Wednesday should have been our main event for the Weymouth and Portland Spirit of the Sea festival. The plan was to dive on the Phoenix caissons in Portland Harbout with an underwater camera and a diver with a full face mask to provide a running commentary. The sound and pictures would then be sent to the Chesil Beach Centre for viewing.

The day before the event the weather forecast was bad so it was decided to abandon the Portland Harbour event and substitute a reduced event in the Fleet where the water is more sheltered. Overnight there was an inch of rain and on the morning the wind was a 6 gusting 7. Despite this three of us ventured up to the Black Hut carrying all the necessary equipment and attempted to jury rig a system to provide pictures from the Fleet. Difficulties meant we missed the 11 and 12am planned broadcasts, but as there were no watchers due to the weather this was OK. By the 2pm slot all was in place and despite deteriorating weather a broadcast was made to a small audience at the Centre. By 3pm the rain was harder and the wind stronger, but an improved broadcast was made to a slightly larger audience.

We then broke down the system and conveyed the essential parts back to the Centre in appalling conditions.

This exercise, although carried out in dreadful conditions, provided a number of useful pointers to improvements that can be made to ensure the smooth running should a similar event be held in the future.