On a Wednesday in the middle of July, twelve intrepid divers set out and made their way to Plymouth from London, Bristol and Chester (technically from London, but via Chester – bit of a detour if you ask me!).
Setting out for new waters (for most of us), we descended upon the southernmost bit of Devon. Planned by Becca & Rich (mostly Becca, let’s be honest!) it was a home coming for her, and she did her best to show off the town and the amazing underwater world that she called home for her university years!
Day 1
Starting off strong, with some good English weather, we left Plymouth on our chartered boat from In Deep to find two great sites: the Persier Wreck and Mewstone Ledges. A Belgian steamer, the SS Persier sunk in February 1945 when a torpedo struck her on her port side. Partially collapsed in parts, it does still have some big boilers, an engine block, steering gear, a rudder and gun port. None of which I saw because I swam in the wrong direction (I think). Ups. Still had a lovely time, and was very grateful for my Nitrox fill, giving us some extra time down there!
Our second site, the Mewstone Ledges, was the site of a serious competition: which buddy team could spot the most Octopuses? Becca and Rich took home the win, having seen five, with Nathan and Aidan even saving the life of one! Our very own octopus heroes! This win and such heroics had to be celebrated, so we took to the closest pub for some pints in the sun, had dinner on the hoe and went for a stroll to explore! |
Day 2
| Day 2 got off to a much better start, as we were greeted by the sun, as well as some Dolphins on our way to our dive sites! Allegedly, some people also saw a Mola Mola.. But since I didn’t see it, I’m not sure I believe them! They also don’t have any photo evidence.. So all in all, not really a credible claim! (Or so I tell myself, because I’m very upset I missed it!). We spent about an hour getting to our first dive site, during which time Rich informed me that the reason he chose this dive site is because someone caught a Mako shark there. Lovely. Not that I don’t love sharks, but the prospect of meeting the world’s fastest shark underwater doesn’t quite sound that appealing. I was somewhat assuaged that this wasn’t a regular occurrence after interrogating Rich further and finding out that this catch happened in 1971. Thanks Rich!! Seems like you left a key part of the information out of this story! Context is key! After this eventful journey, we finally arrived at the site of our first dive, the Eddystone Lighthouse. About 19km south of Plymouth Sound, the lighthouse offers diving from shallow kelp-covered gullies on the north side to rocky reefs on the south. It was a very beautiful dive site, only marred by the fact that my buddy, Lucie, claims she saw a Mola Mola underwater! For those of you counting, that’s two Mola Mola, neither of which I saw! And yes, she tried to show me.. But again, no evidence of said Mola Mola was produced… For our second dive of the day, we ventured over to Hand Deeps, a kelp-covered flat-topped pinnacle in the form of an upturned hand! There we found gullies, coves in the rock and extensive boulder plains with sea fans, wrasse, congers and more octopus. Becca, as my buddy for the dive being the amazing biologist she is, first found us an Octopus. It didn’t seem to be a huge fan of us though, swimming away as we spotted it. Diving along another two meters, Becca then spotted a massive Monkfish! A member of the angler fish family, this specimen was hiding under a large rock crevice and was just chilling! Being nice club members, we pointed him (or her!) out to Martin and Richard who happened to be coming by! We tried to point it out to Declan & Lucie as well, but they ignored us and kept diving! Rude! Post diving, the group couldn’t quite agree on what we should do for dinner, so some went for a curry, and the rest went for burgers (the clearly superior choice)! |
Day 3
| Day 3! Wreck day! Yay! We started the day with HMS Scylla, sunk in 2004 by the National Marine Aquarium in Plymouth as an artificial reef in Whitsand Bay, Cornwall as Europe’s first artificial diving reef. Home to many fish, sea fans and other marine friends, she’s a nice wreck to spend some time on and around! Our second dive of the day was the James Eagan Layne. And if you’re wondering why my description of the Scylla was so short, its because the James Eagan Layne surpassed the Scylla by one million miles, and my brain has focussed its storage capacity entirely on the second dive of the day. This dive was easily in the Top 5 of dives I’ve ever done! Built in World War II as a Liberty ship, she was beached in 1945 after being hit by a torpedo off the Eddystone rock by German U-Boot Kapitänleutnant Ernst Cordes. No relation to me. I think. Confirming with the family! Anyways! The James Eagan Layne is a beautiful wreck that has lost a lot of its hull-plating, leading to a very atmospheric dive through the wreckage. It’s really hard to describe, but the light streaming in through the beams made for a very special dive. A must dive for any visit to Plymouth! After returning from our great dives, Rich & Becca suggested a visit to the National Marine Aquarium (for those of us who hadn’t seen enough fish yet!), and dinner at Rockfish (for those of us who still hadn’t seen enough fish!). |
Day 4
| Picture this… We get to Day 4 of diving, and some people for some inexplicable reason don’t want to dive anymore!! Unheard of! Why, you ask? They wanted to go golfing instead!! Unbelievable, I know! Despite some heavy losses, those of us made of heartier stock persevered and pushed onwards with the diving! It had rained overnight, and was quite windy, making conditions a little more challenging. Our first dive site Pier Cellars, a reef site that we were told was Octopus City. As a group of three, Richard, Rich and I dropped down to 10M to find all of the Octopus we were promised… Only to surface 4 minutes and 29 seconds later, having only seen each other. We found the bottom by landing on it. Visibility was, at best, half a meter. As the buddy group to surface first, we clearly won the race for the shortest dive, with Nathan & Justin taking the longest with a whole 13 minutes. You’ll get there next time! Our eighth and final dive was at Breakwater Fort, a sea fort located inside the Plymouth Breakwater, constructed between the 1860s and 1880s for defence against the French navy. Sheltered from the elements, we all had a much longer dive, with Richard, Rich and I coming up at exactly 60 minutes and 24 seconds. Well within the 60 minute limit the skipper gave us! We saw a few lobsters, conga eel, nudies and a flat fish in a crack! Overall, a lovely dive and a great end to this trip to Plymouth! |
The End!
The group! Minus me… who was suspiciously cut out of this photo by the skipper! I promise I was there!
A huge thank you to Becca (& Rich) for organising this trip, a huge thank you to Declan for the underwater photography, and a massive thank you to Justin for producing the video recapping this trip (you can see it on the club Instagram @londondivers)! Looking forward to more Plymouth trips in the coming years, maybe even with actual Mola Mola sightings!