Southern Craftsman Phase 1

Exercise Southern Craftsman was underway, the MV St Brandan had done her job well, we were off the shores of Weddell Island and could use St Brandan’s crane to off-load inflatables and all the kit we needed for Phase 1 of our expedition diving the Falkland Islands. The crane cut our work in half, we were ashore despite having to make multiple journeys in what seemed like no time at all, the secondary benefit, the outboards of the two little inflatable craft got tested and warmed up and our boat handling was settled in a little to the local conditions. It was a quarter mile journey from boat to shore, although I wasn’t really sure why the skipper didn’t run up against the little quay at Weddell settlement where we would be staying….The St Brandan was flat bottomed and the quay was designed for mid-range ships that re-provisioned the island fairly regularly, but whatever, I enjoyed the work, loading and stowing kit and balancing the little craft that would be our work-horses for the next 3 weeks or so in and around the South Atlantic Ocean, and the inlets and bays of Weddell and New Islands and, eventually Port Stanley

The settlement at Weddell Harbour is sparse to say the least, a combination of a couple of barns, then used to shelter the Island’s owner’s large and impressive RIB, the main residence, and an impressive wood and brick farm-style house and the bunk-house, which would serve as our Island base for the Two weeks we were diving around the island. I spent some time looking at the history of Weddell Island, in the 1800’s the buildings were wool processing factory’s, the main revenue of the settlement, (when it could warrant being called that) being wool and sheepskin, along with the subsistence farming necessitated by such a remote location with such storm lashed shores

Astonishingly the changes seem minimal from 1889 to 1996, despite over a century having elapsed between the views! If nothing else, it shows a couple of things about the islands, they built well, for wooden sheds to survive the weather in the region in such good shape, for a century and beyond, is quite a feat. It also shows that the islanders re-purpose without much waste, whatever is there is re-used not just discarded or pulled down, although the actual sheep sheds themselves (on the Right of the sepia print) have now long gone

  We spent our first day transporting our kit ship-to-shore and then up to the bunk-house. There was a lot to unload and most of the morning went just ferrying, the shore party then land-rovered the personal kit up to the bunk house, and settled the jerry-cans of petrol into the shed, along with cylinders and compressors and the remaining diving kit. The cylinders would all need filling as they had been, out of necessity and to meet transport regulations, emptied before we shipped them. The shore party set-about with a will, we couldn’t wait to get diving! My last dive had been a first, I’d been in the re-compression chamber at Fort Bovisands, for an insight into hyperbaric medicine, on the 11^th December of 1995 following the completion of my BSAC Advanced Diver course, now would be another first, my first dive in the South Atlantic! My dive-log recalls: 05^th January 1996, “Shore Dive – Gull Harbour – Weddell Island South Atlantic (Falklands) Shakeout dive through the kelp – longest I’ve ever seen – loads of squat lobster & then into an old wooden wreck (a Brig size) plenty of timber left to root round. Over to Port I think. W/Temp 10’ Viz 4-5m Air In 200 Out 150 Buddy Chris”  You couldn’t make this up, our first dive on Weddell Island and we had stumbled across an old wreck, it turned out to be the Castalia, a former yacht once belonging to an Earl….. But that is for another story and as any who read this know, will be found in another place on here!

  The next morning we were back into the water for some skills refreshers, another shore-dive in the shallows, the bottom in the area was a mixture of sand and rock, with Kelp in isolated areas acting as islands of life, it was in the Kelp you found all the life there was to see, it stretched to the surface as an oasis, forest like, offering hiding places for all kinds of marine life from juvenile fish and mollusks, to starfish, anemones, crab and larger individual fish and then, when you were lucky, the larger mammals like seals, huge eyed and playful, when their innate curiosity overcame their shyness and surprise at bubble blowing, noisy and clumsy things from another world, gate-crashing their serenity…….

The next couple of dives were local and uneventful, I recorded them without much enthusiasm and I remember them being little to write home about, the log book says it all: “Shore Dive – Gull Harbour – W.I S.A Skills refresher followed by a bimble about – plenty of Crayfish but very little else – boring – Air In 200 Out 125 W/Temp 9’ Viz 3-4m Buddy Chris” that one followed later in the morning of the 6^th January ’96 with: “Rib Dive – Gull Point – Weddell – S.A Contour search for the “Weddell” turned into a bimble  Some isolated Kelp “trees” & Unusual Starfish. A Dolphin & 2 Penguins on the surface but weren’t interested below W/Temp 9’ Air In 200 Out 110 Viz 3m Buddy Chris” On these occasions the wildlife at the surface outweighed that under the water, it was quite something to be accompanied out in the inflatables by the odd Commerson’s or Peale’s Dolphin and to see Penguins was surreal, not something you see on South Coast dives back in the UK! And we were starting to get the inflatables out and spread our wings a little, moving steadily and more confidently around the island, I wanted a lot more of this, I didn’t come here for shore diving!

  The next dive was that afternoon on the Castalia, another look at her and how she sat in the water, on this occasion we found her transom and there were still brass letters showing on the wood sat there since she had been blown ashore in a storm in 1893. Don used the opportunity to do some survey work on her remains and we ran a centre line for a video run down her keel as a guide for the video team. Castalia had an interesting back story and not a little intrigue too, I enjoyed the dives we did on her even though she was  close in and hard up to the shoreline, she was an atmospheric dive and that was made even more so in the fading twilight of dusk that evening

  08^th January saw us taking the inflatables out to Harbour Island, a short trip down the sound from Weddell Settlement to Harbour Island, about ½ a mile down the channel leading from Weddell harbour, gradually extending the distance as we gained confidence in the outboards and the performance of the inflatables. This wasn’t the place to take undue risks, there was no one out this far to come and help, essentially we were on our own. Don had deliberately made the choice of two inflatables to limit the chance of a single failure becoming catastrophic, we took every dive seriously, there was an O2 kit on each boat and all of us were trained O2 administrators with BSAC lifesaver awards, apart from Two Sports divers One on each boat, the maximum Don would permit gaining “adventurous” dive experience on this trip

The next dives were decent, a bit more fun, and the log book records: “RIB Dive – Harbour Island – S.A. Scenic bimble round the gully’s – plenty of life – Anemones & Starfish & Squat Lobster & Small fish – Mellow W/Temp 9’ Air In 200 Out 110 Buddy Percy”   that was our morning dive, things were getting better the further out we got, it was encouraging, the next dive was at Circum Island and went like this: “RIB Dive – Circum Island – S.A. Scenic bimble again – new area – One lovely Nudibranch White and Clear, plenty of Queenies Mellow – W/Temp 12’ Air In 200 Out 130 Buddy Percy” I can’t account for the difference in temperature on this dive, 4 degrees over a dive at pretty much the same depth between Harbour and Circum Islands, it was odd but I generally looked at the gauge “whenever”, there was no “set” time so it shouldn’t be taken as definitive, perhaps I’d looked at my gauge shallower on the second dive?

