On Sunday, April 08, 2001 10:47 PM, Huw Porter wrote:

(snip)

> Strong winds and rain in the English Channel made diving at sea completely
> unfeasible, though a few hypothermic surfers were insane enough to be
> catching some waves. Plan B - close to Wittering is the Naval training
> facility of Horsea Island, with an artificial lake open part of the time
to
> civilian divers.

Hi, Huw,  G'Day, Mate!  Your tale of woe made me grin and think back!  :-)

Horsea Island lake was originally a torpedo testing range and it's where
they used to send us folks - fresh from the warm waters and blue skies of
Asia and all points south of Plymouth - to notch up our minutes underwater
so that we could continue to draw our diving pay.

I've spent many a (un)-happy hour crawling around the bottom of Horsea Lake
carrying out jack-stay searches; fiddling with metal thingies; and generally
freezing my butt off for no good purpose other than that it was a place to
get wet!! :-)

(snip)
> The brackish, 8-9 degree water was sizzlingly cold through hoods and
gloves
> as we jumped in, and even by the time we'd settled to a hover over a metal
> deck at five metres, was starting to chill through our suits.

I can, in all honesty, say that I have never been colder in my life than a
week-end that I once spent there, (with a pair of lead boots on), tromping
around dreaming of places with palm trees and white sandy beaches!  :-)

(snip)

> Dive 1 - 6.4 metres, 31 minutes.  Dive 2 - 6.6 metres, 26 minutes.  Two
> surprisingly enjoyable dives despite the cold, and I hold a Drysuit
> C-card... :-)

Congratulations - and well earned!  :-)

Strike