Tinker Shoal, Plymouth

Arriving at Mount Batten, Plymouth, Yasmin and I were met with a strong and gusty easterly breeze. It was fairly cloudy too at first, but later on there would be some proper sunny spells.

I was on the second wave going out in afternoon to dive the Eagan Layne. The buddy pairs for the dive were: Clint and Hilary, Geoff H and Peter C, Anne and myself. Chris was boat handler. So after the first wave (below) departed, Yasmin, Alyssa, and I crossed from Mount Batten on the water taxi; we had bit of a look round the Barbican and the town centre, and I had a nice pasty for breakfast.

Conditions ruled out the James Eagan Layne, and also the Mew Stone. However, Anne and I had very agreeable dive (bottom time of 53 minutes) exploring the reefy ledges around eastern edge of Tinker Shoal.

We went down shotline into the murky green. I soon discovered my suit inflator hose had popped off; a signal to Anne and I paused to reconnect. Once on the bottom we found that the visibility was a good 5 metres and far better than we had been expecting. Anne had a few bubbles from her gauge - but nothing alarming - and off we went.

The wildlife was surprisingly varied. Anne had her camera and we both took some pictures. I'm still adapting my technique from learned snorkelling habits, and by trial and error figuring out how to get better results with my basic setup.

There were ballan wrasse, a pollack, all sorts of gobies, and unknown others. A mixture of sponges: yellow warty outcrops of boring sponge, smooth grey and purple masses of elephant’s ear, a few spongy balls of tethya aurantium, cratery hemimycale columella, and various other encrusting porifera. Other stuff included: spiny starfish in abundance, dense patches of snakelock anemone, a spider crab, a few sea cucumbers (one particularly big and offensive-looking), clusters of peacock worm, and a coil of nudibranch eggs. I suspect there was very much more if I knew what I was looking at.

The reefs had a lot of kelp on top, but the shallow gullies and fringes of the reef where the slate was broken and creviced were very interesting with colourful ledges and lurking fish.

Tinker Shoal was traditionally a dumping ground for shipping in and out of Devonport, including the Royal Navy; and is also near the historic Fort Bovisand practice battery. Where we put in there was a sparse scattering of ceramics: broken crockery, pipe, and a floor tile.

It had been quite choppy going out (extra fuel consumption required a switch of tanks). But with the wind dropping slightly and heading back into sheltered water, the return trip was relatively smooth.

It was a really enjoyable dive. I also did my Assistant Dive Manager bit of Sport Diver - grateful for Chris and Debbie's coaching and help from the Assistant Assistant Dive Manager! Can't wait for the next one!

James Eagan Layne

A tour of the James Eagan Layne (my first wreck) with Adrian Kelland. We went out on Venture (my first hardboat dive) skippered by Peter Fergus. Possibly the most dived wreck in the UK, everyone knows that the JEL was a WWII American liberty ship. Bound for Ghent in Belgium, JEL was torpedoed in March 1945 by U-1195 and now rests on her keel at 24 metres in Whitsand Bay.

Venture had plenty of room, cabin and heads, a diver lift, and we were well looked after. Also diving were Adrian's buddy for the Rosehill, Tony; a couple of re-breather divers, and a photographer also out for the JEL. After the surface interval following the Rosehill dive, passed with some rod-fishing, we moved over to the JEL. By now I was kitted up, and finally ready the signal to go was a tap on the head.

We went down the shot to the bow, and continued down the port side to the seabed (about 18 metres). The bow was very impressive and gave a very good indication of the scale of the wreck (JEL was over 7000 tons). There was lots to see and although visibility varied, overall it was very good, perhaps 5-7 metres.

Round and about was all kinds of wreckage, wheels (cargo), big sheets of steel fallen from the sides; toward the back - stacked pipes and the propshaft, and further within - engine parts and more debris. Not all of the material was from the JEL apparently, some of it had been dumped here later.