  The next Two days on Weddell Island were blow-outs, we knew they would happen, this was an area where sailors spoke in reverend awe of the weather and conditions, Two days, just as we were beginning to spread our wings was a bit of a blow to morale though…. The 11^th saw us back in the water, the first team laid out rope lines so video could be taken for the Natural History Museum, and our dive was dedicated to retrieval, the log book says: “RIB Dive – Harbour Island – (S. End) S.A. Retrieving ropes used for lining out video path – all sent up on delayed SMB’s No Problems. Couple of Commerson’s dolphins played around the boat as we exited with a couple of Magellan’s Penguins. W/Temp 9’ Air In 200 Out 150 Buddy Mike” I found I enjoyed “working” dives quite a bit, the challenges of doing anything underwater made you focus and seemed to give the dives a greater meaning, not just a bimble, but a bimble with purpose if you like….. Our afternoon dive on the 11^th was at the opposite end of Harbour Island and was logged as: “RIB Dive – Harbour. I. (N. End) S.A. Exploring another site – Isolated rock outcrops & huge Kelp fronds millions of Crayfish (tiny) & then the delayed went up a 7’ Seal/Sea-lion came and inspected us at 6m, so we pushed another 5 mins watching it perform – what a wonderful creature!! W/Temp 9’ Air In 200 Out 140 Buddy Mike” My first experience of a seal underwater, not just off the RIB or hauled out on the rocks, I loved it, sleek and Grey under the water and literally a “ballerina-like” grace in every move, from that day to this I have always relished diving with these amazing creatures!

  12^th of January we were back out and off to another new site, this time Smylie Rock, there were plenty of local names for the various formations around each Island, named for their appearance, or events that happened local to them, naming protocols long lost for the most part, some of the stacks and features were named for their current appearance and some from way-back when, we gave up asking what the background was as the locals often really didn’t know, some of the names probably go back to the “Cape Horner” days…. The log for the 12^th Jan says: “RIB Dive – Smylie Rock – Weddell – S.A. Hunt around new site – plenty of micro-life two lovely blue-black banded Crayfish & some Brittle-stars (Orange” – Surfaced near Sea-Lion colony – Huge Male & couple of females. Commerson’s dolphins played surfing on inbound! W/Temp 9’ Air In 200 Out 140 Buddy James” and the afternoon dive was noted short & sweet: “RIB Dive – Harbour I (S.W. End) S.A. Photography with James on Camera In & out of Kelp forest – very atmospheric. Life again was macro – but pretty & lively W/Temp 9’ Air In 200 Out 150 Buddy James” Now I sell this dive short and remember it well at the time, the Kelp was magnificent, the dive truly did feel like we were in a tropical forest, but it is hard to describe the feelings, you are essentially winding your way through vast areas of the same thing, there isn’t a great way to describe the light playing through the kelp fronds scattering like some vast disco-ball across the sea-bed when you write up a dive-log. I remember emerging into what looked like small forest glades where kelp was a little more sparse in a patch, only to have to push through tight knit “trunks” to pass on and continue the dive. It was truly a surprise to see how deep this kelp went, our deepest dives were 30m by decree as we had no re-compression chamber on the islands, the nearest being in Buenos Aires…..and not a good idea to end up asking to use in the circumstances, but you could see the kelp descending well beyond our sight into the depths which meant they stretched at lease to the 40m mark!  

  By now I had seen a good deal of what was on offer and was enjoying the adventure of the whole experience, the marine life was special, the nudibranchs we were seeing were small for the most part, but the colours were beyond anything I’d seen before, brilliant Whites, translucent stripes, banded with electric Yellows, and Cobalt Blues, and Brittle-stars, some were quite huge and brilliant Red in colour, and all the sizes in between, the Falklands was indeed a haven for marine-life but our next dives were collections, bagging specimens for the Natural History Museum and I knew I wasn’t going to like it much. I hate condemning creatures of any sort to death, even in the name of science. The dive log records: 13^th Jan ’96 “RIB Dive – Harbour .I. Weddell S.A. Collection work for British Antarctic Survey Group. Taking samples on a bearing at 5m intervals & lift bagging to the cover boat. Visited by a Seal at 5m which brought a friend to 10m to play round us – a magnificent pair of creatures friendly and inquisitive W/Temp 9’ Air In 210 Out 140 Buddy’s Simon & Ross” That afternoon we had another treat in store: “RIB Dive- Harbour .I. Weddell S.A. Diving with Commerson’s Dolphins that had been playing with and round the boats! Close enough to touch – magical creatures!! W.Temp 9’ Air In 140 Out 100 Buddy’s Simon & Ross” I loved Dolphins, they often rode our bow waves on the way out or back from the dives and to get them in close whilst we were underwater was special, this was a fantastic dive for all the brevity used in the description and I wished for as many more like it as I could get!

We only had a couple more days on Weddell Island and by now we had seen what we were going to see I thought, the next day on the 14^th had been set aside for some skills tests for the Dive-Leader qualification for our Two Sport Divers. The dive was uneventful, which is exactly how it should be considering the skills we were practicing! I wrote it up briefly: “RIB Dive – Weddell Island – S.A. C.B.L Skills Dive for D.L. W/Temp 9’ Air In 220 Out 200 Ross/James” Controlled Buoyant Lift (C.B.L) a way of surfacing an unconscious or incapacitated diver using his own buoyancy control device, controlling his or her ascent to the surface, where further rescue can be undertaken. This we did from 15m and although valuable as practice, something no-one wanted to have to do for real! Given the skills we were performing we only did the one dive that day, it could have been the weather was not too encouraging as well, I do not remember clearly. The next day we were headed out to Mark Point at the top end of the channel, it was a good haul out there but it was worth it as the log records: “RIB Dive – Mark Point – W.I. S.A Diving in a kelp forest – a wonderful dive – like flying through a tropical rain forest. So much life – nudibranchs, Brittle-stars, Starfish & Pin Cushion Stars – Brachiopods everywhere we looked, thousands of Hermit Crabs (tiny) & all wonderful colours especially the Squat Lobsters! 10m Viz W/Temp 9’ Air In 180 Out 125 Buddy Ross” The dive was a good one and we decided to go back there in the afternoon which I logged as: “RIB Dive – Mark Point – W.I S.A Back to the Kelp Forest but further South. Just as wonderful but the Sun didn’t give such brilliant shafts of light as before – the mood was more eerie & dark but winding in – out up and over the Kelp was great the life was just as plentiful but we played with a large Octopus this time and saw more small fish & Two good sized ones – marvellous. W/Temp 9’ Air In 225 Out 175 Viz 5m Buddy Ross” It was clear, Weddell Island had saved its best marine-life dives till last, now what would New Island bring……..

