Reuben and I travelled to Bracklesham Bay on Sat 1st October. It had been announced as the last tee shirt weekend of the year. We were wearing our t shirts and the early morning wind was decidedly fresh! We had feared a rush of sun seekers to the coast for a last opportunity and we had joined them; except they had not arrived and the car park was empty while we waited for the time to pass before we kitted up for our first dive.

Duly equipped, we waded to the Rib waiting just off the beach and settled ourselves for the ride out to the Brigitte/Teapot. A wreck that I had dived previously, this is the upturned and broken wreck of a French trawler. As it was late in the season and a sunny day we hoped for good visibility and light penetration on the seabed at 19m. We struggled with an unexpected current just below the surface coupled with a dark dive with poor viz. There had been another dive boat above the wreck when we arrived on site who were happy for us to use their shot line. So instead of the hull, we settled on the separated boilers some distance away. Reuben and I explored within the beams of our torches, swam away to seek more of the wreck and when that remained hidden from us, reversed our direction of travel to once more regain the wreck but somewhere different to where we had been before! Lucky or what!

Dive over, we returned to shore for a quick changeover of cylinders before our next ride along the coast to the dive site that I really want to visit. This was where a 65 million year old seabed emerges into the modern one. I had been shown fossilized sharks teeth by divers who had previously dived here. I wanted some!

Reuben and I had been given a quick tutorial by other divers on the Rib, of what we might find and how to find them.

We separated from the Rib into lighter and clearer water than our previous dive. After all, it was only 7 to 10 metres! Reuben and I followed the instructions of what to look for and after some minutes thought that I would be returning to the surface empty handed. Then Success! We both found sharks teeth and now the others that followed. The next problem was how to store them safely until we surfaced. It was something that neither of us had not thought of! We both separately put the smaller ones into the cuffs of our gloves and the larger ones into the cargo pockets of our dry suits fearing that we would lose them.

It was interesting that I noticed how cold I felt even though the water temperature was 16 degrees. It was our inactivity that caused this as we were finning only sufficient to maintain position on the seabed. Eventually we surfaced, climbed aboard the Rib, and showed our finds. We were happy! We had about half a dozen each! We had found what we had searched for! The other divers showed us the handfuls that they had found, they were evidently adept at this skill.

Reuben and I drove home, it had been a good and enjoyable day. We may not have found as many sharks teeth as some of the other divers but we had our first finds.

Anyone interested in for looking for sharks teeth in 2012?

Bob.