Friday morning with the boats been launched the night before we set off for the the first dive of the day. I believe the choice was either the Scylla or the James Egan Layne. No one opted for the JEL thus we went off looking for the Scylla. We really must remember next year that this wreck is situated on the cardinal buoys. I dived this with Alice and when I first went down, I thought we might have been on the JEL as the life on it was now getting quite profuse. The vis wasn’t the best I’d seen, the has been a lot of complaints about dredging and dumping in Cawsand Beach. It is easy to see why and I felt the delicate life here was being suffocated. A swift return to base, off load the cylinders and run them round in a DaveG trolley (I’m sure he made bogey carts as nipper!) we then headed off to the Mewstones. This dive sure made up for the morning. I again dived with Alice and we had a spectacular dive. It was one of those dives where you start out thinking – just where has the cox’n dropped me! 26m and a sandy bottom but as we progressed, we saw chimney sponges poking their heads out of the sediment as sand eels danced above, glistening in our torch light. Heading north we happened upon the reef which mimicked the Mewstone itself. As someone once said, look at the topography above the water and thus it will be reproduced below. A low lying reef with shallow gulleys was home to cuckoo wrasse sea fans, cup corals, and large yellow sponges, cliona celata.
Saturday we traipsed over to Hisea Point. This is probably my favourite spot and I opted to extend my dive by using nitrox. Plenty of seafans which gently bent in the current. Finger sponges pointed to the surface, I found a charming bunch of yellow cluster anemones which I managed to film before my camera packed up then just as we rested a while taking in the splendour, a fine cuttle fish came into view. He hung around for a while before doing that weird colour changing thing that only decapods know how to do and scooted off. A sight to behold! Rock cook shoaled mingling with the cuckoo wrasse producing a vibrant curtain of electric blue and jaffa orange. Even on nitrox, no stop time looms quickly and thus it was time to re-board the boat. Afternoon dive was a return visit to Mewstones. I dived with Nick who did his ‘hide from the dive leader’ trick that has us DLs in stitches everytime. A quick 360 and we were reunited. The spot we’d chosen was rather different from yesterday, a little less prolific and we were carried out away from the reef towards France. We continued to drift over pebbles and cobbles. The odd cerianthus anemone and cat shark held our interest until we spied the largest red gurnard ever! Must have been all of 12 – 15” long. Again we were foiled by no stop time. The vis here is marvelous but to get below the kelp line, we had to venture to depths in excess of 20m thus limiting our dives.
Sunday was the big day for the rufty-tufty divers amongst us. The Drop Off! This had been sited the day before after an initial recce by Ernie and Lesley, but today was the day the majority of us we going to dive it. A plateau at 28m, densely populated with pink sea fans preceded an intensely covered wall. Several pairs swam through a massive shoal of bib and the light was fantastic even at 30+m. Colours, shapes and textures were beyond he wildest dreams but once again no stop time hastened the dives. The afternoon saw us head off the other side of the breakwater to Penlee Point. This was a dive I was not looking forward to. I’d done it several times and had experienced poor vis with little to see. However, a dive’s a dive and DaveG and I kitted up. As it turns out, the dive was lovely. We found ourselves in the nursery ground for spotted gobies. A host of small fry clouded the waters, sand mason worms branched out of the gravel, fine bispira voluptacornis posed like flowers in a vase and I saw vivid colours I’d never seen before in the sunstar squirt, botrylus schlosseri . I also found, what I believed to be a lead fishing weight, neatly fashioned into a sort of, well as I come to describe it, torpedo shape. Ariel would like that for his lead collection, I thought as I loaded it into the cargo pocket on my leg. First thing DG said to me on surfacing was ‘collecting live ammunition eh?’ A couple of conversations with ex swabbies Ernie and Steve convinced me that the thing was going to blow my leg off along with the RIB and thus, much to their chagrin, I chucked it back to sea. Well it would have gone into JohnM’s melting pot and as they have just changed their carpets, I don’t think I would want that on my conscious!
Monday, our last day on the RIB we ventured further along the coast to Stoke Point where we all experienced a gentle surge. All found this rather pleasant as the current rocked us first backwards then forwards to recap on what we missed! After a brief trip ashore for lunch and the vain attempt to find somewhere private for, well nature calls! The afternoon dive was somewhat challenging! East Rutts, a pinnacle back towards Hilsea Point which we didn’t quite get on slack water! Steve did his utmost to control the SMB but it pulled us one direction then another, neither of which we wanted to go! After 24 minutes we decided to call it a day – we’d had a lovely dive in the morning and still had the hard boat tomorrow – why ruin it? Made our way back to shore via Bovisand to get cylinders filled – did I say that Discovery Divers compressor went down yesterday – probably the busiest day of the year!
Final day – hard boat diving with Glynn on the Maid Maggie 2. The weather looked good so we it was ideal to do Eddistone Lighthouse. A gentle crossing in bright sunlight brought us to our site. I dived with Lesley who expertly navigated us to the wall. We had worked hard this weekend and this was our reward. Vis was in excess of 15m – clear waters and light down to at least 30m. Jewel anemones covered the walls, seafans adorned various pockets and as always, cuckoo wrasse followed us everywhere with the odd pollack darting in and out! Once again, no stop time limited our dives and we found ourselves on the lift getting back into the boat. Did I mention that the boat had a lift rather than a ladder – this is hard boat diving in style! Quick lunch then we headed off towards Hands Deep. Steve had been waiting several years to get here but had so far been thwarted by the weather. Hands Deep is a kelp covered pinnacle with fingers jutting out forming a magnificent structure around which to gently meander. I dived with Paul and it was good to see his confidence growing as he looked at home in the sea. Once again we ran out of no stop time and it was time to surface, finishing good and early in time to get ready for the last night out.
A thoroughly enjoyable trip with excellent diving and the best buddies! Banter was light hearted as our welfare officer took it in good humour to issue us with red and yellow cards when the conversation got a tad risqué! Same again next year?
Wendy Northway
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