Chesil Cove

A trip organised by Russ off YD (also on Top Gun earlier in the month). Good to meet some more of the YDers and put more faces to names. The weather was brilliant and there was hardly any swell so getting in and out was very easy. Geoff and I had two good dives on Saturday; one out and back down to about 11 m, then a more meandering one south then north along the beach down to about 15 m. Vis was 2 m, lots of green and brown plankton. But was fine for macro photography and we only separated toward the end of the second dive. Varied terrain, pebbly slopes, low reef with sandy patches, more bouldery to the south. Lots of creatures: fan worms, nudibranch, spider crabs, pipefish, gurnard, cuttlefish and a little cuttlefish. The little cuttlefish was too quick for me; it popped up out the sand right under my nose and scooted away leaving a few blobs of ink.

Burgh Island / Ramillies

On Top Gun from Plymouth. Trip organised by Pete (PeeBee) off YD, and Nick L. Burgh Island 20m to interesting reefy ridges vis 2m. Nice dive with lots of colourful wildlife.

Ramillies wreckage lies off some big sea cave in rock. Scattered and worn pieces of wreck around and about (perhaps!) at 10m. Vis 0.5m. Cold/kelpy.

Separated from Geoff after a minute or so. Vis so poor I sent up the blob and surfaced. Then BC wouldn't stay fully inflated [checked and is ok]. Plenty of air (and wearing an inflatable suit!) so didn't need to ditch weight.

James Eagan Layne

Boathandled with Derek on 1st wave. Dived with Derek on 2nd Wave. Sunny and calm; then windier/cloudier a bit choppier in the afternoon. 19m max. 30min. 7°C (ice-cream head). Vis 5.5m. Derek took pictures and I had a good look round and a rummage: engine, tanks, masts, winches etc,.. lots to see plus ironmongery, and other hardware e.g the Gustin-Bacon 'gruvagrip' 4" pipe-clamp inserts. Back up to 8m and top of the wreck. Very nice dive.

HMS Scylla / James Eagan Layne

Two very good shake-down dives. Went with Geoff and JC people on Discovery Diver's Red Alert (Bovisand). Just one RIB on the Scylla when we arrived. Vis 3-4m. Water cold and glad of an extra jumper. Had 26m (40min) on the Scylla and then 19m (50min) on JEL. A bit of current on the Scylla, and got out of it along the port side. Had a look in the holes. Most interesting and nicest part of the Scylla this dive was the stern.

JEL seemed much more open in places than I remember; though plenty of hull plate and deck beams still standing, and the bow intact. Had a good look round swimming through the wreck. Crates of small rings (wheel rims?), poles/pipes, girders and ironmongery, large bucket things; and found a few of the spoked iron wheels - very scenic with lots of hydroids.

Flat calm and cloudless on way out. Wind got up later, clouded over, and was quite lumpy coming back especially around Penlee point.

Pommeranian / Baygitano

Moidart / East Tennants Reef

Babbacombe (night dive)

Lincoln / Bucks

HMS Scylla

Fine weather (after a dull start) with light NW winds and very slight sea - all good for our day's diving out of Plymouth. Bryan and Terry, Adrian and Jake, Dave B and me were on the first wave. Chris and Debbie boathandled. Vis was ok (just a bit snotty) 4 metres or so. Minimal current. Lots of other divers on it though, two hardboats arrived about the same time as us.

Dave and I went in and had a good dive; stopped at the bow briefly, then around the decks, along to the hanger and back, looking in some of the holes and hatches, poking around generally. There were lots of anemones and starfish, bass, pollack, wrasse, and a tompot blenny.

In the afternoon Adrian and I boathandled taking Chris and Debbie, and Geoff M and Sara out to the Scylla; and they all had good dives I think. Most of the other boats were now on the James Eagan Layne, the sun had come out and it was quite nice. I didn't ram any other vessels or maim anyone, so that was nice as well.

Louis Shied

We got to Thurlstone and the car park at Milton Sands for ~9 and caught up with Geoff and Derek. Weather fine and sunny, ENE and ~10mph. Sea flat calm and vis looked great.

