Exmouth Dock

A Sunday morning dive at Exmouth dock. Clint managed the dive and I was buddied with Geoff H. It was a spring tide and we went in about ten minutes after hight water (HW 10:42). Stride entry in, we dropped down below the ladder on the side of the pier facing Mamhead slipway. We went up into the estuary mouth, exploring the rocks examining the junk. I found a boathook which later on was good for poking about with; there was old carpet, tyres, bags of discarded shellfish, lots of fishing tackle and lead, cheap knives, old rope, everything 'including' the kitchen sink [Clint found a nice casserole dish].

We soon arrived at the cave and had a look in and around it, but there was not much to see. There were lots of tompot blennies, larger silver fish above us (mullet possibly) and later on a eel, as well as many common starfish. Before very long the current had got a bit stronger and I started to find it fairly hard going. We turned back, and on the way Geoff feed the blennies opening a few mussels (it was good to stop for a rest and to relax and think about something other than the current); they were surprisingly bold and greedy, gulping down some biggish lumps. A little further on we found the car. Heavily encrusted and festooned with weed.

With the current it didn't take long to get back to the seaward side of the pier. We cut in sooner than planned - my idea - ensuring that we didn't overshoot the slipway. There wasn't much to see off the slipway - a pretty boring sandy and shelly bottom, but there were cheerfully coloured sponges on the deeper rocks.