Early in the dive Adrian pulled out an edible crab from some wreckage, and there were common and spiny starfish dotted about. Later on I found a sea cucumber. As well as the dense encrusting turf, sessile life included a cluster of pink sea fans on the seabed about 2/3rd the way along the port side (very vulnerable I thought), lots of dead men's fingers, and also on the port side near the hawse hole were some chubby plumose anemones - these were a sickly mixture of pink and green. There were lots of fish! Gobies, wrasse, pollack, bib were around on the sea bed. Later when we swam between the framing girders, and along the upper sections we stopped to look at some interesting metallic blue fish and a school of bass.

On our return through the middle and our gradual ascent, I found my legs a bit floaty - I'd omitted to dump air. After some pointless and tiring acrobatics I dumped the air and we carried on. After that, I was more careful. Otherwise buoyancy was fine, and my surface air consumption (high still) was slightly improved.

Leaving the bow we made a slow ascent of the remaining 6-8 metres. Back on the surface we made the pre-arranged signal to Venture and very soon I was standing on the lifting apparatus and enjoying the ease it made of boarding. I de-kitted on our way back to Plymouth and inside the breakwater, while the re-breathers Dave and Ash went for scallops, Venture amidst some sort of yacht race.

Back in the marina, Yas met me outside the dive shop - she'd had a nice time around Plymouth's waterfront, and taken 'a few' pictures. It was a great dive and day out; the weather was warm and sunny, visibility good, and the JEL lived up to all I'd heard about her.

Meadfoot

Realising we were in for another day of sunshine, I reckoned it'd be crime not to go snorkelling. Packing the same set-up I used at Lamorna the other day, we set off for Meadfoot Beach. Parked for free along the road and near some steps down to the beach, and set up camp. Though I'd read that the beach was popular for dive training, I hoped that it'd be good for snorkelling too.

Where I got in, halfway along the beach to the right of the rocks the vis was poor, a murky 1 or 2 metres. But as I went along toward Daddyhole Cove it got better. There were a few starfish, sprats, wrasse etc, amongst the kelp. Near Daddyhole I turned back because I didn't like swell, and made for East Shag Rock instead, which in itself - according to my dive book - is a 350 metre swim. [There is also a completely submerged dome-shaped reef towards the the middle of the bay, not far from Shag Rock.]

Around the rock, which has some good underwater scenery, there were various interesting sponges (large boring sponges, a massive irregular purple kind with clusters of tiny holes, a rough yellow globular one about the size of melon, and the smooth orange blobby type with a hole in the top), dead men's fingers, sea squirts, and anenomes. There were fan worms, nudibranch eggs, and hundreds of common starfish. The visibility varied a lot (1-4 metres) and though I had timed my swim for an hour either side of low water, because of the spring tide, there was still a fair bit of current.

Keeping a lookout for boat traffic, I left the rock and followed the reefy bits back to the shore and carried on across the bay over the kelp, where I saw a dogfish. I was very pleased to have found so much - and to have managed a 2 hour swim in April. The water was noticeably warmer than in Cornwall. Back on the beach some people had found an unusual crab - which they kindly brought over for me to see. Looking it up later I learnt this small spider-like crab is sometimes known as a 'decorator crab', and the camouflage is seaweed. Spiny spider crabs do this too, adding a few strands of seaweed to their shell, but this particular crab had disguised itself completely with tiny strands of wrack.

Lamorna, The Bucks

Expecting Lamorna to be very crowded we arrived very early, it was actually very quiet and we all parked easily. The plan was for the experienced Sport Divers and up to go out to the Runnel Stone, with a first wave - Andrew and I - going out to The Bucks, where I’d dived with Debbie on Friday.