 In the beginning……

I had kept in touch with Don Shirley since exercise Jamaican Experience (otherwise known as operation sun-tan) back in June of 1994, Don had spoken about another adventure in the planning and I’d asked to be kept in mind, Don was as good as his word and I got a nod somewhere around February of 1995 to keep an eye on Part 1 orders. I made it a mission and in May or so of that year there was a notice for Corps divers interested in diving remote, unsupported areas on a self-sufficient basis, in inclement climates….. I was intrigued, must be dry-suit trained! OK that’s me, contact WO1 D. Shirley on………… and here we go, the application went in in somewhere around an hour later! I had no idea where we were going, I didn’t care, I knew Don was an adventurer and I knew he loved diving as much as I did, wherever it was Don was going, I wanted “in”. The joining notice would follow on acceptance, but I called Don to check up on my chances, Don said my application arrived in the first 5 and if I was cleared at unit level (another trip to see Major Bloody Andrews then…) then I was on board….it was the Falklands, a million miles away from Jamaica in terms of diving, a bloody site more remote and the plan was Ice diving off South Georgia…..bloody brilliant! Don was still working on permissions with the MoD and the governments of both the UK (It was only 13 years after the Falkland Islands war with Argentina, and still a “sensitive” area for military personnel to get to, unless on an official posting to the base at Stanley) and the Falkland Islands. Don had served in the Falklands war, if anyone could get permission then surely it would be a serving vet such as Don?

   There was no objection to me going from Major Andrews, I think by then he had given up on me, I had already decided I was out of the Army at the 9 year point and this would pretty much get me out of his hair until I left….. I got joining instructions in good time, there were preparations too, weekends spent at the RAOC depot in Chillwell digging out climbing rope at, or beyond its rappelling or climbing date, great for anchor rope and lashing down our kit in the ISO containers we would send ahead of us to Port Stanley. There were inflatables and outboards to get, checks to make on their tubes, transoms and deck boards…… this wasn’t going to be somewhere we could rely on anyone but ourselves if we got into trouble! There were to be tents and all the cooking gear and banalities, toilet rolls, ration packs, flour, bread & eggs…all kinds of subsistence stuff we would need too, jerry cans, batteries, petrol generators and compressors for the cylinder fills….. This was a taste of real expedition planning and we would make it a success or failure with what we did here, in the UK, beforehand! Then there was the admin, passports, applications, flights to arrange…. all that ended up at Brize Norton early in the morning of 03^rd January 1996 where we assembled for the Tri-Star flight to Ascension Islands, about 1/2 of the way to Stanley Airfield, East Falkland Islands, our first point of local departure on our way to Weddell Island and adventure!

  Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as we would have liked, Ascension is a tiny island in the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean, we landed at Wideawake, the island’s airfield simply to refuel, a Tri-Star is a hungry bird or so our RAF colleague who had joined the exped told me as we sat on the runway waiting for the needle to read “full”……..when it did the stink of paraffin had become quite a concern, normally the plane doesn’t reek of Avgas before take-off…. It turns out this didn’t surprise our RAF team member much, “Damien” (look up “The Omen”…) is a well-known problem child to the Brize Norton air crews and fitters. It turns out Damien had sprung a leak somewhere, I could see frantic activity below the Port wing from my seat, panels dropped and overall clad technicians wielding screwdrivers and spanners below it, for somewhere near an hour, before it was decided to disembark everyone and bus us to the local barracks to overnight on the island, and give the fitters a chance to cure the leak by morning

  I was desperate to see if the local military dive club would open up for a quick shore dive, no matter how much cash we promised to put behind the bar, there was going to be none of it….”too much swell” and “conditions are too marginal”….bollocks, just too much trouble to get things done by the look of things….but, whatever, it was an interesting overnight we hadn’t expected and broke the travel up nicely, we’d been on the plane around 8 hours as it was when we landed! So it was with a certain level of frustration that we climbed back on Damien for the leg to Stanley, and another 8 hours or so before we would arrive, a full day late, let’s hope transport is still waiting for us when we get there or things will go seriously sideways! The trip in is pretty boring as 8 hours on any RAF flight is, the staff are courteous and efficient but there’s no snacks trolley….and no alcohol either….but you do get a bit of excitement on approach, the last hundred miles or so two GR7 Tornado’s escorted us in, taking it in turns to buzz the flight and doing lazy rotations around us so close you could see the pilot & navigator clearly….awesome flying and a fabulous sight

  It got even more surreal as we dropped into Port Stanley and saw how tiny the airfield at Mount Pleasant was, it made you wonder if the Tri-Star, not a small plane, was going to be able to brake before the end of the runway! I had faith and that was rewarded with a sublime landing on that bleak little hill, fought so hard for by the British just a few brief years beforehand….and it was a brilliant end to the journey from Brize when, as we taxied to the arrivals lounge, passing the earth berm between runway and workshops, a line of mechanics stood on the top of the bund and raised score-cards, like dancing on ice or the Olympics…..bloody hilarious, I’d never seen the like, the pilot must have been proud, he’d got nearly clean 6’s across the piece……I was pissing myself laughing! It was with an air of anticipation we boarded our Bedford 4 tonner, provided by courtesy of the local REME LAD (Light Aid Detachment), to get to Port Stanley Harbour and our ISO container

So what was the mission? This wasn’t an ordinary expedition as Don had taken pains to point out to all joining the venture, we would split it into 3 phases and sadly, following an incident the previous year, we would not be diving on South Georgia, so, no under ice experiences nor glacier calving unfortunately, we were gutted, what the hell had happened, we were all excited at the prospect of real ice diving…. It turned out an expedition of military canoers and walkers had planned a split exped to South Georgia, where the walkers would “tab” the island and the canoers paddle the headlands carrying their supplies, the plan was to keep this up around the whole island or the majority of it at least. It turned out to be a bigger issue than expected, the walkers got a head start and made off, carrying very basic rations, they successfully got the 30 or so miles to their first destination and camped up waiting for the canoers, who had woken a day later to a South Atlantic storm, which meant they were never going to get to sea until it blew through, this changed the picture for those battened down against that same storm, but with little left to eat…..now it turns out Penguins are pretty timid birds…..and taste pretty much of salty chicken…..I will leave the remainder to your imagination, but suffice to say Penguins are a protected species, and that meant the military were persona non grata on South Georgia, despite having liberated the region from what would have been a pretty shitty life under the Argentinian Junta, ironically Don was one of those liberators, but the decision was final, no South Georgia phase to exercise Southern Craftsman, we were gutted!

