Plymouth: Rame Head and Breakwater

The main objective was a club dive for training. It was going to be Vobster but a last minute switch to Plymouth and the chance to get down there instead of Babbacome - nice as it is - was jumped on. We got away from the boat shed at 08:35 and trundled down to Plymouth. It was very pleasant. Nice and sunny with bit of a NW breeze. Anne and Clint (who had towed the boat too) boat handled. Soon we were on our way out to a reefy spot between Rame Head and Penlee Point.

There was minimal current and I could see a good way down the shot line; a free descent would have been easy. The vis was about 8 metres, with a snotty layer at 3-6 metres depth. We got away from the shot and after a quick look round settled to put the blob up. It all went a bit crap here: the blob got all twisted, tangled with the winder handle (this tangle happens far too easily), and partly inflated. I managed to deflate it and we started again, and eventually it was up. Clint says it was 8 minutes before the blob appeared. Incidentally my buddies lately have noticed I'm finding it hard to reel in; and they're right,.. and I don't like the very thin line,.. and the handle and latch is slightly too small for my gloved hand - so time to change. Anyway, I was down there and annoyed with myself and the blob, and was starting to get a headache! It wasn't a good start but the rest of the dive was fine; and I pottered -carefully- about the low reefs going very slow and taking pictures (which was most relaxing) and enjoying the excellent vis.

A quick look saw the turfy, red-weeded rocks were scattered with sea urchins, spiny starfish, and purple starfish. I found various crabs: shore, velvet fiddler, spider, and long legged spider. There were boring sponges, sea cucumbers, baked bean and light-bulb ascidians, dahlia anemones, Devon-cup coral (anemone) pictured and neopentadactyla mixta a plant-like echinoderm (also pictured). They're uncommon but I've seen them before at Burgh Island. But I saw very few fish, and remember seeing only a goldsinny wrasse, a two spot goby, and a dogfish.

Back at Mount Batten the trainees were almost ready to go out, and the first wave had bit of a rest and sorted kit out. They returned very happy, and a third wave was on (Chris and Debbie taking over the boathandling). Once again I was buddied with Brian. I'd had taken my pony in the morning for full kit practise. But decided not to in the afternoon... we'd be on another shallow dive.

Out we went to Tinker Shoal. Almost kitted up - the wind seemed fresh and sea choppier here - and Chris wisely took us to the south side of the breakwater. Fully kitted up already and buddy check done, Brian and I dropped down to 12m. Vis was 10-12 m and could see the top of the kelp from just below the surface, I landed at a level nice sandy clearing (marvelling at the vis and the many fish- thinking how wonderful all this was) and started to set up the blob. [Between dives we'd sorted out Brian's reel - that had turned out to be jammed (!), so we now had a back up at least]. Anyway, what happened next was somewhat un-nice.

I was unfurling and orientating the blob when Brian took my octopus and started to fill the blob. However the air unfortunately was pissing up the side of the bag and not into it. I tried to get the bag over the DV and the next thing I remember was Brian dropping my octopus, an explosion of bubbles, and not being able to see very much. Of course my octopus was free-flowing. I tried twice to stop the free flow by switching to the octopus to breath from it, but to no avail. I knew that in less than a minute I would have no air left (and I didn't have my pony bottle) and I was thinking 'shit - I don't want this to be happening'. The idea that it might come to an air share was utterly depressing as I thought back to the buddy check - Brian's hose was short and octopus black. I decided to use what air I had for a self rescue and go for my buddy's air as the 'very' last resort.

On the last look at the bottom I had 100 bar (going down fast), and I signalled 'up' (I may have tried the DV for the second time at this point) then left for the surface as swiftly as I dared. At about 6 metres I had 50 bar left and hoped I'd have enough air to inflate jacket [I hope I would have remembered to ditch weight]. I felt fine on the surface, so just stuck my arm up. Chris helped me back on the boat remarked cheerfully "that's a lot of bubbles" or something like that! And I was back in the land of the living. I was down to 20 bar! So many lessons and reminders from so short a dive: like don't let buddy inflate a blob with my octopus, and use the pony, (good re the buddy check - to know what I was up against - and keeping 'fairly' calm and thinking and acting when it was all going a bit wrong. A self inflating blob would be a very good idea.

Back on the boat, all well, and sorted myself out while Brian, Grace and Jake dived a three.

Babbacombe

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.