Warned to leave the surface quickly, because of the current, we went down diagonally holding onto the shot, finning towards the top of The Bucks. We moved off from where the shot had landed and sent up the blob from a rugged ledge (it had kelp to hold onto if required), and we set off clockwise around the pinnacle. On the north side, we met quite strong current so backtracked and swam up and through a tall gap between rocks, lined below with blue anemones. On the other side, the going was much easier. The scenery was fantastic, we could look up at the steep slopes at kelp-topped cliffs, and there were interesting gullies to investigate. We saw plenty of fish, and another big dogfish. There were old friends – urchins, sponges, spiny starfish, and sea cucumbers which in strong light are a mottled green colour and do look like something out of a pickle jar. We took a few pictures- I had been after a purple starfish to show Yasmin, and remembered to record something of the scenery. We toured leisurely on until – too soon – it was time to go. Another great dive had come to an end.

When the second wave came back from the Runnel Stone (which was fantastic by all accounts), and the boat retrieved, Yasmin and I set off for Marazion and St Michael’s Mount. It was alright – good views from the top, and we watched bunny rabbits in the nature sanctuary behind the coast road. Back to the chalet later for kit wash, clean up, and out once more to meet up with Phil, Chris, Debbie, Alyssa, and Ali at the Turnpike Inn near Hayle. So ended my first ever dive holiday. I was very grateful for my buddies and to everyone who helped me and made it so much fun. It was a brilliant trip and great to have been a part of it.

I haven’t said too much about each day’s weather or conditions [the last four posts], as they were consistently superb. Water: 5-10 metre visibility. Weather: warm and sunny ~20°C. Winds: light (0-5mph) north easterly and variable. Sea state: calm/slight.

Penzance, The Stannock & Low Lee Ledges

Arriving early at Lamorna Cove we met Nik and her Chris just leaving. They told us it was already full there and we were going to base ourselves once more at Penzance. This was very lucky because there was no mobile phone signal at Lamorna.

There were three waves today and I was fortunate enough to be on two of them. Midday I dived with Chris G at The Stannock, a reef to the west of Mousehole. [Thanks Peter for the air]. We made a swift descent to 24m. Looking around there was a lot of fish – the most I’d seen – cuckoo, ballan and corkwing wrasse; and others. Chris with his torch helped me take some of the delicate sea-fans on the bottom, and I managed a blurry sequence of Chris with a very big spider crab. We found brain coral, widely fluted and delicate looking but actually hard and horny. Everywhere there were things to see and wonder at. I thought how easy it would be to loose track down here.

Back on shore for a good surface interval we managed to get some tanks filled at Bill Bowen’s place on the Pier. The previous day there had been a problem with the compressor, and the Hayle dive shop had been inundated.

Now, my second dive was something different. We were going to find Low Lee Ledges and buddied with Andrew, I was to lead. Anne boat-handled and we found the ledges just west of the east cardinal marker. We dropped in and down. A minor tangle with the shot was easily sorted, and we continued the descent. Watching us as it swam over a big rounded boulder, was a huge dogfish - a shark! We sent up the blob, and set off for a look round. The visibility was good in the distance some interesting sticky up bits to swim round, so we made for these. There were plenty of fish, a variety of wrasse, and a rather lonely pollack, and many of the animals we’d seen already. I gave my torch to Andrew and we took some pictures of a big yellow ‘dragon’ sponge [it's actually Cliona celata, a ’boring sponge’] surrounded by masses of tiny blue anemones. Swimming around the rocks the scenery was really good - a crescent of rocky pinnacles rising out of the sand, and around and about were nets and cable, crusty boulders, cuckoo wrasse, starfish and urchins - magic.

[Later Chris asked if we’d seen the cannon at the bottom of the shot – but we'd missed it completely].

When I was down to 80 bar it was time to leave (Andrew had loads of air), so signaling, we left for the surface. On our practice safety stop at 6 metres, we drifted very slowly over the flattish reef summit and looked down at the starfish and urchins. Surfacing into the sun we signaled OK, our mates and the boat gloriously silhouetted; I was elated. I had led my first sea dive.

