Off to the Basil - 6th May 2002



Littlehampton seems to be the venue of choice this year. A 3 hour drive from Ipswich makes it an easier day out than Portland and Swanage and the diving can be very good. Sadly a week of 'weather' stirring the sea down south and a team of gorillas on the shot line conspired meaning that only 3 of us found the wreck. Still, it counts as the first 'experience' dive of the year and everyone came through better prepared for the planned crystal clear conditions off Felixstowe. The afternoons drift dive was again a pleasant bit of light wildlife worrying so the underwater pictures are all of that... Thanks, as usual, go to Susie for making all the arrangements and Craig for another sterling performance as Picnic Officer. These pages seem to work best if you click on the first thumbnail and then use the 'next preview' link at the bottom. That way you don't miss out on the captions...

The usual Litlehampton crew back in action again, happy and relaxed after a 37m dive to look at scallops and hunt for the Basil
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Simon's look suggests Dawn's laughter is at his expense - I wonder what's just happened?
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Kenny relaxes in the sun, Cartman is round by Craig's sandwich box.
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Craig falls asleep guarding his much admired lunchbox
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The narcotic odour of my undersuit takes its toll
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The fumes from the toilet leave another victim dazed and confused
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Craig tucks into an iced bun
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These electric blue male Cuckoo Wrasse were buzzing around all over the place.
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Dawn shows how curious these wrasse were
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Nudibranch eggs, large so probably those of a sea hare
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These sponges remind me of something, can't quite place what it is...
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Why won't these fish stay still?
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Tiny Tritonia  nudibranch, less than an inch long. Lineata according to the book
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A fine fanworm, alongside 2 shy friends
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A sleepy dogfish having a nap
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Edible crab playing hide and seek
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A gang of fanworms out looking for trouble, or feeding
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Solitary fanworm, auditioning as a button hole
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Sponge, glorious sponge!
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Reasonable detail shot showing the multiple fans out of each tube
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A crowd of little fanworms
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The brown dots are tiny anenome-like tube worms
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A fine Bart Simpson sponge
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Spider crab, nice legs
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You can see the rough scales on this dogfish's nose
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Orange deadmans thumb
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Wrasse lurking
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Anenome or worm? I think its a shy dalia anenome.
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Big snail with a little shell... probably a moon snail
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Dawn reeling us up, notice the bulging bicep frequent ascents have developed
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The sea is endlessly facinating, I could stare at it for hours
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Dawn happy that we weren't lynched after drift diving for an hour when everyone else clearly wanted to go home.
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Rob Spray.