Royal Navy Submarine Museum

A nice weekend away and a trip to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport. It was yukky weather (sort of ideal really as there was plenty inside) and we spent the day there. The museum was great. We had a guided tour of HMS Alliance, a look round Holland I, the X-craft, chariots, and lots of very interesting bits and pieces.

Above is HMS Alliance, completed in 1947 and designed for use in the Far East. Below - inside Holland I, the Royal Navy's first submarine, comissioned in 1901, she was decomissioned in 1913 and lost during the tow to the scrapyard.

Boat Handling Course

The instructors: Clint, Paul L, Nick L, and Grant

The students (pictured): Geoff H, Grace, Julie, Jake, Tony W, and Simon

We all met up at the club on Saturday morning for the theory part of the course, an introduction to the RIB and equipment, boat handling theory, passage plan organising, 'rules of the road' etc,.. a tour of the boat and to help prepare the boats and hitch them up.

Then to Teignmouth. The launch - as we'd anticipated - was interesting! At low (spring) tide, with the tide still on the ebb, Mir was nearly grounded; and Hubble needed help over the mud and shingle into deeper water. There was a gentle SW/westerly breeze. Beyond the point it was a bit choppy, but not too bad.

After navigating the harbour mouth and the sand bars, guided by our teachers we took turns at helming the RIBS, basic manoeuvring, and reading the waves and adjusting our speed accordingly. When we weren't 'driving'. I want to say we drank rum and sang merry shanties - but actually we picked up more interesting knowledge of boathandling, practised knots, and kept a lookout. Back in the estuary we practised manoeuvring in sheltered water, getting the boats up to the pontoons off the river beach and nudging the marker buoys. Retrieval (which we took turns at coordinating) was straightforward. A most wonderful surprise awaited us ashore - Anne had cooked up sausage sandwiches!! We finished washing down the boats and rendezvoused at the club.

On Sunday we met again at the club to get the boats out and returned to Polly Steps. Launch was far easier than the previous day, and we were off again, soon heading past Pole Sand to practise more boathandling skills like deploying anchors, picking up divers (we used a weighted float), man overboard drill and the Wilkinson turn.

Back at the shed we sorted out the boats and debriefed. The course was brilliant - very well run and taught, a fine introduction to boat handling. Now need to practise.

Porto Moniz

After a very nice day spent touring - a few hours at Pico do Areeiro (1817 m), a brief stop at Câmara de Lobos (which is Portuguese for 'chamber of the wolves'), and a swim, relaxed lunch stop, and explore of Ribeira Brava 'wild stream', we returned to Porto Moniz late afternoon to go to the Madeira Aquarium, housed in Forte João Batista. Located on the sea front, the little fort was built in 1730 to defend against pirates and restored in 1998 to accommodate the aquarium.

Worth a visit but slightly expensive (€7 each) for the size; I was keen to see more local fish and work out maybe what some of the things I'd seen were. There were various small tanks, some rock-pool type tank exhibits, and a nice main tank (quite full). A good thing about the aquarium was that no photography whatsoever was permitted. Flash upsets many animals and is extremely bad for some delicate fish, sea horses etc, and people generally don't know how to or are too lazy to turn the their flash off. So the pictures here are from my swim the other day (a puffer fish and goby on some red sponge).

It was also nice and quiet, with only a few other people there, and it was good to watch the fish in peace. Yas enjoyed it, watching the morays and the prawns. The tiny shop/stand sold mainly souvenirs with the aquarium's starfish logo, baseball caps etc, and no decent books. However for the foodie holidaymaker was the grandly titled Maderian Gastonomy (or something like that) so one could learn at least how to prepare the things for eating!

Caniçal

Slightly less windy over night (12-15mph perhaps), and not many more days left, so decided to find somewhere sheltered for a swim. Best spot seemed to be a beach near Caniçal, it was sandy, fairly sheltered, and further protected today by a nearby breakwater. First though we stopped in Caniçal itself for a quick look round, to pick up some food to make lunch, but most of all to visit the whaling museum and were pleased to find it open this time of year. We didn't see a life-size model sperm whale or the whaling boat boat said to be on show, but looked at the interesting whaling artefacts, models, and artwork and watched an interesting short film about Madeiran whaling.

On to our beach, parked at the top of the cliff and took all the kit down to the beach. Used my FJ suit and rash vest and hood (didn't bother with gloves) and 4kg of lead. Camera: my Canon IXUS 700. I hadn't bought my slightly rubbishy strobe, but had recently used with the camera's own diffuser with good results. There would be plenty of light and good visibility.