Penzance, Near Low Lee Ledges

As I was slated to go out on a later wave, Yasmin and I used the morning to visit Mousehole where we enjoyed the scenic harbour and lichen covered cottages, and marveled at the clear water. Two little boys on the beach were making fantasy castles out of the wet sand – just as I used to with my brothers. Again the weather was fantastic. It was already hot, and the narrow shady streets pleasantly cool. As the place started to become busier and the cars arrived to trundle through the narrow roads we took our leave. [Note to self – it’s not possible to do a three-point turn on the harbour wall.]

Yasmin’s strategic navigation got us to Penzance car park without too much ado, and we maneuvered ourselves close as possible to the Albert Pier. After a brief foray into the town (it was heaving) for pasties courtesy of the Penzance Pasty Co., and sun-block, it was nice to get back to the harbour and find a quiet place to relax: the bouldery sea defences where we sat and watched the dolphins in Mounts Bay.

A leisurely loll about the car park chatting, reading (dive guides – there wasn’t time for Dickens), sorting and preparing kit, was followed by a gruelling carry of clobber along the pier. Suited-up, in the hot sun, through the thronging student divers, and down the steep slippery steps, we made it to the RIB; it was a great relief to be on our way. Clear of the harbour we sped past the impressive coastguard ship Anglian Princess, I for my 13th dive.

We couldn’t find the Low Lee Ledges and the Primrose as hoped, but discovered some reefy bits further west. Anne and I explored the reef and we saw lots of fish. There were several types of goby, among them the transparent orange two-spot variety. Small and pretty they hover and dart in small schools near the bottom. Around the boulders there were big sea urchins and starfish; as well as man made articles- a big pile of net, and various bits of litter amongst which I found an old crab-paste jar.

During the dive my buoyancy felt fine and I relaxed as Anne took us round the rocks and we examined the wildlife. Checking my air, she seemed pleased how well it was lasting. Being something of a guzzler I was glad to have a 15l cylinder, and we had a lovely long dive. When we got back to Penzance Brian and Clint were waiting with the trailer and Chris drove the boat right up onto it. Later on we converged on Chris and Debbie’s caravan to relax and confirm the plan for the next day’s dive.

Lamorna Cove, The Bucks

Leaping out of bed at 4am to get down the A38 Friday morning and avoid all the other grockles penetrating darkest Cornwall, we soon arrived at Lamorna Cove. Yasmin's navigation was tip-top round the fiddly stuff - she's very good, getting us to Vobster Quay, as well as operating the iPod, feeding me, watching out for speed cameras, ferreting out sunglasses, and various other tasks that if I attempted myself would almost certainly end in disaster.

We stumped up for parking and had a quick look about, most importantly to see what the water looked like. The visibility was great. I could see submerged divers, and I too was ready for some kind of underwater swimming fix. There was plenty of time before the others arrived for a sneaky snorkel. I put on a few skimpy wetsuits over a thermal rash vest, added plenty of weight, and all the other bits and pieces that would allow me brief glimpses of the underwater scene and its peculiar inhabitants.

Wading into very clear cold water I stuck on my flippers and did a quick weight check, before floating myself off for a swim. Lamorna Cove is a sheltered piece of coast south west of Penzance and Newlyn, with a sandy bottom, rocky and weedy edges, and attractive surroundings. There’s a slipway and according to my dive book on South Cornwall is one of the best sites in the county for diving groups, with amenities to hand. Finning out past the breakwater I took a picture looking back to shore, before turning my attention to the sea bed.

Amongst the thick kelp I saw a few wrasse, a bass and found a spider crab, several spiny starfish, and a large sea urchin; beyond the kelp, clean bright sand stretched into the distance. After about an hour I started to get cold and tired, and my poor ankles had started to ache – I suppose all to be expected this early in the season.

Back on shore, just as I reached the top of the slipway Clint and Anne arrived towing Mir, the club’s RIB.

Over a cup of tea at the café we enjoyed the scenery and the fine weather with the prospect of good diving conditions – especially as several recent club trips had been either aborted completely or disrupted by bad weather. Walking up and around the craggy rocks above the top car park the views got better and better and the clear blue green water was exotic and inviting.

