I had a great day on the Dorset coast with my dive buddies Alastair, Steven & Chris. We headed down to Portland to dive HMS M2, a British WWI M-Class Submarine (90m long) which sank in 1932, all hands lost. The submarine had been converted into an aircraft carrier and was under going sea trials when she went missing.

We stayed at Portland YMCA (£22) where we had our own rooms which were comfortable and only a few minutes from Portland Marina. In the evening some of us popped across the road to The George Inn for a drink while Steve fettled with his CCR. We ended up having a lovely meal and a few more drinks. In the morning we headed over to the marina, picking up a snack on the way to meet Skin Deep our charter boat for the day.

The skipper Ed made us a brew while we kitted up. We knew the visibility was going to be poor and Ed offered us alternative dive sites, but we elected to stick to the plan and dive the M2. We arrived at the wreck site about midday, as Dive Leader I gave a dive brief to my buddy for the Low Visibility, >30m, Planned Decompression Dive from a Boat at sea. Alastair and I were diving with twin 12s on 32% Nitrox mix and a 7L 50% Nitrox Deco. The skipper shotted the wreck, we kitted up and dropped down on to the conning tower then headed to the bow to inspect the torpedo tubes at 32m. As predicted, the visability was very poor so we stayed close and used torches. We then headed to the aircraft hanger and onto the stern to see the prop shaft and returned to the conning tower before ascending the shot switching to our 50% deco at 18m. Onboard we were welcomed by Ed and a cream tea, scones, clotted cream and jam.

The second dive was an uneventful drift dive at 13m. Sunny, smooth, Viz: <1m, Air Temp: 20°C, Water Temp: 9°C