Babbacombe

Back to Babbacombe to dive with Geoff H. SW winds much stronger, but still sheltered enough for diving - one of the few places today - and very soon other divers rolled up. It was drizzly (heavy rain to come) and very gloomy. Vis wasn't great, not as good as yesterday in fact, and about 2m. It was also quite dark.

We got ready (I was trying my pony), got in and went NE out along the bouldery sublittoral (>8m), not straying far over the sand. The larger rocks were topped with kelp and around them short red weed and brown silty turf.

There were gobies, ballan wrasse, female cuckoo wrasse, a few mullet, a bib-pout-whiting, and a nice pointy silver one. Lots of prawns under ledges and here and there gently skipping about. Saw a few fan worms - a spectacular white cluster - inevitably as I lifted the camera instantly shot back inside its muddy tube.

I was adjusting my buoyancy more than I should've had to and felt a bit unbalanced by the pony (I've used a pony in that configuration before and it was fine). But it was good practise.

Babbacombe

Buddied with Derek, a good long dive, nearly 1hr 20mins looking at the creatures and taking pictures. Dull and damp but sheltered from the south westerly winds. Vis looked ok getting in at the slipway but wasn't as good as hoped and was a bit murky in places. Best vis was about 3m.

Dropped down just a few yards out; Derek tested his buoyancy for a short while, then we sent up the blob. We headed off north over rocky weedy ground which had a few interesting reefy lumps here and there. Plenty to see - several pipefish (greater, and well into the dive I found a snake pipefish), gobies, blenny, wrasse, and a dogfish.

There were all kinds of crab - very well camouflaged long-legged spider crab, velvet fiddler (also known as witch or devil crabs, most probably because of their red eyes), hermit crabs, and what was probably a harbour/swimmer crab with green eyes (see picture). There was a solitary giant sea-squirt like the one at Meadfoot the other day, prawns, and lots of worm tubes in the mud and whelk trails.

The new yellow and black reel was fine. It wasn't particularly easy to wind in, but is nice and compact and much more sensible design than many others I've tried. Strobe worked well; I set flash on camera to autoflash and made sure there was a patch over alternate light sensor.

Meadfoot

Neap tides and fine sunny weather - ideal for a dive. Sea was a little bit lumpy but Meadfoot beach was reasonably sheltered from the south-easterly wind. Already kitting up when I arrived, I was to join Peter C and Nik. The plan was decided - a short surface swim to get to clear un-churned water then continue south toward Shag Rock. Shortly after setting out and still on the surface - mainly owing to the conditions Nik decided not to dive. The alternative: diving close to the shore would have been unpleasant and totally pointless. Peter and I continued the surface swim and when we'd had enough of the swell descended in about 6m of water and found the visibility to be a reasonable 2-3m. Peter sent up his blob and off we went. I had my compass on a BC strap pull ring and was far easier to use than when on the arm.

We swam over various terrain: sand, shelly sand, pebbly reef, kelpy reef, bare rocky ridges, and around some small, but interesting reefy pinnacles toward the vicinity of Shag Rock. Below ELW and around the reefy parts there was plenty to see. The typical animals: wrasse, gobies, dragonet; hermit, fiddler, edible crabs. One of the first unusual things I found was a very large 6" white sea squirt with a lumpy grooved surface and lobed siphons. Peter later saw a dogfish, I missed that but found a pipefish (see picture) and a pretty colonial ascidian (see the other picture).

We also found a lobster. I managed to get a decent picture - but could have done much better if the Sealife SL960D strobe hadn't let me down once again at a crucial moment. It failed to trigger despite thorough testing and fiddling and having been working surprisingly well for once [note to self: look for a better one].

At 100 bar we headed back - the surge helped us in - and where the vis dropped off again surfaced. A tangle was sorted and we swam in. A really good dive - worth the effort at the beach.

Galicia

With fine weather forecast and neap tides, the plan was for the first wave to dive the Bretagne. However (!) there was a southeasterly breeze and a moderate easterly swell that made the going fairly heavy. With 4 miles to go to the Bretagne it was decided that the conditions were against it. Further out it would have been rough, it might have been difficult to retrieve the divers, not to mention uncomfortable for the boathandler.

Clint took over from Anne who'd boathandled thus far and we headed across to the Galicia. Seaquest was on the wreck and in the process of picking up divers. Paul L and Kevin kitted up, then Geoff and myself. Clint and Anne were to dive when we'd come out.

Geoff (leading) and I pulled ourselves down the shot and though the murk to the bottom. Visibility was terrible, but off we went. Before doing so I switched to and back again from the pony Debbie (bottle) and Paul L (reg/gauge) lent me; and got the torch out. The pony mounted on my tank was fine, it didn't seem to affect my position or feel odd in the water; and during the dive I easily switched back and forth a few times for practise.

It was a really nice swim, taking in lots of bits of the wreck that I hadn't seen before, including the windlass (very big), mast pieces, tubing/shaft of some kind, hatches with triangular ends to the combing, big coils of 1" wire, bales of wire(?), more cylinders of concrete.

Bib, pollack, wrasse, a nice tompot blenny. Edible crab, velvet fiddler crab, white and orange centred anenomes, pink sea fans (had a close look to see the feeding parts).

Not having dived for three weeks perhaps, we made the most of it - 57 minutes. I took more pictures than I might have, and had a good poke about. I savoured this dive!

Eventually down to 100 bar we found a spot to send up the blob. At the surface (I don't know what I expected) the Sun was out, which was nice, but ahead I could see blue waves rolling toward me in and wondered if I'd be able to see the boat. I turned about a bit more and it was right there. Alongside, and starting to de-kit I realised something was slightly amiss. Kevin was seasick (properly) and only Clint was completely unaffected by the motion of the boat for the last hour.

Unfortunately it was too rough for more diving, and the trainees hoping for their first sea-dive were unlucky today.