Water felt cold going in but soon warmed up. There was a bit of a surge around the rocks, but not too bad. Swimming out it was very clear and blue. Estimated the visibility to be about 10m, but may have been slightly more. Setting off, the rocks were quite barren but I did notice some barnacles and algae as I was getting my fins on (I hadn't seen any weed, shells, or any creeping thing on any of the beaches we'd stopped at previously). The sandy bottom was also apparently lifeless. Then as I got a bit further out and swam down, things suddenly became interesting with reefy turf, plants and colourful fish.

The fish I can remember were: painted wrasse, saddled bream, parrot fish, shiny blue fish, (all frequent), salp, small grey blue fish (shoals), lizard fish (common), weaver fish (2x), puffer fish (2x), tompot blenny, black headed goby.

Invertebrates included: spiny starfish (these attractive ble and brown), red starfish, brown spotted sea cucumber, yellow, red, green/brown sponges. Sea urchins abundant on the large angular boulders. Some of these had striking blue streaks in the narrows between the spines; the spines of many seemed longer than those I'd seen off Crete, and they were generally spread well apart from one another. I found a few top shells and limpets, but saw no crabs or anenomes.

Plants: reefy turf had short green/turquoise weed with lobed edges, short dark tufts of something, but the largest and most conspicuous plant was the plump pink feathery weed that was dotted around in clumps.

I snorkelled for about an hour going as far as the breakwater then back the way I came slowly, over the beach then over to the rocks on the other side. More exposed the visibility wasn't as good and the effect of the surge far greater. From what I could make out there was less to see, so I came in. I was very pleased with a good swim here and seeing plenty of life.

Porto Moniz

Not ideal for snorkelling, and I couldn't even go for a swim in the rock pools. The pools were barred off - which was a shame because they looked so inviting and jacuzzi-like. The north coast gets the worst of the weather, but it was unpleasantly wavy round most of the south coast too; the ocean swells wrapping round the island. I would just have to be patient.

Above, the northern coastline of the desolate Ponta São Lourenço, to the east of Madeira, on the day I did get to go snorkelling.

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.

Babbacombe

Back to Babbacombe to dive with Geoff H. SW winds much stronger, but still sheltered enough for diving - one of the few places today - and very soon other divers rolled up. It was drizzly (heavy rain to come) and very gloomy. Vis wasn't great, not as good as yesterday in fact, and about 2m. It was also quite dark.

We got ready (I was trying my pony), got in and went NE out along the bouldery sublittoral (>8m), not straying far over the sand. The larger rocks were topped with kelp and around them short red weed and brown silty turf.

There were gobies, ballan wrasse, female cuckoo wrasse, a few mullet, a bib-pout-whiting, and a nice pointy silver one. Lots of prawns under ledges and here and there gently skipping about. Saw a few fan worms - a spectacular white cluster - inevitably as I lifted the camera instantly shot back inside its muddy tube.

I was adjusting my buoyancy more than I should've had to and felt a bit unbalanced by the pony (I've used a pony in that configuration before and it was fine). But it was good practise.

Babbacombe

Buddied with Derek, a good long dive, nearly 1hr 20mins looking at the creatures and taking pictures. Dull and damp but sheltered from the south westerly winds. Vis looked ok getting in at the slipway but wasn't as good as hoped and was a bit murky in places. Best vis was about 3m.

Dropped down just a few yards out; Derek tested his buoyancy for a short while, then we sent up the blob. We headed off north over rocky weedy ground which had a few interesting reefy lumps here and there. Plenty to see - several pipefish (greater, and well into the dive I found a snake pipefish), gobies, blenny, wrasse, and a dogfish.

There were all kinds of crab - very well camouflaged long-legged spider crab, velvet fiddler (also known as witch or devil crabs, most probably because of their red eyes), hermit crabs, and what was probably a harbour/swimmer crab with green eyes (see picture). There was a solitary giant sea-squirt like the one at Meadfoot the other day, prawns, and lots of worm tubes in the mud and whelk trails.

The new yellow and black reel was fine. It wasn't particularly easy to wind in, but is nice and compact and much more sensible design than many others I've tried. Strobe worked well; I set flash on camera to autoflash and made sure there was a patch over alternate light sensor.