  Don had 3 locations planned and the 3 phases, although changed with the impact of “Operation Salty Chicken Dinner”, would be environmental assessments of the differing locations. Following the Falklands Islands war and the re-establishment of UK sovereignty in the region, there was a very real chance of an influx of Oil Companies, hungry for new areas to exploit for the benefit of an exclusive elite, sat in board rooms across the globe, ignorant or uncaring of the destruction caused to pristine environments such as the archipelago’s of the Southern seas. Don had a mission from the Natural History Museum, gather specimens of local underwater species, kelps, sponges, anemones and whatever else could be had, and assess the eco-system health in the Three regions we would visit, take underwater photographs to record wildlife, and high quality film, and Don had been given one of the smaller BBC video cameras for the purpose. It was exciting to think there would be a record of our visit with some real importance attached to it! Our first phase would be Weddell Island, off West Falkland, originally called Swan Island, Weddell ad been discovered in 1766 on a hydrographic survey of the islands by Captain John McBride on the ship HMS Jason and eventually named after James Weddell a British Sealer who wrote  “A Voyage Towards the South Pole” having spent time on the island in 1820 and 1823

Once we got to the dock finding the ISO was easy, it had been set up already by the crew, that helped, all that remained was to check the contents, load up the remaining personal kit and lash the inflatables down, we needed at least one of the inflatables to ferry kit and people ashore at Weddell Island on arrival

  The trip out was a pleasant one, the St Brandan was a flat bottomed boat designed to be able to get close in to shore, (more about that later in the story) but it would be the inflatables we used to get our kit ashore. The ISO container would remain on the deck for the duration, allowing us an easier transition from each location and an element of storage should we need it. It helped that St Brandan had a huge crane on deck, a tracked and trackable unit that made on and off-loading a whole lot easier than hand-balling our kit!

On and off-loading with St Brandan’s crane….. a whole lot easier than hand-balling our kit

  Weddell Island, our destination, did not disappoint, low lying and bleak, we motored into the sheltered, narrow straight that was close to the sparse outpost of Empire that would be our base for the next week or so at Weddell Settlement, shown in the wildlife map below. The Falkland Islands are a wildlife sanctuary of huge importance and attract those amongst us who seek out the off-grid, remote areas, without missing the congestion of modern western society life styles

We lost little time getting the Inflatables going and transferred the kit to our host’s Land-rover in short order. This wasn’t a location needing tents, there was already a well-established bunk house at the settlement, used on the odd occasion for island hopping by those on tours of duty in Port Stanley, a hiking and nature trail “base” location. I was looking forward to this phase, it would be a great introduction to the Falklands and an opportunity for some really ground breaking diving!

 The little inflatables would be elevated to a level of respect well beyond our expectations in the next few days, they were a tight fit and the outboards were not exactly state of the art, but boy these little craft worked hard and well for the whole trip, making challenging journeys, loaded up and at the limits of their capabilities, on many occasions! They were easy to handle, rugged and they rode the sea in a particular way, flexing over wave peaks and absorbing impacts at the bow, to a degree, by folding slightly, making riding the waves a sinuous thing rather than like a RIB assaulting and breaking through…..it took some getting used to but it worked…..

  Exercise Southern Craftsman, Weddell Island, the Falkland Islands, South Atlantic Ocean, January 1996 was about to begin….we’d arrived, and this was, officially, the end of the beginning!

  Sunday 26^th June was one hell of a storm…..all diving cancelled and nothing to do but write up log-books and prepare to transfer to the final dive area at Discovery Bay, where we would be hosted by the University of the West Indies, using their facility, The Discovery Bay Marine Laboratory (DBML) at Mona, an hour out of Montego Bay.  The DBML had been around since its founding in 1965, by Professor Thomas F Goreau, dedicated to marine Biology, Research, Geology and Coral Reef Study, it was founded on land donated by the Kaiser Bauxite Company and funded by the Wolfson Foundation & CIDA. Professor Goreau was based out of Stonybrook University (New York), and DBML was a joint venture with SU(NY) until 1975, when the University of the West Indies took sole ownership and eventually founded the Centre for Marine Sciences (CMS) in 1990

  Don had pulled another blinder, this was a great location, with on-site accommodation blocks, a wealth of knowledge of the diving in the area, and their own boats. It looked like we were in for another great week’s diving! We settled into our bunk-house, a two storey block segregated into bunk rooms, and got out our kit for checking and a bit of prep

The rooms were 4 man bunk affairs and comfy enough but with little, if any, air-conditioning, it made for hot, restless, sleep deprived nights, there were decent kitchen facilities in the main building and apart from the odd electrical “outage” things were pretty decent. The rooms were plagued by Mosquito’s, but we had nets and bought coils of noxious substances to keep as many out as we could, and they worked….of a fashion

Our first dive, after we had serviced the boat engines and cleaned the plugs and filters, was just around the headland to one of the University study sites on a local reef, my log book says:  “…..Small boat dive – Discovery Bay (JA) Down to 21m and a guided tour round a reef, plenty of small fish about in bright coloured shoals and a visit to the university pens full of Lobster & a huge Crab…Air In 210 out 100 W/Temp 28’ Buddy John…” I liked the reef, immediately in front of the DBML quay, it was made of large outcrops with White sand between, like islands if you will, surrounded by Powder Blue of the Caribbean Sea, easy and beautiful diving, a pleasure to be in. Not bad for what was, essentially, a check-out dive by the university, who had been quite adamant that our diver cox’s should prove their skills before we were allowed to take the boats out ourselves and do some exploring!

