A reef running
parallel to the shore but with the scarpment face towards the
shore. There is a gap or gateway in the reef at this point
which is where the name originates from.
Either an old
river estuary or an old Roman quarry, now claimed by the sea.
It is thought that the Romans had a stone throwing catapault
at the top of the hole (when it used to be on land), as there
are a number of round stone projectiles scattered around the
bottom of the hole. The north wall into the hole is vertical,
from 7 mtrs to approx 22 mtrs and is made of Chalk. This wall
has many small holes in it which can house both lobster and
crab. When swimming east out of the hole the wall disappears
and you can find many large Spider crabs walking around.
Other comments:
must be
dived at Slack Water, as tides can run dangerously fast through the hole at other
times and if incorrectly calculated, divers lives would be put
at risk.
Could equally be
described as a wreck site. Its a phoenix unit that never made
it across the channel in WW2. It now forms an artificial reef
attracting masses of fish life. The pontoon is now very broken up with lots of
interesting holes for a very wide variety of marine life to
hide in. The wreck is surrounded by a very large shoal of bib
and whiting, look closely into the many holes and you should
be able to find lobster, crab and conger eel. bass, pouting,
pollock. brill and turbot, home of mussels and deadmens
fingers. This all adds to the fun of the dive. the southern
end is covered in weed.
Other comments:
The wreck is the remains of a floating
harbour pontoon, built to support the Normandy landings on
D-Day.
Chalky outcropos of
rock, good for lobsters. Choose a day when it's calm and the
visibility is good inshore. About 50-100 yards off the end of
Palace pier in SE direction
There is a lot of
interesting ground all round here. There is one large rocky
outcrop, with large slab-like boulders, giving way to scrub
ground to the north and west. A good drift starts here on a
westerly flow.
The area is very shallow in places and is
covered in a lot of String weed. It can be very interesting to
get right inside the weed to the sea bed where you will find
many small holes containing life in the form of Anenome, Crab,
Gobie, Nudibranch, Starfish etc... The Rocks themselves are
quite large with a number of interesting gullies to swim along
where you may find Lobster. This is a very good first dive to
introduce you to the sea and Drifting.
Other comments:
Safety:
The string weed can be a little unnerving when you first get
into it but, it breaks easily if you need to. The rocks at low
water are just below the surface so approach from the seaward
side or you might have a long tow home. Use an SMB when doing
this dive as a Drift and stay to the south of the rocks to
allow the boat to pick you up from deeper water.
50 44.88' N 000 37.75' W - 50 45.45' N 000 38.92' W
Depth:
15
Height:
3
Dive information:
A good drift dive.
The area is an extension to Bognor Rocks
and extends over approx. 1 square mile. The highest point on each of the rock groups with a
number of individual rocks standing over 3m high. Many
Wrasse, Lobster and Crab inhabit the area.
This site is a chalk wall running east to
west approx 1/2 mile long facing North. The wall varies
between 1m to 3m with lots of holes for Crab to hide
in.
A narrow
group of rocks running from East to West for appox. half a
mile. The rocks can be quite high in places i.e. 3 mtrs. The
site has a much larger concentration of marine life, than
other rock groups in the area i.e shoals of Bib and Whiting
are common. There are a good number of large Wrasse of
different variety
