Babbacombe

A return to Babbacombe with Geoff H. Again nicely sheltered the weather was ok for the time of year. Two weeks ago it was dark and gloomy, and when we got out it was lashing down - I kept my undersuit on for the trip home. The visibility too far better this time. In places, before we stirred up the bottom, the vis was 7+ metres. When we arrived there were just a few divers kitting up, and not many more when we left. A few Saturday's back it was full of divers. The cafe was shut and the toilets boarded up (but we still had to pay to park).

We surface swam a short way out then dropped down in about 4-5 metres, Geoff took the blob. We went north and followed the slope down over rocks and a few boulders, gradually getting more reefy. After a short while swimming over a rocky but fairly level bottom I looked up and saw something that looked like a reflection - something not really there - I looked harder and I was amazed to see a John Dory. By now it was sideways on and I could see it clearly. Unfortunately before I could get a decent picture it veered off and was soon gone. I did get some nice pictures of a tompot blenny.

Not long after the Dory, now heading west along the edge of the rocks, I found a huge dogfish - perhaps 1.5 metres (taking into account the optical distortion). We saw a several more during the dive; at one point below a large boulder we counted four huddled together. There were lots of ballan wrasse, corkwing wrasse, a cuckoo wrasse, bib (and others), gobies (sand, two spot), and tompot blennies. Crabs, there were shore, velvet-swimmer, edible; prawns, fan worms (dark brown, white), a plumose anenome, lots of snakelock anenomes, knobbly whelk-type creatures (and many other shells). Lots of sponges all growing fairly flat. Breadcrumb sponges etc,.. a solitary yellow globe sponge.

There was also a lot of junk. A broken fishing pot of some kind, fishing weights, drinks cans, 3/4 old tyres, half a small rowing dingy, a golf ball, (I found a really old bank card last time - haven't tried it yet), and an old boot. Eventually, after turning back and swimming a short way, we arrived at the rocks to the north of the beach and surfaced, not too far from the slipway. Very pleased with a good long dive, with good vis, and lots to see.

Rosehill

Although the weather forecast was for very light NE winds, it was still good to arrive at Plymouth and see for ourselves the flat calm of the Sound. It was overcast, but not cold, as we sped out to the Rosehill (avoiding larger vessels) and later on the sun would emerge and light up our trip home. There was a cluster of boats marking the wreck and we caught up with the divers we'd met kitting up at Mountbatten. They were friendly and they let us use their shot.

The morning's wave comprised: Derek (boathandler), Clint and Anne, Phil and Debbie, and Kevin and myself.

Second pair in, we pulled ourselves through the murk down to the wreck. At the bottom it was dark and gloomy, and not at all promising. Visibility was about 2 metres, and in a few cloudy spots even less. Some indistinct shapes loomed ahead and I made for these hoping they'd give me some idea of where we'd landed (for practise I was leading). A little further on we found a boiler and we continued over the flattened wreckage southwards to the stern.

Rosehill was nicely encrusted and there was plenty of life about. Cuckoo wrasse and bib were most of the fish. There were frequent colourful sea-urchins and spiny starfish, edible crab, small sea anenomes, sea-fans (one with a blob that might have been a nudibranch), a cotton spinner, the soft-corals: the familar all-white white, and the orange bodied / white polyped variety.

After a swim over the hold section, we came to some more jumbled wreckage and round a corner (where I should have seen the propellor) there was the rudder. From here it was easy to find the gun, an old Japanese 12 pounder on its gun-mount. I managed to get a picture of the mount at least - it's fallen onto its side, you can just about see the toothed wheel and the tapered base to the right-hand side. The barrel is out of the picture, pointing to the left and up.

Very soon it was time to leave. There was a reefy slope and some flat shelly ground at the base nearby where we set down to deploy the DSMB. As the line rapidly payed out I noticed my octopus free flowing - so I thought I'd better put a stop to that! Very little of my precious air had 'gushed' away - but it was good to know I had a pony (as well as my buddy that is). Everything sorted we headed home.

Back at Mountbatten Nik had arrived with cake :) Thanks Anne too for the mini-rolls! And after some refreshment the second wave (Clint boat handler, Chris, Phil, Derek, Nik, and Tim) went out to Scylla. Many thanks to Clint for towing and managing a great day's diving.