April is traditionally when I organise my first dive weekend of the year in Weymouth. After a week of great weather, it predictably blew up for the weekend and Saturday was a bit lumpy. The plan had been to do the St Dunstan, but I decided to switch to the Aeolian Skye because the wind was westerly. We did a drift on Lulworth Banks first and found plenty of scallops. I also saw 3 plaice and a couple of dogfish. Viz on the Skye was about 4m, so better than anything we had last year.
Sunday was too rough, but I stayed down in Weymouth as I was diving out of Swanage on the Monday. It proved to be an expensive day as I bought a new torch, a Light For Me 4TEC as my other torch has been playing up for ages.
Monday diving in Swanage is such a relaxing experience. Parking on the pier is easy and there were just 4 of us on the boat going out to the Kyarra. The viz was a bit worse than Saturday at around 3m but my torch was very bright. It was a little too bright when I clipped it off as it kept blinding me, so I think I'll switch it to 30% before clipping off in future.
So a good start to the season. The plankton bloom has started though the water is still only 10°C