New Location for Our Blog

We've decided to integrate the Blog into the Mulberry Divers website..........it can now be found at www.mulberrydivers.co.uk/blog. The switch will happen over the next few days - the most recent blogs have been copied over and new posts will in future only appear in the new location.
Please let us know whether you find the Blog useful or have any other comments.

Regards
Steve

9th April - Lumpsuckers galore - Starfish under Lifeboat Station

Blue sky but somewhat too much wind from the East - so we moved to Hillfield Rd (fortuitously this was the first day the car park re-opened after the beach shingle recharge that has been conducted over the winter)and ran three dives in Bracklesham Bay - much calmer water on this side as the day progressed. Whilst the first cuttlefish has yet to be seen under the Lifeboat Station, two divers did find three Starfish (two Common, third not determined); we haven't seen Starfish here before so wonder if they have migrated in.

The first dive on Hound Reef produced a profusion of Lumpsuckers - for at least one diver, they went from not having seen one before to finding five or six. Plenty of other marine life.........Lobsters in particular. Second dive was the Landing Craft - good 4-5m visibility with some drift.  For the third dive, back to Hound Reef - notable here were reports of large Wrasse in some numbers.

The Selsey Lifeboat 150th Anniversary T-shirts are selling well - all money goes to the Selsey RNLI; we have most sizes in stock at £12.50

Sunday 27th March - Visibility again, plenty of Nudibranchs and both Lifeboats launch

Some calmer weather and visibility has returned :-)

Reports from the Far Mulberry of 8m visibility this weekend - at least one report of the Lumpsucker returning and sitting at the shot line block again.

For Steve, this weekend was a case of diving the two moorings prior to Phoenix starting the 2011 programme next weekend (weather permitting). The beach mooring vanished in the last major storm (and also created a small cliff face of gravel) - however it was soon found yesterday and re-buoyed. The large squat lobster that lives under the block was not too amused - apart from that not much moving marine life to be seen. Vis was a good 4-5m with clear water. Today, I dived the main mooring - again not much moving marine life but some excellent dahlia anemones - with no weed at the moment, these anemones really stand out and make good photo subjects in macro mode. The wind had changed direction slightly so some slop onto the beach and small waves - visibility not good adjacent to beach but OK out level with the mooring.

Linda has dived the Lifeboat both days this weekend with the Open Water course - vis has been good and she's seen quite a few Nudibranchs (most of the reports to date have been white nudibranchs but Linda found a purple flabellina) - highlight was probabaly being alongside the boathouse today as the All Weather Lifeboat launched down the ramp (Selsey Lifeboat web site) shortly after the Inshore.

Looking ahead................we're hoping that the storm forecast for mid-week won't disturb the vis for next weekend which officially opens the season for us.

This year is Selsey RNLI's 150th Anniversary - we have some special T-shirts (all proceeds to RNLI) and we're encouraging everyone to donate; if you are feeling active the Sponsored Walk is in early May. Details of the special events planned for June are on the Selsey RNLI web site.

Thank you for the Feedback

We recently sent out a short survey asking for Feedback on how we could improve the service we offer. We're grateful to everyone who took the time to reply - several people asked for the Dive Centre to be re-located closer to their home; regrettably we don't yet have a Tardis so we'll have to stay in Selsey. Many other suggestions will be adopted and some are already in place:
- the boat schedule can now be reached directly from the main page - select Dive Schedule and a Schedule option appears
- the website text is now Black - we hope this is more readable
- the link to the Blog has moved to the top menu; in due course, we'll migrate the Blog further into the website
- we've changed the deposit system for Phoenix and now simply require a £20 bond for the season; there has been a separate Newletter with more detail so please contact the Dive Centre for details

Please let us have any further suggestions - we'll try and make them work if possible.

Oceanic Seminar - February 2011

Linda and I attended the annual Oceanic Seminar near Honiton in early February - two hectic days best characterised as too much alcohol and not enough sleep! The serious side of course was hearing about the new products that will shortly be available - in parallel we networked with all the other Oceanic dealers, caught up on the gossip and noted with regret that several Dive Centres we knew had closed during the year. The Seminar dinner featured a 7ft Drag Queen - pictures available upon request; donations to the RNLI for those who wish to keep the pictures out of public view!

As the new ranges come into stock, we will provide details in our Newsletter and I'll provide reports here as we use many of them ourselves. First up will be our experience as Linda and I train in Sidemount using the Hollis SMS100  (Hollis SMS 100 Wing).

30th January 2011 - Open Water and Marshalled Dive at Vobster Quay



We congratulate Richard on achieving Master Scuba Diver
after completing Digital Underwater Photographer

With mainly experienced divers booked on the January marshalled dive, we opted for Vobster Quay. After we left home in the dark, the views across Salisbury Plan were very nice in the early morning sunshine - arrived earlier than usual and parked close to the water and the refreshment van! Linda continued with the Open Water course, Richard completed his second Speciality of the weekend and the Divemasters brushed up their Dive Marshalling skills by organising and running the Marshalled Dive whilst also getting wet themselves

Visibility can only be described as very good at 10-15m.........most people took advantage of the conditions to explore further and follow some of the new Jesters to the Wheelhouse for instance.

Maybe we should start a Caption competition?

29th January 2011 - Open Water and Specialities @ Wraysbury

Much wind on Thursday from the East meant that visibility under the Lifeboat Station was not really suitable for Open Water training and hence the trip to Wraysbury. First in the car park, shortly joined by everyone else - we split into two groups - cloudy and a chilly wind meant that the water felt somewhat warmer even at 4C. The Specialities group (Dry Suit and Peak Performance Buoyancy) opted to dive at the back of the building aiming for the coach after skills on the platform. The Open Water group headed for the pontoon and a Giant Stride entry watched by a Wraysbury resident.

Visibility was somewhat murky at 2-3m which we hadn't expected......certainly the fingers were tingling as we emerged after 25 minutes.