Diving Expedition ‘Northern Plunge’ - Spain - June 2004

33 Signals Regiment (TA)

Expedition Northern Plunge, a sub aqua adventurous training venture, saw 17 members of the Regiment leave Liverpool on 15^th June for the warm Mediterranean sun of Spain.

Two and a half hours after departing Manchester, the plane touched down on the tarmac at Gerona airport, where the group were met before being whisked off to the small Cataluynian port of Estartit on the Costa Brava and the rather dishevelled looking figure of WO2 Paul Rowlands, their senior dive supervisor, who greeted them as they arrived in the resort in the early hours.

WO2 Rowlands from 1 Sqn JSSU had supervised the Regiment on a previous expedition and had kindly agreed to do so again. He had flown out to the resort ahead of the main party to ensure that everything in the resort was OK and that the expedition would get underway on schedule.

Despite being reassured by WO2 Rowlands that ‘jet lag’ doesn’t affect you on a short-haul flight, a fact hotly contested by the group, they arose on their first day in Spain looking as though they had flown through the night.

After a small continental breakfast, something which was happily rotated with a more welcome ‘Full English’ on alternate days, the group set about organising themselves for the coming week’s diving.

It should be noted hat, in the case of Sergeant Major Paul Williams, the English breakfast was, for reasons that will become apparent, more welcome by the Mediterranean’s marine life!

The groups’ first ‘port-of-call’ was to the harbour to be kitted out. There is something about the smell and feel of wet neoprene and the impending knowledge that you will soon be immersed in the sea, which affects all divers. It certainly affected Sgt Conlon who, after deciding that the best way to get into his wetsuit was to remove his shorts because they were constantly snagging in his suit, completely lost the plot. After struggling for ten minutes he emerged from the rear of the dive shop with his wetsuit on …….back-to-front! Innocently claiming that he thought it was normal for the full length zip to run down the front of the suit to the groin!

Daily routine began with reveille, then breakfast, down to the harbour, collect the cylinders, collect your kit, load the boat, set sail and then guess how long it would take WO2 Williams to feed the fish. He tried big breakfasts, he tried small breakfasts, he even tried no breakfast, but the fish never went without.

The following week was spent diving, twice a day, in some of the most breathtaking locations that the Mediterranean has to offer. Though we suffered changes to planned dive sites on an almost daily basis due to the weather, any disappointment was soon forgotten once into the descent of the dive.

One of the most memorable moments of the expedition had to be the night dive. Apart from the dive supervisor and dive guides, none of the group had experienced diving at night. Ordinarily, the dive boat was akin to a school bus, with all its’ boisterousness but, as the group prepared to dive, you could have heard a pin drop. Kit was checked, re-checked and checked again. The divers, normally looking for someone to be the butt of a well timed ‘squaddie’ wise-crack, sat in nervous anticipation.

With cylumes attached to tanks illuminating the Med, one by one we dropped into the water. It was eerily reminiscent of the first night of my det commanders’ field exercise - though instead of standing in the midst of the moors, trying to get my ‘night vision’ and acquaint myself with those sounds one hears only at night, this time I was descending 40 feet into the Med.

The experience was breathtakingly exhilarating, nervousness forgotten as soon as you were under the surf and into the descent. The nocturnal marine life glistened in the bright torch lights, fish slept on the sea bed, merely moving in time with the flow of the water, if there was to be a highlight on the exercise then this was it.

The expedition was intended to develop team working and leadership whilst conducting adventurous diving and this it did, beyond any doubt. Northern Plunge was a highly successful overseas adventurous training expedition that will live long in the memory of all who took part.