DUKES DOCK

A week of frenetic phone calls and emails, with a final confirmation at about 10am and I had a licence for us to dive at Dukes Dock (next to Albert Dock in Liverpool). The harbour master, Andy Goudie, (having gone out the way to help us) had come through with the deeds.

James, myself and Julian pre-dive picture

The usual suspects (James and Julian) met up and we were promptly ushered onto our own part of the quay side by security.


The 'private' slip way for our dive.

We had a ten yard walk to the water, and having nearly slipped in, I set up a line to aid our entry and exit. While we were getting ready one of our buddies (Richard) accompanied by his son arrived to say hello and have a chat.

The entry point with Julian holding the rope

We entered the water and found ourselves standing waist deep on a rocky ledge just below a step down from the quay side. Descending to about 2.5 meters the bottom became visible and throughout (with the tide receding) we only got to 4.5 meters at any one point. I touched the floor with my finger and it let off a tiny cloud of silt and vibrated like a jelly, careful finning required for this one. For the first dive we headed of to the West into the closed end of the dock. This proved to be the shallowest section and was loaded with schools of jelly fish, from a centimetre to about 10 cm in diameter, obviously finding it a sheltered and safe haven. It was poor visibility (about 2.5 meters) so torches and checking on each other was the order of the day. Even so we still sometimes lost touch, but all good practice. The dive proceeded in a rectangular circuit turning back to the quay side opposite the entry point, I struck treasure at this point finding a £10 note on the floor. When questioned in Costa as to why the note was damp the barista didn't really believe me when I stated that I'd found it at the bottom of Albert Dock, she still took it though!

Dive 1

Dive 2

For our second dive we headed across to the far wall and then headed East and, again, completed a rectangular route. This time we hit 4.5 meters and came across debris such as cones and barriers, which had been happily colonised by a variety of anemones. Sticking close to the wall on the return section there was a remarkable amount of life to be seen, we saw large and juvenile conger eels, Jewel anemones, a couple of small Firework anemones, Blennies, shrimps, hundreds of jelly fish and a great deal more.

Julian and James in Costa between dives

The day was great fun and, pleasingly, gave us a great deal to see. Would I return, yes, but I would plan the dive around high tide to give a bit of depth. There is no problem about needing to hit slack water, just don't touch the floor!