Romeo Echo Delta Whiskey Yankee Charlie Hotel Introducing Redwych II

Saturday 7th October: Some of the best swells on the south coast for months (great for surfing!!), heavy rain all week, water that resembled the colour of mud and the club takes delivery of it's new RIB, Redwych II! For months we have patiently waited to get back to diving and then we are cursed with the weather from hell. To top it all, spring tides that were so low that we couldn't launch the boat for almost 3 hours as the slip at QAB had dried out.

Six meters long, 150HP on the back, dual GPS, colour echo sounder, chart plotter, navigation lights - the whole 9 yards!! It has definitely been worth the wait.

Unfortunately due to the weather we were not able to do an awful lot. Our plan was to spend Saturday just getting use to her. We planned to do basic boat handling and familiarising ourselves, practicing diver recovery (pick-up) and seeing how she handled before taking Redwych II out laden with divers. A wise decision.

She handles well and it was easy to forget as we sliced through the 2+ m swell, how much we would have struggled in the original Redwych. It wasn't until you glanced at the speed on the GPS that you realised how slick Redwych II is. By the end of Saturday we had clocked up 4 hours of run time. Only 6 more until she is fully run in!

With the protection of the breakwater, it was quite easy to exceed 20 knots, baring in mind that we are limited to 4,200 revs until she is run in.

Sunday saw the first dive, Mick and Foggy braved the murky sea and dived the breakwater with less than 1 metre viz! The weather was so bad that Pete who was coxing the boat, had to pull them up early before the current dragged them past the end of the wall and in to the main west exit shipping lane. Picking them up in the swell would have been exceedingly difficult.

So far, so good. A few snags on the list but nothing that can't be resolved.

Check out the events calendar for planned dives….