Our next dive out of the local bay was out to the main reef, the reef fringes Jamaica’s entire North coast, being almost continuous its entire length. It runs across the bay front, separating it from the open sea, starting around 300m from DBML, which is on the bay’s West side as you can see from the Admiralty Chart at the beginning of this piece. In fact you can see the reef in the shot above, just behind the Skiffs, most obvious slightly beyond the rock outcrop. This dive, we had decided, would be on the outer, seaward side of the reef, a little more adventurous, given that the reef wall descends to 200m plus not far from the reef itself, the dive log entry for June 28^th ‘94:  “….Small Boat Dive – Discovery Bay (JA) Freefall past a reef @20m going down to who knows how deep then back up to the 15m mark and along gullies full of life, caught sight of a large Ray but couldn’t I.D it found a Spotted Moray in a hide and had a 10 min stay at a great coral head full of Snappers and Yellowtails  Air in 210 out 75 W/Temp 28’ Buddy’s Don & Rob”  

  The geology of the area is predominantly Limestone, there are popular caves (The Green Grotto), which are tourist traps, locally, and the area is essentially a Karst type environment, as described here: (Bonem R.M: “Effects of Submarine Karst Development on Reef Succession”. In: Proceedings of the 6^th International Coral Reef Symposium, Australia, 1988, Vol.3) where, in the abstract (introduction) Bonem states: “The geomorphic configuration of the limestone substrate commonly has been modified by one or more phases of subaerial karst development prior to submergence.” And goes on to quote: “Discovery Bay, located on the north coast of Jamaica between Montego Bay and St. Ann’s Bay (figure 1). has been a centre for reef studies since the late 1960’s. According to Woodley & Robinson (1977, p. 18), Discovery Bay has been described as a “drowned river valley excavated by solution, which has been partly cut off from the sea by recent reef growth.” The bay is a circular, saucer-like depression with a maximum depth of -53 metres. A submerged collapse doline (sinkhole) occurs in the northwest corner of the shallow shelf that restricts the bay. A fault, trending approximately N. 40′ E., can be traced from land into the bay, cutting the shallow shelf and displacing the east forereef -10 metres relative to the west forereef (Liddell & Ohlhorst 1981).”

Our next dive went looking for the evidence of the fault mentioned, a source of fresh water permeating into the sea in the form of underwater haloclines, areas of distinct visual disturbances where salt and fresh water mix and end up in layers of different salinities with different refraction indexes…..we weren’t disappointed either, my log records: “…Small Boat Dive – Discovery Bay (JA) Down to 16.6m Viz down to 2m due to the fresh water springs in the area Right of the marine lab Still eerie at the thermocline everything cloaked in mist – good dive still….” It sounds like I’m defending myself here, the “thermocline” existed too, it was distinctly cooler where the fresh water springs entered the sea, so you had the effect of both salinity drop and temperature drop…..it was a cool dive but not my first in such a distinct visual paradox

Whilst Jamaica was becoming more and more a tourist destination, it wasn’t lost on us that there were other industries on the island, just around the bay from us was the loading dock for Bauxite, the Red coloured mineral so abundant in the local hills. There had been a Bauxite mine inland of Discovery bay since the 1950’s (1952 “Reynolds”, “Kaiser” & later that year “Alcan”) and during the post war years Aluminium, produced from Bauxite, was a growth metal industry, especially so in the USA. Bauxite had definitely had an influence on the seabed local to the loading dock, we took a dive further round from the DBML and found nothing there worth looking at, we were away from the reefs admittedly, but the seabed was pretty barren

  It’s easy to jump to conclusions and I’m not generally that type of person, it is coincidental that the DBML was given land by the Kaiser group, heavily invested in Bauxite production, but again, that does not mean Bauxite is particularly damaging the area beyond its own moorings. If this kind of thing interests you, then I recommend you take a look at Perry C.T and Taylor K.G “Impacts of Bauxite Sediment Inputs on a Carbonate-Dominated Embayment, Discovery Bay, Jamaica”. In the Journal of Coastal Research: Volume 20, Issue 4: pp. 1070 – 1079 (2004), where they state: “Highest contaminant levels (Fe—13,701 ppm, Mn—237 ppm, Zn—74 ppm) occur immediately adjacent to, and just north-east of, a bauxite loading terminal in the south-west of the bay” in the abstract……. Another paper by Two of those and a further contributor (Phillip Machent) of 2006 is telling, inset “B” where the core sampling is represented noting “Open rubble framework with isolated sediment patches less than 4% Live Coral Cover”.  Even I can’t see high concentrations of Iron (Fe), Magnesium (Mn) and Zinc (Zn) being a good thing if I am honest…….

We moved back out of the confines of the bay to the outer reef wall again on the 30^th June and my dive log records one of the best dives we did there: “…..Small Boat Dive – Discovery Bay (JA) Down the wall to 42m One Great Descent, couple of mins @ 42m then a slow ascent back up through the coral to 30 then a trip through the gullies & small shoals – great dive – Air in 210 out 80 W/Temp 28’ Buddy Rob” Something of an improvement on the dive to follow, where we went looking for 3 caves supposed to be in the area, not surprising in a Limestone Karst geology, but we didn’t find anything and the dive was unremarkable “….. Down around 28m to find 3 caves – No Luck – Back up to 15m for a bimble, but not so much to see….”

The next dive, on the same day (01^st July 1994) was one of my favourites in Discovery Bay, we held back until early evening and went out for a night dive, I loved night diving by now and this one, despite coming at a personal cost, was a good one”, I’ll let the log book lead: “…..Small Boat Dive Discovery Bay (JA) Night Dive – Plenty to see Two small Leopard Rays – a huge Moray Eel – several Cuttle-Fish and Lobsters, Two Sea Snakes and various reef fish – stung by Sea Wasp Jelly – Fish on ascent but great dive, clear Star filled Sky full of Summer Lightening on return – GREAT. Air in 210 out 100 W/Temp 28’ Buddy’s Neil & Hayden”  I said the dive came at a personal cost, those bloody Sea Wasp jellies hurt like hell….. I was ascending and minding my own business, just meandering up to our 3 minutes safety stop and felt like I’d been stabbed in the lip, then in the groin….nothing to see in the dark but clear water, just an agonising pain left to suck-up whilst waiting for deco to end…..bugger!  You won’t know what I mean unless you get on the wrong end of one of these little Fcukers…. it was enough to bring a tear to the eyes

  Our last dive day, 02^nd July 1994 and it was going to be hard to leave, we knew the expedition was coming to an end and we wanted to go out on a memorable high, we weren’t disappointed and the log says it all: “…….Small Boat Dive – Pear Tree Bay (JA) Down to 26m for a look for the tunnels, this time we found them no problem, tied off the SMB and led through one from 17m to 20m – 15m longish full of coral – then back through after Ian – carried on for 30m or so and found another tunnel 20m long – narrow & coral filled from 17m down to 25m, tied off – led – then returned, through clouds of silt – eerie then on to 6m in the gullies to fizz off – Brilliant last dive!! Air in 200 out 60 W/Temp 28’ Buddy Ian” I loved the dive, it was everything the Caribbean could offer in terms of reef diving, the swim through’s peppered with untouched corals, fish swimming everywhere, a truly beautiful dive and a sad one too…..it was done, over, our 3 weeks in Jamaica had come to an end……….. and I was gutted

Port Antonio, capital of Portland Parish, a city on Jamaica’s northeast coast, the gateway to John Crow Mountains, tropical jungles, Blue Lagoons & and Crystal Clear waterfalls, fed by underground springs and flowing into the warm Caribbean Sea………. 