Very soon I was on my first boat dive, we (the buddy pairs: Clint and Anne, Debbie and me, with Chris boat handler) were on our way to The Bucks, a rugged rock pinnacle to the south west. It didn’t take long to get to and it was easily found, the summit exposed by the ebbing tide. Clint and Anne went in first clearing the boat for Debbie and me to kit up. Adjusting straps, connecting hoses, attaching gear I was very glad for the calm sea. After a recap of the plan and the buddy check, and at the very instant Chris ordered us ‘go’ we flopped backward over the tubes. We collected ourselves on the surface and began our descent beside the rock. At about 8 metres we saw Clint and Anne looking very happy; we did some waving and grinning and carried on down. The giant boulders and rugged slopes were heavily encrusted, and teeming with all kinds of weird animal. Everywhere there were colourful sea urchins, and starfish with five arms, with seven arms, from the cute and cushiony to the macho and spiny.

Nearly everything I saw was new to me; black sock-like sea-cucumbers, and on the vertical walls delicate flower-like anemones, and what was this yellow stuff? Debbie mimed something to me; what was she doing? She couldn’t be narked? Later she told me she was washing – and it was a sponge. It was super, its warty lizard-skin texture and rows of holes gave it the look of a miniature yellow dragon. Debbie guided us around the rocks and as we went I tried to absorb everything, taking mental pictures of this wonderful place. Here and there we were finning against current and soon enough I was signaling to Debbie that I had 100 bar, and pretty soon after that 80 bar; so she took us to a flattish area to deploy the DSMB. Slightly inverted and finning against a current again I found myself struggling a little, but sorted out my position with a roll. With the blob up we were ready to go; the ascent was nice and steady and I held the stop easily. The boat was there for us and after de-kitting the heavy stuff and put into practice the good how-to-get-in-the-boat advice, getting up onto the loops and over the tubes, then slithering into the boat like a big black fish. My first boat dive over, Debbie pronounced “There, told you I wouldn’t get you dead!”

In the evening we all [Andrew, Anne and Clint, Brian and Hilary, Chris and Debbie with Alyssa and Ali, Nik and Chris, and Peter] met up at the Bluff Inn for our tea, bit of a drink, and to plan.

Vobster

Back to Vobster for more Sport Diver training with Nick and Julie to complete SD lessons: Dive Leader Planning/Skills Review and Diver Rescue. It was a really enjoyable day training, practising, and I learnt a great deal.

A traffic diversion, which I thought might be a April 1st thing, took us in a big loop via Kilmersdon to arrive from the other direction; then getting in took a while. Kitted up and the plan sorted, we were ready to go. On the first dive after doing skills, Julie led according to her plan, making our way to the aeroplane, exploring the aeroplane and carrying out our ascent using the the shot-line located on the tail fin- nice and slow, with a 1 minute safety stop. The stop was fine with 10kg on my belt and 1kg in my BC pocket. Julie did CBL/BLS and tow. At the training platform end of the quay, my exit - stupidly - involved beaching on rock shelf. This was more difficult than it looked and I decided I would probably use the ladder next time. Tea and debrief. I had managed not to swim about all over the place like I had done before; which Nick suggests (and it seems quite probable) that I did because of my snorkelling, in which I swim around a lot and in a way which doesn't suit scuba diving.

Second dive after the skills, followed my plan. We descended alongside a rocky slope to line up with tunnel entrance and followed concrete wall to it (Nick led through tunnel). Very dark and silty. Saw the rubber skeleton tied onto the handline at the end. Up cliff vertically and along to aeroplane - good vis here. Air was 120 bar at this point, so just time for a quick look at aeroplane and industrial dryer which Julie swam through. Again went up shot-line on tail fin - again nice and slow with 1 min safety stop. Surface and underwater swim to place nearer slipway. My turn to do a CBL and rescue. Both practise de-kit. Yasmin was great help again with bits of kit, recording times, and everything else- taking pictures, buying tea, dispensing monies, oh and navigating,..