All week the weather forecast for the w/e looked pretty grim with lots of wind and heavy rain. All very depressing it was, and another rubbishy non-diving weekend seemed likely. But towards the end of Saturday the winds were predicted to ease off by the morning, and Babbacombe would become a possibility.
Arriving earlier than planned- already the car park was 2/3rds full with a contingent from Gloucestershire- I went and had a look at the vis. (and it seemed OK) had a swig of tea and started to get ready. The others soon arrived and Derek, Geoff and I put in off the bouldery beach the west side of the breakwater. It was a bit tricky, but managed and once clear of the rocks we went down and headed 0°-30°. On the bottom (6-9m) the vis was awful (0.5-1m). Side by side we could only see each other very dimly, and it was dark and gloomy. A separation had occurred almost as soon as we started. I had the blob (and soon a torch out so the others could see me). The bottom was very silty sand with some pebbles and gravel. [Needed to be closer on descent and use buddy line].
My new UK Sun-Light torch was very good, it cut through the gloom and and was great for picking out the animals. Over a ~50 metre long / 0.5 metres wide strip I saw numerous hermit crabs (several appeared to be fist-size but were probably smaller) and velvet fiddlers - sometimes aptly called devil crabs on account of their red eyes. What with the the bizarre animals, tatty looking shreds of plants, and Hadean atmos it was something like one of those nightmarish Hieronymus Bosch paintings.
There were lots of clumps of slipper limpets dotted about in little piles, something I hadn't seen before (but I have read they can become very numerous). Apparently the limpet at the bottom of the pile is female and those above are male and in a queue to mate - if she dies though the male above becomes female and the males above him - fertilise 'her'). It was pointless going very far or fast, and it made much more sense to concentrate more on a very small area; and appreciate such things as the delicate-looking and beautifully pearlescent baby gobies.
A little way into the dive, Derek did some buoyancy checking; and we stopped and I enjoyed having got my own buoyancy right (for now). The QR clip on the blob was useful (but need to monitor the line and any depth changes carefully).
After about 35 minutes another separation occurred, after a brief look all around (Geoff had a torch but we couldn't see that) Derek and I surfaced and we rendezvoused. We decided then to swim back in over to the breakwater. It was 9°C on the bottom and hands were starting to get a bit cold. At the breakwater Geoff went in and Derek and I for a look around the wall. It was murky here but nice to have a point of reference. Not much to see on the wall. I gathered a few lead weights - there were many more but I didn't want the wire bits poking into my BC.
It was an ideal time to look at the wall, normally there's a few fishermen there, but today there was just the one and he was only now setting up. I also found a folding knife [back home I sprayed it with WD and it cleaned up quite well]. There was some fishing line that snagged me but easily broken, and a dead dogfish - dead from eating floating rubbish. The 20 min potter about the wall dive was just 3m max and quite pleasant as it was lighter and I could see a bit more about me. I even took a couple of pictures of the snakelocks anenomes and a stripy winkle. Unfortunately my Canon WP-DC21 Waterproof Case wasn't exactly waterproof. So I have to try and get a replacement.
Vis was poor; but was nice and calm and only a very gentle swell. It was excellent practise, and we saw some stuff.