  Dragon Bay turned out to be far different than Port Royal, where Port Royal had pirate heritage and was a working city with all that implied, where the Government yards still existed in Trenchtown and where there were areas you wouldn’t particularly want to be at night, Dragon Bay was a resort, private in its own secluded bay with all you would expect from that exclusivity…..a million miles from what Bob Marley grew up in and somewhere Hollywood had recognized for its peace, tranquility and beautiful Caribbean beaches. Those who remember the Tom Cruise film “Cocktail” would instantly recognise the beach bar; it was where the majority of the film was shot…….That’s not the only Hollywood movie filmed there either, just around the headland in Frenchman’s Bay they shot blue Lagoon with Brooke Shields……..

  It turns out Don had dropped lucky with this phase of the Expedition, Dragon Bay had just been through a transfer of ownership and had been undergoing some refurbishment, it was not yet ready for guests but the owners were happy to let us use the chalet accommodation in Two of the blocks before they opened for regular business. There was not One single complaint from any of us…..there was a bar, the beach bar, a restaurant and a beach-side pool…..this was slumming it….big-time!  There was even an on-site Dive operation “Lady G-Diver” run by a very attractive local girl and her crew. Don had arranged to use them for cylinders & weights and to use their skiff and diver cox’n to get us to local sites and back

  So, where were we in more global terms? Portland formally became a Jamaican “parish” in 1723, it was originally to be called Port Antonio by order of the Duke of Portland, the then-Governor of Jamaica, after whom it is named. The existing port was planned to become a naval stronghold intended to protect settlers from attacks by the Spanish from the sea. By 1729 the British had begun construction of Fort George, on the peninsula separating the East and West harbours known as the Titchfield promontory. In the 1880’s Lorenzo Dow Baker who started the banana trade in Jamaica, began promoting the sleepy little coastal town of Port Antonio as a destination for wealthy Americans. Portland took off and quickly became a tourist driven boom town. The influx of tourists and the concurrent shipping of Bananas’ became so large that, at one time, weekly sailing from Port Antonio was purported to be greater than weekly sailings from Liverpool….

  Dragon’s bay was a wonderful location, an idyllic place where at night, firefly’s hummed everywhere, lighting the trees around you, I had never seen Firefly’s and found them mesmerising in the heat of the tropical evenings, as dusk fell to the dark of night. One evening I sat on the veranda in front of the resort restaurant, empty of people as we were the only guests there for the duration, and watched as far out to sea a storm of epic proportions chased across the horizon, angry and purple at its base, but white and huge the clouds above…..and watched, hypnotised, as incredible lightening forks danced to Earth and struck the Caribbean sea….. the anger of Gods creating a light show Pink Floyd could only dream of………

We took advantage of the excellent bay location to undertake some training dives and some photographic work, the exped had brought an underwater camera, it wasn’t something I was particularly interested in at the time, however I had a go on at least one dive in the secluded bay. The shots I took turned out to be pretty poor, there is a distinct art to photography, and when it came to adding depth and light correction to the mix….I just did not have the time, or interest  to take it seriously! The diving was great around Dragon Bay, we had far better visibility than at Kingston throughout, our first dive there giving us 24m, measured off an SMB reel! The log book reads: “….Small boat dive Alligator Head (J) Great descent (freefall) to 28m and onto a large reef that drops to 60m teeming with life Coral and accompanied round by a shoal of Silver – Black barred Angel fish Very large for this area a fantastic dive……”

  This was the location of my very first night dive, the second dive made at Dragon Bay which we undertook in the bay itself. The sheltered nature of the gentle sloping sandy shore, and the coral outcrops we could see from the shore in daylight, meant it was an obvious choice, easy access, no boats required…..perfect! The log book says all I recall, despite the adventurous nature of the dive itself in terms of my experiences to date: “….Shore dive – Dragon Bay (JA) 1^st True Night Dive – Around a coral bay sometimes down to 0.5m depth – Two large Puffer Fish – a Sea Snake – lots of smaller reef fish beautifully coloured – a couple of Crayfish A great dive…..”

  In l956 Canadian business tycoon Garfield Weston purchased 45 acres of prime ocean real-estate in Jamaica planning a retreat for himself and his staff. Mr Weston missed a clause in the deeds to the property mandating its development as a public resort, thus prompting the development of one of the most memorable resorts in Jamaica…… Frenchman’s Cove is in the parish of Portland, in a secluded corner of the island located on the northwest shore of Jamaica, the John Crow mountains (a native Jamaican hawk giving them their name from it’s almost ubiquitous presence on the up-drafts of warm tropical air lifting it lazily into the sky) run down to the sea, amidst hidden coves and lush tropical forest washed by the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean Sea. Frenchman’s Cove evokes a chapter in Jamaica’s sugar industry, milling made use of a stream running through the cove and occupies a significant place in the islands history. The cove has been used for various films, Blue Lagoon, a Brooke Shields film based on a novel by Henry De Vere Stacpoole shot there in 1978, and, most notably William Golding’s the Lord of the Flies shot in 1988. Interestingly, from a scuba perspective, the underwater filming in Blue Lagoon was by Ron & Valerie Taylor, probably most famous for Blue Water White Death, the 1971 White Shark odyssey featuring Rodney Fox, the former Abalone fisherman savaged, to the point of near death in a Great White attack off Aldinga Beach just South of Adelaide, Australia

The next few dives (in all we dived 9 times out of Dragon Bay during the 5 days we were there), all of them surrounded by a myriad of Caribbean reef fish, were similar, some deeper dives around the 25 to 30 meter mark, with a few more shore dives thrown in. There are many reefs out in both directions from the resort, to the Left and Frenchman’s Cove, to the right and Alligator Head……all of them similar, abundant coral, fans, coral heads, table corals and brain corals, wonderful to see, with plenty of sandy swim-through’s, some of which go right under the coral one side to the other, landward to ocean…… one of the more brilliant things to do on coral reefs! I had a “Tropical Fish of the Caribbean” slate with me, I had already seen and identified an Octopus, a 3’ Barracuda and a big Ocean Trigger fish, and on one dive alone logged:  “…..Small boat Dive – Alligator Head (JA) free fall to 35m down the side of a reef from 20m back up and along it – the most beautiful yet – endless coral – all types & these are just the fish I can I.D. lg Black Durgon – Trigger Fish – Balloon Fish – trumpet Fish – Dusky Squirrel Fish – Juvenile Clown Wrasse – Butthead Wrasse – Striped Parrot Fish and Blue Tang Some List – Some Dive !!…….”  On our last dive out of Dragon Bay I added Scorpion Fish, Four-eye Butterfly Fish, Doctor Fish, Yellowtail Snapper, Yellowtail Damsel Fish and Blue-head Wrasse to the list….but we hadn’t seen any sharks the whole 5 days! It is, however, an awesome location for those who love marine biology and especially reef denizens