Meadfoot

Neap tides and fine sunny weather - ideal for a dive. Sea was a little bit lumpy but Meadfoot beach was reasonably sheltered from the south-easterly wind. Already kitting up when I arrived, I was to join Peter C and Nik. The plan was decided - a short surface swim to get to clear un-churned water then continue south toward Shag Rock. Shortly after setting out and still on the surface - mainly owing to the conditions Nik decided not to dive. The alternative: diving close to the shore would have been unpleasant and totally pointless. Peter and I continued the surface swim and when we'd had enough of the swell descended in about 6m of water and found the visibility to be a reasonable 2-3m. Peter sent up his blob and off we went. I had my compass on a BC strap pull ring and was far easier to use than when on the arm.

We swam over various terrain: sand, shelly sand, pebbly reef, kelpy reef, bare rocky ridges, and around some small, but interesting reefy pinnacles toward the vicinity of Shag Rock. Below ELW and around the reefy parts there was plenty to see. The typical animals: wrasse, gobies, dragonet; hermit, fiddler, edible crabs. One of the first unusual things I found was a very large 6" white sea squirt with a lumpy grooved surface and lobed siphons. Peter later saw a dogfish, I missed that but found a pipefish (see picture) and a pretty colonial ascidian (see the other picture).

We also found a lobster. I managed to get a decent picture - but could have done much better if the Sealife SL960D strobe hadn't let me down once again at a crucial moment. It failed to trigger despite thorough testing and fiddling and having been working surprisingly well for once [note to self: look for a better one].

At 100 bar we headed back - the surge helped us in - and where the vis dropped off again surfaced. A tangle was sorted and we swam in. A really good dive - worth the effort at the beach.

Galicia

With fine weather forecast and neap tides, the plan was for the first wave to dive the Bretagne. However (!) there was a southeasterly breeze and a moderate easterly swell that made the going fairly heavy. With 4 miles to go to the Bretagne it was decided that the conditions were against it. Further out it would have been rough, it might have been difficult to retrieve the divers, not to mention uncomfortable for the boathandler.

Clint took over from Anne who'd boathandled thus far and we headed across to the Galicia. Seaquest was on the wreck and in the process of picking up divers. Paul L and Kevin kitted up, then Geoff and myself. Clint and Anne were to dive when we'd come out.

Geoff (leading) and I pulled ourselves down the shot and though the murk to the bottom. Visibility was terrible, but off we went. Before doing so I switched to and back again from the pony Debbie (bottle) and Paul L (reg/gauge) lent me; and got the torch out. The pony mounted on my tank was fine, it didn't seem to affect my position or feel odd in the water; and during the dive I easily switched back and forth a few times for practise.

It was a really nice swim, taking in lots of bits of the wreck that I hadn't seen before, including the windlass (very big), mast pieces, tubing/shaft of some kind, hatches with triangular ends to the combing, big coils of 1" wire, bales of wire(?), more cylinders of concrete.

Bib, pollack, wrasse, a nice tompot blenny. Edible crab, velvet fiddler crab, white and orange centred anenomes, pink sea fans (had a close look to see the feeding parts).

Not having dived for three weeks perhaps, we made the most of it - 57 minutes. I took more pictures than I might have, and had a good poke about. I savoured this dive!

Eventually down to 100 bar we found a spot to send up the blob. At the surface (I don't know what I expected) the Sun was out, which was nice, but ahead I could see blue waves rolling toward me in and wondered if I'd be able to see the boat. I turned about a bit more and it was right there. Alongside, and starting to de-kit I realised something was slightly amiss. Kevin was seasick (properly) and only Clint was completely unaffected by the motion of the boat for the last hour.

Unfortunately it was too rough for more diving, and the trainees hoping for their first sea-dive were unlucky today.

The Exeters

Dived with Susan H at the coordinates given in Dive South Devon for the reefy area known as the 'Exeters'. Descent with DSMB to silty bottom at 27.5 m. Very poor visibility (dark too). Swam in widening circles but found no reef - we'd landed in a big large sandy patch.

Lots of conical shells and bits, tube worm cases. Live animals included hermit crabs, numerous long legged spider crabs (~20cm), and small scallops. There were some dead mans fingers, anenomes, sea squirts, and the occasional sand goby. Larger animals included a fairly big dragonet and a dogfish.

Terrible vis and variable current but actually saw quite a lot; and was good practice.

Just outside Teignmouth, we helped locate and re-float a speedboat grounded at Mackerel Cove south of Ness Beach. The second wave went to the Galicia and Parson and Clerk between Teignmouth and Dawlish.