Geoff and Abigail dived together, and I went in with Derek. We set off from the corner of the beach snorkelling over to the front of the rocks. Eventually I located some frames and then one of the boilers. We went down and had a look around these. Nice lobster (perhaps the 'OAP' the parking attendant told me about later), and a great little clump of fan worms. I managed to scare the worms, but they came back out so I think Derek did eventually get his picture. One of the boiler pipes had 4-5 leopard spot gobies inside. Wrasse were everywhere, and bib beneath the metal work [Abigail saw a John Dory].

There's an interesting criss-cross structure; not sure what this is. And we looked around a few more big pieces and along the propshaft and then, after about an hour, decided to head back to the shore and look around the reefy bits on the way. Nice and light, plenty of colour and bright clean sandy patches. Lots of tiny prawns. Halfway, I found another lobster and lost Derek. I had a look round for him and sent a blob up. And that was about it. Short surface swim back in.

There's a little bit of a walk down from the car park and and across the beach but well worth it for lovely relaxed dive. Enjoying the lovely views and fresh air and so on, we walked over to Rocky's hut for chippies (there were 'nae pasties'!) and a cup of tea.

Brixham Breakwater

Derek and I dived Brixham on Sunday. Vis wasn't great - 3m - milky and snotty, and a bit gloomy. But it was worth it! Especially if you like crabs.

We went off the beach and had a look round the eel-grass. Not a lot here that we could see, then carried on eastwards along the edge of the reefy stuff where it turns into rock strewn silt, and I spotted a couple of cuttlefish. Saw the usual gobies (lots of 2-spots in the weedier places) and dragonets around, but little else I can remember- till we got to the 'nice' reefs with the trumpet anemones. We had a look around here then looped west back across the bay.

Before very long- about half way through the dive- we stumbled on a great horde of spiny spider crabs. We'd just seen one or two, then realised the crusty monsters were everywhere. Neither of us had seen so many in one place, and some were absolute giants. After a few snaps we let them think they'd seen us off and we carried on- over silt and spider crab remains. Around the derelicts, twiggy, long legged spider crabs scavenged.

Continuing our crab-fest, we enjoyed velvet swimmer crabs, harbour/swimmer crabs (I like how they swim!), and little angular crabs - scampering away, pincers out-stretched, saying 'I'm BIG'. There were a few edibles, and lots of hermit crabs - many of the larger ones weighed down with outsize parasitic anenomes.

Some other things live there too, like burrowing anemones, worms and brittlestars.

We surfaced at the beach, near the wall, after 86 minutes. Good plan of Derek's and navigation,.. and was pleased with him for zipping up my difficult drysuit.

Shoalstone Point

Met up with Geoff and Derek at Shoalstone point. A gloomy morning, overcast, windy (WSW) and showery. I wore my wetsuit, thinking it would have warmed up a little more - my last UK dive in it was fine; but it was actually colder than June and the whole 70 minutes very chilly. Just before we dived I noticed my compass's disk spinning wildly and realised it had burst. Underwater it re-filled a bit and worked, though not very well.

Vis was about 3m and the large cruddy weeds and soupy water quite novel! This time off the pool we veered east along the edge of the reef/stones. Could have used my camera but just fancied a dive without and didn't miss it too much. Creatures I recall inclded, 2-spot gobies, small wrasse and a couple of smallish cuttlefish, trumpet anemones and parasitic anemones, a squat lobster and a tiny yellow feather-star. Quite surprised to find (on reef) some more sea-hares - I thought they'd all gone. Also some small scallops, and lots tiny netted whelks. A 1" cuttlefish I later found on the sand flashed patterns just as a fully grown ones I've seen. Back over the weed at the end of the dive Geoff saw a big dogfish.

Cold, poor vis, but overall quite enjoyed it and being back in green water.

Ras Ghozlani (Ras Mohamed National Park)

Shark / Yolande

Dunraven

Reef nr Dunraven

Rosalie Muller

1/2

Barge

Night Dive with Caroline.

Ulysses

Barge (Gubal)