Dragon Bay 2019

  It is desperately sad to look at the resort today, remembering it with such joy from the days of 1994. Almost 14 years after the Gordon Stewart-led Sandals Group acquired Dragon Bay, having promised to transform it into “the Caribbean’s most luxurious resort”, the 99-room facility is closed, the closure having sent the local community, (whom I remember very fondly having spent several nights with locals, listening to “Hard” Reggae,  eating BBQ cooked Jerk Chicken and downing Red Stripe from fridges powered off local houses in the town square), to the brink of financial ruin. The Sunday Gleaner, the local Jamaican news sheet  reports: The mayor of Port Antonio, Wayne McKenzie, expressed his concern regarding the continued closure of Dragon Bay saying “…..we are equally concerned about the fact that it has been closed for so long. Prior to its closure, it was the most promising hotel in terms of employment in the parish, so it has been a major concern to us for quite a while now“. McKenzie acknowledges the continued closure has been influenced by a failure to update the local Airport and the coastal road connecting to the Dragon Bay resort. As someone who loved being in Dragon Bay and who found the locals wonderful and welcoming people, and, with the diving and location being so beautiful, it is a tragedy if this continues, it truly is…… Sandals should be ashamed of their behaviour! You can still dive the area as Lady G’Diver still operates, but now out of the Quay on the Errol Flynn Marina, at the New Marina Port Antonio…..say Hi and tell her I sent you……… http://www.ladygdiver.com/

I had applied to join my first Army diving expedition back in January or February of 1994, I was recovering from an injury received carrying around 120lbs of kit, 40lbs of webbing and ammo, and a section weapon, patrolling Big Dog Forest on a typical “away-day” in the province. I had fallen in an overgrown fire-break ditch, unlucky or just too stupid to notice…..either way, I had ripped the perennial tendon in my Right ankle and had spent 3 months of rehabilitation to get to a point I could walk without a limp. Whilst convalescing, I had seen a small advert for those “interested and qualified in scuba-diving” to take part in an expedition expecting to explore the remoter areas of the Caribbean, in support of, and with the assistance of, the Jamaican Defence Force (JDF). It was noted this would be an arduous and challenging enterprise with little or no frills, and an expectation that “training experience” would be a valued contribution…….I was a BSAC Dive-Leader, and current  Training Officer of the TIDSAC club, I might just stand a chance on this one…. The deciding OIC (Officer in Charge), the guy I needed to impress,  was a WO2 D. Shirley, “Don” as I would later learn……..God must have been smiling on me the day Don read my application…….I got a joining instruction about a month later…..result!

  It still took me some work to get approval from my OC, Major Andrews, it helped that he couldn’t stand me and that I had already crossed him (a couple of times) in order to get transferred to the Royal Welch Fusiliers to “go feral” in the province in the first place. We had “past” too…. I had been sent out on the UN tour of “Former Yugoslavia” the year before my N.I. tour, (at a point when my first marriage was falling to pieces), on a promise from Maj Andrews that I would be transferred to 5 airborne on my return (the only ambition I had in the Army), needless to say this had been BS on his part, and on my return to Tidworth it seemed the posting had conveniently been brushed under a carpet somewhere…..I had had my tits full and told him so to his face……to give him “some” credit, over that weekend he discussed my belligerence with Colonel Bob Lloyd of the Royal Welch (resident infantry battalion in Tidworth at the time) who had me marched in on the Monday after, and who seemed to recognise my type of crazy ……..”Most of my men don’t want to go across, even though it’s their job…..what’s your problem Son?….What makes you want this…..have you got a death wish?”  I must have said something right as I got a short order to join battalion preparation as of that Wednesday. The rest is history, 7 months on and the injury I picked up there put me back under Major Andrews for the remains of my military life. Re-hab meant I was practically useless to the REME at that point, so I got my “approval” (much to the absolute disgust of the then Sgt Major, a monumental bell-end…….classic “SPS” case), I was off to Jamaica, first stop Norman Manley Airport……

  I hadn’t left drama completely behind me, it took several weekends of loading dive and supplemental kit into an ISO container for the exped, but that was a breeze really, we were not attempting self-sufficiency, Don had arranged cylinders and weights at the Three locations we would dive, Port Royal, Dragon Bay and Discovery Bay, and the use of a compressor from the JDF in Port Royal, so it was mostly personal dive-kit and gear. Flights were, unusually (for the Army), from Gatwick, Don didn’t trust that the exped would have sufficient “pull” at Brize Norton to stay on track, it wasn’t unusual for “re-assignment” of flights out of Brize, last minute dot-com, and that wasn’t something Don would tolerate. So we found ourselves on civvy flights, rare luxury if you are used to the webbing seats in a C130 (Hercules), or facing the wrong way flying on a Tri-Star! As we descended into Norman Manley everything seemed fine, I could see the runway approaching and was expecting the “bounce” as the landing gear took the load hitting the runway, but the pilot hit the throttle and the engines screamed as we clawed for more air…..this was getting interesting……and those around me were getting paler and the smiles had disappeared too…… As we gained altitude, and the aircraft banked Right the pilot piped up on the intercom….”Apologies for the go-round on this one folks, someone decided to walk across the runway as we were about to land…..” Welcome to Jamaica, where taking things easy is a way of life, and the locals are definitely not in any hurry….. whatsoever…… Irie!

