Dive Dieppe – South East of Brighton & South of Sovereign Harbour Eastbourne and on the French side of the English Channel, is the historic fishing town of Dieppe. Like most of the harbours along the French coast this harbour was primarily a fishing port which has been transformed over the years into a major working harbour with large commercial ships which include several daily crossings of the Newhaven – Dieppe cross channel ferry service operated by www.transmancheferries.com.
This service is now a major gateway to Europe for the British and an access point for Europeans who wish to enter the UK, and it operates all year round.
This picturesque harbour of Dieppe has a well protected marina which welcomes visiting boats from all over Europe, and it is situated in the heart of the town which gives great access to all the local Hotels, Restaurants & Bars.
The long promenade & beach front of Dieppe is an amazing sight, the eastern end with the long break water arm which protects the harbour entrance and to the west, the lawns that are over looked by the many Hotels that line the way to the west and at the far end looking down over the town is the Castle of Dieppe.
During WW2 Dieppe saw its fair share of the action, In 1942 during the build up for the liberation of Europe and as a possible trial run for the D Day landings there was the now infamous and disasterous Dieppe Raid as portrayed in Robin Neillands book of the same name “The Dieppe Raid”. Made up from a force of mainly Canadian Highlanders and British Commando’s these troops made an assault on the Beaches of Dieppe, the result was carnage, the beaches turned into killing grounds, with whole regiments decimated. Off shore ships were lost, landing crafts were sunk and the destroyer HMS Berkely destroyed with great loss of life.
Diving Dieppe.
Its amazing, you travel all that way, cross the channel diving enroute and the depth doesn’t get deeper than 40mtrs, your 25 miles offshore and its 33mtrs and as you head for harbour the depth stays between 25 – 30mtrs, close in you can be diving in the 15mtr range, fantastic.
If you have never dived from Dieppe before, then seriously think about it. It is a fairly new area for us at Channel Diving and it gets better every year we go there.
There are lots of wrecks to choose from when diving over in Normandie, many unidentified and most very rarely dived. The marine life is absolutely incredible, teaming with fish, crabs, lobsters, and free swimming congers. The only thing is, the reason that there is so much to see and look at, is because the French have a strict law which states, that no one shall, whilst diving with aqualung remove anything from the seabed or especially from any ship wreck, be it metal or edible. And this is a strict rule which applies to everyone, so please
look don’t touch.
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