Beer

After a cup of tea and a sausage and egg bap on the beach from Kenno's (very good and reasonable too) I got my kit together to go snorkelling. I wore my thick wetsuit and tried the 11kg of weight I estimated previously. It was fine, I don't need any more. But with so much weight I think some of it would be better on the ankles. Visibility was alright, 3 to 4 metres perhaps. About 15 to 20 metres from the cliff I was mainly over kelp. Further on and closer in I found some rocks and shallow reefs to look round.

I took a few picture of the sponges and fan worms and found a thin semi-transparent worm I hadn't seen before. As well as a look round, I wanted to test my flash some more and see what might be done to get the flash (a Sealife SL960D) to work when it's supposed to. What seemed to happen today was that in 'close-up' mode, the auto-flash setting triggered the strobe; whereas the forced flash had frequently failed. I need to try this again, if this turns out not actually to be the case then I wonder if ditching the cable and using the flash just to 'fill-in' might be worth a go. Some fish were about: two-spot gobies, ballan wrasse, and a few sprats.

There's a lot of little boats in and out, so a blob is a good idea.

In the afternoon, Yas and I walked over the big hill to Seaton, along the front to Axmouth and back again - which was very agreable, and also I didn't feel so bad about eating 2x pasties for dinner!

Budleigh Salterton

A good relaxed reef dive from shore with Derek's son, Chris. Snorkelled out a short way then to the bottom and straight out over fine sand (keeping sun on right) to the shallow (5m) stony reef. On the way out there were big and small hermit crabs; and the usual sort of thing, gobies, worm casts etc. Shortly after finding the reef we saw a dog fish. There were lots of velvet fiddler crabs, some edible crabs, shore crabs, also a spidery spider crab, and the usual 'giant' spider crab. Chris found a spider crab shell heavily encrusted and blending into the surrounding rubble and weed - it was about a foot across - but motionless and perhaps dead - then suddenly it lunged, with its claws out and amidst a cloud of silt it was a real monster!

Found some anenomes - not many - the small white ones, and embedded in the sand a grey/white dahlia anenome. Later in the dive we encountered some misty patches and the light was falling. I had two torches and gave one to Chris.

On the way back I found a masked crab. The reef was certainly very crabby! It was good watching them. I took a few pictures but once again (despite some fiddling with the fibre optic cable and attaching it carefully - and prior testing) could not get it to fire consistently underwater. By the time we got out, after a dive of nearly 1hr 20min, it was almost dark.

Budleigh Salterton beach is very nice, I like pebbly beaches, but parking at the car park at the end of the seafront is a bit expensive and you have to pay round the clock. The chip shop is very good apparently - but I don't know - I didn't have any!

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.

Louis Sheid

Derek suggested the Louis Sheid for a dive on Monday morning. It is accessible from shore and easy to find; there were some good dives on the last trip and I was eager to see it for myself. I went in with Geoff H, Abigail. Derek dived with Lucy and Pete.

We surface swam with snorkel out in front of the rocks until we spotted the mast, I aligned my compass with the shot buoy put out by a rib (just in case) and we dropped down and followed the mast out into slightly deeper water, and settled into a nice relaxed tour of the wreck, and surrounding reefy parts. We found the boilers, the criss-cross frame thing of the pictures, and various other bits of wreckage – mainly interesting as places for creatures to lurk, with pipes, holes and compartments.

I saw scorpion fish on some reef, which was very red in this habitat matching the surrounding weed. There was also pollack, ballan and corkwing wrasse, a leopard spotted goby, and many schools of bib around the wreck. Geoff spotted the cuttlefish and we had a go at making friends with it, doing our best hand-cuttlefish thing; but I think it just thought we were all really stupid. On the way back we saw a nice group of red mullet. Louis Sheid was a lovely mellow dive, with lots of interest and a great way to top off the weekend’s action!

Chris and Debbie for organised a great weekend and Clint and Phil towed the boats. It was a great trip with lots of great dives and a great atmos! I’m back at work wishing I was still there.

Empire Harry / Persier

After seeing off the first wave there was time for a snorkel, and I went over to Beacon Point to look for the boiler of the Empire Harry. Wearing a 3mm longjohn and a thermal rash vest it was bloD cold (and this was the end of August!), but I had gloves, and wore my hood so at least I didn't get 'ice-cream head'.