  A little history & background, for those of you who like that kind of stuff: Kingston was a popular port in the 16^th and 17^th centuries with both English and Dutch “privateers”, basically another term for Pirates, who made trading in the area a game of Russian roulette for honest captains and less honest alike! It should be understood, these privateers were often under “letters of marque” to actively encourage raiding of Spanish treasure fleets in the days of impending war with Spain. Many well-known privateers, Henry Morgan, Edward Teach (Blackbeard), John Rackham (Calicoe Jack), women privateers too…. Mary Read, Anne Bonney, and their like used the city as their base during the 17^th & 18th centuries. Port Royal, with its surrounding town and the harbour of Kingston, was founded around 1518 by the Spanish and was, at the time, the largest city in the Caribbean;

  Kingston was eventually captured by England in 1655, and in 1657 Governor Edward D’Oley invited the “Brethren of the Coast” (a group of pirate buccaneers) to make Port Royal their home port. A stroke of genius really, the pirates had been stripped of land by the Spanish, taking their revenge by commerce raids on Spanish shipping, plying the lucrative seaway between Mexico and Spain laden with treasure looted from the Incas. This weakened the Spanish, their treasure galleons no longer safe at sea, and such commercial attrition gave strength to the region without significant burden on the British Royal Navy. The pirates were very often “legalised” as English privateers, and many were given “letters of marque”, licences to operate as commercial raiders, by Jamaica’s governor

By 1659 there were as many as two hundred houses, shops and warehouses surrounding a fort, and in a few short years Kingston had become known as the “Sodom of the New World” renowned for drunkenness with a ratio of a drinking house for every 10 residents! By 1692 there were five forts defending the port and it became the center of Caribbean shipping in the 17th century. On the 7th June 1692 Kingston fell foul of an earthquake which, through liquefaction (when the ground is shaken by the quake and becomes super- saturated by water, it essentially acts as if it were quick-sand in a swamp), destroyed the larger part of it and then, as is often the case, was quickly followed by a huge tsunami which finished the job

  It was the English who re-named “Cagway” (as it was known at the time), “Port Royal” and it served as the country’s unofficial capital, while Spanish Town remained the official capital up until 1872 when the British government designated Kingston, by now the largest city, as the new capital of Jamaica

  Diving Port Royal, our first, of Three exped locations began on the 15^th June with a check-out dive in the harbour area where we were berthed on the JDF fast patrol boat “Thunderhawk”. Things did not go well….I was buddied up with Dean (2^nd Lt D. Kelly-Smith) and when we surfaced from our 15 minute dive, both our heads were aching like we’d been out in Andover for a weekend after winning the lottery…..I knew that meant one thing, the air in our cylinders was contaminated and, as I was responsible for equipment on the exercise, I needed to stop further diving until we knew what was going wrong

Not a popular decision, considering there were another 11 divers (Two already in the water) eager to get wet…..I stood my ground and Don supported the decision, after a strip-down of the local JDF compressor, it turned out oil was leaking into the First stage from a failed ‘O’-ring….I was vindicated, better yet, the exped had proved its approach to safe diving practices!  There was enough daylight left to get back in the water that afternoon and we took Two locally hired RIB’s out into the bay, my log reads:  “…..Rib Dive – Gun Bay- Jamaica  Great First Dive out of the Harbour – Dropped on to a reef @ 10m 8 Lobsters in One spot, Plenty of colourful small fish, One fair sized Angel Fish Plenty to see – real good dive Finished with some skills work….Air in 200 out 75 w/temp 28’ Buddy Dean…..”

  Day 2 in Kingston (16/06/1994) and we ventured out a little further, although plagued by the restrictions of the small, barely adequate, inflatables hired locally, we still managed to get out of the harbour and into the shipping lanes and across to Lime Cay. The size of the inflatables meant we must get back to shore to change cylinders, the trip back out after the morning dive was choppy……Lime Cay is idyllic, a vision of what you imagine tropical islands to be, isolated in powder blue sea, the green of the sparse cay growth a perfect contrast to the near White coral sand, with a back-drop of Blue sky and whisps of cloud…….this was as far from Portland diving as it is possible to get, and I was enjoying it……but, as yet, there were no wrecks……

  Our dives at Lime Cay were decent enough, the scenery was familiar, sandy sea-bed with outcrops of Coral, known sometimes as “Bommies” but I’ve no idea why, there were myriad creatures congregated in and around those coral heads and it was interesting to see the colours, vibrant and starkly contrasting against the general White of the coral outcrops, my next dive was written up:  “Rib Dive – Lime Cay – Kingston (JA) Viz 0-4m – Plenty of small colourful life – plus an eel – and a Stone Fish – good dive……..” The afternoon dive was less of a success, my mask continually steaming up throughout and either as a result, or coincidentally, there was “…..little to see….” I started the 12m dive with 210bar in my cylinder and finished 30 minutes later with 150 Bar, but even a poor dive in the Caribbean is better than the best day in an office!

Our next day out was on the JDF patrol boat assigned to us whenever it could be spared from local patrols, it was a hell of a way to get around, its powerful Diesel engines making short work of the choppy sea we had struggled against the day before in the little and under-powered RIB’s. On the way out to the site we were accompanied by a Dolphin, an opportunity I did not intend to let pass to see one of these creatures as close up as I could get, so we called progress and got in the water, I saw it there beautiful against the powder Blue of the sea, a second or Two and it was gone, bored there was no bow-wave to ride….The dive log entry:    “Hardboat Dive _ Farewell Buoy – (JA) Rough ride out – Disorientated on descent by Anchor Chain Movement Down a Pleasant Gully (After Spotting A Dolphin Fleetingly) Full of small fish – & Purple Fan Coral – Beautiful……”

The next dive that afternoon was over at Wreck Reef, my log book entry sells this one short: “Hardboat Dive – Wreck Reef – (JA) Fantastic Start – Shark passed the boat! In to 4m Plenty of Purple Fan Coral then a 4-5’ Nurse Shark – 2 mins later a Manta Ray – Fabulous – few large Crayfish, A Memorable Dive….” Now this doesn’t describe the start of the dive at all well, when the boat stopped the shark I mentioned came in for a look round the stern where we were kitting up, in typical “movie” fashion it circled with its dorsal fin out of the water looking every bit as menacing as you would expect….Don gave a bit of advice, Jonah, you’re in first, just don’t hang round giving OK signals at the surface, get to the bottom from the off! I figured it was good advice, I got in as the shark turned back from a wide circle off the stern, and I dumped all my air from the stab on contact with the surface and cleared my ears as I descended, I could clearly see sharks below me but they were spooked by this noisy sod disturbing their afternoon….and they headed off…..I was kneeling there waiting for my buddy John….and it took 4 or 5 minutes before he joined me……Now I’m not saying for one minute Don waited to see if I made it…..but I’m pretty sure Don waited to see if I made it before letting John get in after me…….That’s harsh….that’s an officer’s trick Don!

  That brings us to the 19^th June of 1994, and the last dive we would do in Kingston before heading around to Dragon’s Bay, you remember what I said after the Lime Cay dives? (….but as yet there were no wrecks…) …… that last dive was the HMT Texas…..By now you should know where you will find that dive written up!