welcome home doughnuts and what thanks did I get? "20 metres", "You missed a really brilliant dive", "Ha, ha, bloody ha!" oh and "thanks for the doughnuts".

Gutted!

---

Sovereign Divers to the rescue!

At around 12:45 on Sunday 11th April 'Sovereign Divers', Eastbournes BSAC diving club, had just finished their first sea dive of the season and were re-fuelling their small rib Sovereign Diver when they heard a distress call from a 14.3m yacht passing through Sovereign Harbour Marinas North Bridge. The yacht reported that it had lost its engine power and steerage.

The Coxswain of Sovereign Diver Steve Kemp, who only qualified a few months ago, immediately radioed the marina office to offer assistance.

"We set off from the fuel pontoon toward the North Bridge. We were expecting to see a fairly small boat drifting about in the middle of the marina but we were met by the sight of a 20 tonne sailing ship that looked like something from a pirate film. She was doing 3-4 knots with a prevailing wind and coming through the middle of the harbour and was totally out of control" said Karl Barker, a fellow diver. He continued "Steve quickly got our rib Sovereign Diver round behind the ship and they threw us a line, Steve then put the boat in reverse and we all held on to the rope for dear life while Graham attached the end to the A frame. The ship was too heavy for us to stop completely and we thought we might rip the A frame off our rib but we managed to slow it right down and avoided it colliding with the harbour wall and the West Bridge".

Whilst this was taking place, Premier's Sovereign Harbour workboat had arrived to assist and the Marina control had opened the South Bridge as a precaution. The two boats then between them manoeuvred the stricken vessel and managed to get it through the gap of the opened South Bridge without hitting anything. The yacht was eventually moored up alongside the bridge wall where she remained for a while until engine repairs had been carried out. "The quick thinking of everyone involved avoided any damage being caused to the yacht, any other vessels or the South Bridge". said Dave Needham, Assistant Marina Manager of Premier's Sovereign Harbour Marina.

---

Eastbourne Sub Aqua Club - Annual Dinner

Sovereign Divers, Eastbournes Sub-Aqua Club, celebrated a very successful 2009, by holding their annual dinner at the Tally Ho pub in Old Town last week.

The club has grown in a variety of ways this year: 7 members qualified as Dive Coxswains, which will allow the club to take out their dive boat at least 4 times a weekend during the diving season, the club now has 4 instructors who teach PADI, IANTD, BSAC, Boat Handling and Coxswain courses, and 4 members also qualified in a RYA VHF radio course.

Sovereign Divers prides itself in diving out in local waters as often as the sea allows and some hardened divers are out throughout the year. In addition to the diving, it has an active community involvement, the club joined forces with the National Trust during the International Beach Clean-up at Burling Gap, dived the frosty waters in Vobster Quay in December in the Santa Dive to raise money for RNLI, and have provided a range of try dives for the public.

Jim Harvey was awarded Diver of the Year for his enthusiastic approach to diving. Jim, a Global Underwater Explorer diver, braves the Eastbourne seas and some of the inland lakes in all weather; he is extremely passionate about diving and enthuses members with his knowledge and skills in the sport.

Mark Dorn won Novice Diver of the Year for his motivation and passion for learning the sport and for his vast improvement during his training.

The presentation of Greatest Contribution to the Club went to a couple, Alison Rendle and Peter Van Der Boon, who tenaciously trained members in diving and boat handling on a voluntary basis. Graham Smith, the Club Chairperson described their valuable contribution and how it will benefit all its members in years to come.

Eastbourne Sub Aqua Club is always interested in potential new members and welcomes novices who want to learn, to those more experienced. They are out diving one of the 400 odd wrecks on the Eastbourne coast most weekends.

They meet at the Sovereign Harbour Yacht club Tuesday evenings from 8pm, newcomers welcome or for more information, please email graham@sovereigndivers.co.uk

Thanks to everyone who helped in organising and participating in the New Years event. We raised 854.68 in total!

Our sponsor Hairport were outstanding with their 274 pounds raffle collection plus the auctions for a back massage and a years' worth of hairdo's which raised us further 185 pounds, (special thanks to Sam for putting his raffle prizes up for the auction).

Hairport is owned by Wayne's partner and is located just opposite the station in Eastbourne at 6 Terminus Road, Eastbourne, BN21 3LP. Tel 01323 639070

---

Scuba Text

For anyone still not signed up to the excellent Scuba Text service on your mobile 'phone,please consider doing this as it is an excellent way of being notified of any spare dive places on the club RIB, especially at short notice due to cancellations etc. as well as any other club activity.

Graham would be delighted to give you advice on how to sign up, it is simple and free!

---

Useful Links