Exmouth Dock

Jumped off fish quay at 18:40 with Derek and Phil. Bryan provided shore cover. Went down slope in a SW direction (usually go more westerly). Bouldery, sand and clay patches. Dead fish and line close in but less rubbish than along quay. Lots of sponges and sea-firs on rocks. Abundant common starfish. A tompot blenny, shore crab, small mullet (?), and other unidentified fish seen only as fast moving shadows, or lurking at the back of overhangs. Levelling off at the bottom at about 16-17m it was more shingly, with smallish boulders. Wildlife was similar here but thinned out. Phil found a butterfish and a flounder, and I got a quick look at these.

Very dark, and pretty poor (1.5m best) vis. Blobby plankton throughout. Big UK torch made a great difference to the dive; having used some smaller ones lately. Rubbish on bottom included clothing and a bunch of blue fabric. I half expected to see a dead body wrapped up in it. It was quite creepy down there.

Nerdy camera stuff: white balance evaluation on the old IXUS 700 triggers the flash (if on) and uses that 'image'. This is really useful (and worked underwater). Torch also very useful to help camera focus and far more manageable with the latern grip as it can be held with a couple of fingers. These tweaked using GIMP and noise reduction applied with Neat Image.

A bit disoriented after swimming about down there, we eventually headed back up (NE) to light. Current getting much stronger. Found more and different sponges, took a few more pictures, and swam back to the slipway.

Exmouth Dock

Dived with Geoff H at Exmouth. HW was 09:04, and we entered water 09:01 (tide seemed to have slowed but still quite strong). We signaled down and I made swift descent. At bottom I realised pony was free flowing, so switched to breathe from it. Then went to my necklaced octopus - wanted air quick - and out of breath holding station. Pony free-flowing again [it emptied] so decided to come back up, inflating BC. Got breath back and we went down together.

On with dive in slackening current. At 10m or so very gloomy. Comparatively gentle current around the cave, but very dark and murky. Torch out and found a big ballan wrasse lurking in the shadows. Left torch on as we continued along the bouldery, rubbish littered slope. Lots of starfish - feeding on the mussels. Lots of line and some dead fish, including a large eel. Carried on a bit further, with a pause for Geoff to sort weightbelt. On way back we found a BMX (it looked quite ancient covered with growth and crud) and Geoff told me he saw the car. The tide took us back to the pier and we went up the slope back to the light; where I took a few snaps to test out my orange (Green Magic) filter. ISO 400 (de-noised with Neat Image).

We had 36 minutes. Max depth 17.5m. Water was 7°, and vis - less than hoped for - was about 2m. Diving at springs here is a quick dip - Paul L reckoned there was about a minute of slack.

Sponge. Before and after white balance set.

Exmouth Dock (Blenny Cove)

Dived with Derek and Geoff H. at Blenny cove - other side of the marina to the fish quay off where I've dived before. An easy put-in at the beach and we surface swam to boulders. In the water at 7:10am.

Descent and down a steep rocky slope, littered with mangled 'stuff' into the abyss. Ballan wrasse on the way. Very dark. Levelling off a bit at about 20m. Sponges, starfish here. Boulders and shelly/gravelly sand. Derek's torch was running down (the light from a working torch didn't exactly carry very far) and we went back up the slope.

On the way up spotted a pipefish. Over a large clayey boulder collected some lead scraps and fishing weights. Swam round assorted sponge/turf crusted boulders, and up to pilings. Lots of blennys (below). Just the one picture (!) partly because of the vis and murk, partly because a vital button sticking on my camera housing. Managed to work it, but not great; pried it loose later.

Some current later in dive, but nothing much, and easy getting back to the start. After the stump round the marina all were ready for breakfast - and went to the cafe along from the fish shop.

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.

Exmouth Dock

After a dreary day, the sun got out for a fantastic evening. At the quay (made it though the rush-hour) I had a look around; the tide was still racing in and it was very choppy below the quayside, but the vis looked 'ok'. Diving were Clint and Hilary, Phil and Nik, Derek and Geoff, Kevin and me, with Brian shore cover.

We went in just after HW and did just over 30 minutes at an average depth of 11m. Jumped off the dock, and able to get back out on ladder (just). Current made it hard work here and there, but staying low and going steady we didn't have any problems. Vis was >4 metres.

Tompot blennies. They were everywhere -watching us from crevices and holes- it was blenny city. There were some shannies too in the shallows. There were ballan and goldsinny wrasse, and nice school of pollack. Near the cave, Kevin freed a small pollack caught on some abandoned line. A further on we saw a big fresh water eel. The terrain was varied (boulders, rocks, the cave, piles of shells, and mussels, and junk with plenty of hiding places).

Everyone had a really good time; Kevin and I had a good look round, Clint and Hilary fed the fish, Derek took some brilliant pictures of blennies and crab, Phil found a porthole, and Nik found some sort of gun. The coin I found turned out to be a 2p.

Exmouth Quay

Arriving early at Exmouth, the plan was to do a dive from the quay at high water; but although it wasn't particularly windy, and the sea wasn't too choppy (you could see a little way into the water and submerged rocks), it was only just do-able. I was buddied with Clint and Hilary; also diving were Anne and Geoff, Brian and Nik. Our group, and Anne and Geoff, got in at Mamhead slipway. Visibility was about 1m so we all had to stay very close. After a quick buoyancy check we made our way down over the rocky slope to a depth of about 9-10m. Encrusting animals included delicate light brown sponges (h.bowerbanki), and there were small feathery plants, also brownish. The largest living animals I saw were mussels. Hilary and Clint saw a fish but I missed it. Every time I thought I saw a fish coming into view it turned into a tatty piece of litter. There were some dead starfish, and several dead gurnards - the biggest of which Hilary delighted in waving in our faces. I managed to take a few pictures, though conditions for it were less than ideal; not so much the lack of light, but the murk made it impossible for the camera to focus.

Somehow despite the poor vis, about halfway through the dive we encountred Brian and Nik who had jumped off the quayside and were heading for the slipway. Finning against the tide became hard, we had entered the water 30 minutes after HW, later than planned and the tide was coming out. I followed Clint and Hilary up slope past mussel covered boulders and we were surfacing apparently. I managed to do the last few metres very slowly and was quite pleased with this. Clint's pilotage was brilliant and we surfaced at ladder. The ladder however didn't reach the water and we surface swam back to the slipway, Clint getting me to tow Hilary. I had just done my first scuba dive in sea. Hooray! Derek and Yasmin assisted with the dive management. Yasmin recorded times and air in and times and air out, and she was able to help people, myself included, with bits of kit getting in and out. After de-kit we all went for slap up dinner at the cafe behind the quay. Their 'Scooby' is a big fried breakfast plus burger and chips,- which were very good btw.