On the way over there were several compass jellyfish, some of these had small transparent fish swimming about them; also wrasse, shanny, sand eels, the usual sort of thing. There was quite a variety of weed, the red rags and ferny looking ones particularly striking. Mostly though I was swimming over kelp and I could see that it was starting to look a bit manky and chewed up. Arriving at the Point I soon found the boiler. I shouldn't have been surprised at how big it was, but it is quite big and stands upright 4m or so on the sea-bed. I took a few pictures round and about and headed back, keen to warm up a bit, and on the way found some spiny starfish.

The second wave (Mir) returned to the Persier, we were Paul L and Debbie, Brian and Simon. Chris boathandled.

Brian and I went down (I took a while to get under– I had same weight as usual– so very likely a bit of excess air in my suit), and arrived near the steering quadrant to begin our swim round. We found one of the gun mounts and Brian spotted a very large conger in one of boxy holes beneath it. The pictures I took revealed it to have swallowed a very large fishing hook, injuring it internally (its eye appears spotted with blood). We swam over the forest of pink sea fans that cover the collapsed hull plates and swam through the propshaft from the stern end. After our zig-zag along the wreck we arrived at the boilers, and had a look round them before sending up the blob.

We had bit of a get together around Chris and Debbie’s abode, which was quite jolly, and Sunday night was nice and quiet and I actually got a good nights sleep; a few drinks, ramming the ear-plugs in as far as possible - just in case - and being fagged out all helped too.

Persier / Burgh Island

Braced for bank holiday wetness, the nice weather gods arranged some sun for us and let up on the wind. It was almost too good to be true. Conditions were excellent. There was just bit of an offshore breeze on Sunday and Monday. Underwater visibility wasn't amazing, but generally a reasonable 3 to 5 metres.

Hope Cove was packed out with the Family Fun Weekend and people making the most of the good weather to try and brown themselves up a bit. There was live music, beer, and an assortment of animals being roasted.

The first wave (Mir) dived the Persier. They were Terry and Simon, Geoff H and Susan H accompanied by Phil. Clint boathandled. Persier was located using transits and the profile from the transducer and shotted near the boilers. Off the boat and at the shot on the surface I refitted my flooded mask and we made our descent. There was very little current and vis was about four metres.

Terry led and we enjoyed a tour of this very scenic wreck; between the boilers, over engine bits, anchor, swimming through the propshaft and continuing towards the stern and the steering quadrant. There were bib (pouting - or whatever you want to call them) everywhere, the biggest amongst the steering gear. Some parts were covered with fish and at one point there was a layer of fish off into the distance. There were also large pollack, cuckoo and goldsinny wrasse. There were pink sea fans, dead man’s fingers, and sea firs in the encrusting turf. There were orange sea urchins, spiny starfish, and Terry found a big edible crab – which before moving on he tucked up safely in some dark hidey hole.

Completing the tour Terry brought us back to the shot and we made a good steady ascent. Earlier we’d seen other dive boats arriving, and as we came up several pairs were on their way down. A bit busy it was, but no problem; then all of a sudden I was forced to leave the shot, as someone fell down to my position, clattering past me as they tried to sort themselves out.

The third wave (Hubble) to Burgh Island comprised Phil and Simon, Derek and Lucy, Brian and Hilary. Boathandling were Clint and Rachel Chappell.

We dropped in 100m or so off the southwest side of the island and sent up the blob. We looked around and found a gully to follow. The gullies here are very nice indeed with varied and colourful plants and all kinds of encrusting life. There were lots of sponges, yellow boring sponge, tennis ball sponge, elephant's ear, and others; sea squirts included very many of the baked bean variety, and a few small patches of star ascidians; anemones, there small white ones, and lots of snakelocks. In the crevices there were small red squat lobsters, velvet fiddler crabs, and beneath one overhang some very large prawns.

We went extremely slowly, and saw a great deal. Phil spotted a cuttlefish. We watched it for some time, and I was able to take some photographs. As I got a little closer, it swiftly darkened, became spiny and reared up its tentacles to say "I is a badass mollusc". Later it calmed down and turned white, pulsing with black as it watched a spider crab scuttle past – an incredible sight.

Saturday evening we gathered in Anne and Clint's enormous tent. Camping at Rew Farm was ok, the facilities (showers) were a bit stretched but it was the Holiday so not really surprising. What really was unfortunate was the rave that Saturday night a few fields away. It went on until 5:30 am, only stopping when someone threatened to drive over them with a tractor. Needless to say everyone was a 'bit' disgruntled, short of sleep, and most likely on a short fuse; but in spite of this Sunday's diving went very well.