Braced for bank holiday wetness, the nice weather gods arranged some sun for us and let up on the wind. It was almost too good to be true. Conditions were excellent. There was just bit of an offshore breeze on Sunday and Monday. Underwater visibility wasn't amazing, but generally a reasonable 3 to 5 metres.
Hope Cove was packed out with the Family Fun Weekend and people making the most of the good weather to try and brown themselves up a bit. There was live music, beer, and an assortment of animals being roasted.
The first wave (Mir) dived the Persier. They were Terry and Simon, Geoff H and Susan H accompanied by Phil. Clint boathandled. Persier was located using transits and the profile from the transducer and shotted near the boilers. Off the boat and at the shot on the surface I refitted my flooded mask and we made our descent. There was very little current and vis was about four metres.
Terry led and we enjoyed a tour of this very scenic wreck; between the boilers, over engine bits, anchor, swimming through the propshaft and continuing towards the stern and the steering quadrant. There were bib (pouting - or whatever you want to call them) everywhere, the biggest amongst the steering gear. Some parts were covered with fish and at one point there was a layer of fish off into the distance. There were also large pollack, cuckoo and goldsinny wrasse. There were pink sea fans, dead man’s fingers, and sea firs in the encrusting turf. There were orange sea urchins, spiny starfish, and Terry found a big edible crab – which before moving on he tucked up safely in some dark hidey hole.
Completing the tour Terry brought us back to the shot and we made a good steady ascent. Earlier we’d seen other dive boats arriving, and as we came up several pairs were on their way down. A bit busy it was, but no problem; then all of a sudden I was forced to leave the shot, as someone fell down to my position, clattering past me as they tried to sort themselves out.
The third wave (Hubble) to Burgh Island comprised Phil and Simon, Derek and Lucy, Brian and Hilary. Boathandling were Clint and Rachel Chappell.
We dropped in 100m or so off the southwest side of the island and sent up the blob. We looked around and found a gully to follow. The gullies here are very nice indeed with varied and colourful plants and all kinds of encrusting life. There were lots of sponges, yellow boring sponge, tennis ball sponge, elephant's ear, and others; sea squirts included very many of the baked bean variety, and a few small patches of star ascidians; anemones, there small white ones, and lots of snakelocks. In the crevices there were small red squat lobsters, velvet fiddler crabs, and beneath one overhang some very large prawns.
We went extremely slowly, and saw a great deal. Phil spotted a cuttlefish. We watched it for some time, and I was able to take some photographs. As I got a little closer, it swiftly darkened, became spiny and reared up its tentacles to say "I is a badass mollusc". Later it calmed down and turned white, pulsing with black as it watched a spider crab scuttle past – an incredible sight.
Saturday evening we gathered in Anne and Clint's enormous tent. Camping at Rew Farm was ok, the facilities (showers) were a bit stretched but it was the Holiday so not really surprising. What really was unfortunate was the rave that Saturday night a few fields away. It went on until 5:30 am, only stopping when someone threatened to drive over them with a tractor. Needless to say everyone was a 'bit' disgruntled, short of sleep, and most likely on a short fuse; but in spite of this Sunday's diving went very well.
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