Babbacombe

Drysuitless, I resolved to dive in my 5mm wetsuit. It would also be an opportunity to do a weight-check in it for possible summer diving. It was very cold getting in (water 9°C) and chilly throughout dive.

Vis was awful. At the shore it hadn't looked 'too' bad, but it was fairly murky a few metres out. We headed north from the slipway and the visiblity worsened as we encountered dense brown 'wallpaper-paste' patches. Around a few rocks managed to take some close-ups; concentrating on photography allowed me to disregard the cold for a few minutes. But I didn't really get much. My Sealife strobe stopped firing - possibly too dark, and housing buttons were sticky (at just a few metres).

Saw one or two masked crab, and a good sized spiny starfish. Lots of netted whelks about. Signalled to Derek 'cold' and 'home' after 25min and we turned around. Each time I pointed out critters to him (spiny spider crab, pipefish etc) on the the way back, I regretted it - but hoped he would be able to take a decent picture. Total dive time was 61 minutes.