Okay, so this entry is backdated a few months, but this was my first dive with TivSAC and my only dive in 2012. However, it does deserve an entry for two reasons: number one, it was a good dive; number two, it bulks out the blog a bit.
Date: Sunday 9th September 2012 Dive Number: 166
Place: Babbacombe Bay near Torquay Buddy: Steve Gooding
Time Down: 1030 Dive Time: 60:00
Time Up: 1130 Max Depth: 8.5m
Visibility: 5m Water Speed: 1.2kn
Weather: 5000M BR SCT001 Entry: Shore
The last place I dived was Lundy Island in 2010 with some university alumni and after all the problems I was having with leaking drysuits and an aching back, I was in two minds whether to carry on or not. So I had been out of the game for a little over two years, and I decided to launch myself into club life once more with my local club. After all, I was experienced, qualified and had spent a fortune on kit in the past. It would be a shame to waste it all!
I spend several hours checking my equipment over, re-reading some of the diving books I had and going over all the notes I had made in the many theory lessons that I had. I was a little nervous about it, so I asked Steve for a nice gentle dive. No wrecks at 45m for instance. Steve, the dive manager for this particular trip, agreed that a nice sheltered shore dive would ease me back in, which I was more than happy with.
We drove down at a civilised time in the morning, 9am (divers usually find themselves getting up before sunrise to get a good spot, at least they are my frequent memories) and the carpark was only just starting to fill with day-trippers. We casually kitted up, my undersuit and drysuit must have shrunk in the past two years as I struggled to fit in them! I suuspect my cylinder and weightbelt must have also gained weight as well... I managed to remember the B.A.R (Buoyancy, Air, Releases) Buddy check routine, one of the subjects I had revised the evening before! We yomped over the rocks to the entry point, which required scramble over due to the tide level and general orography of the site. By the time I managed to heave myself into the water is was sweating buckets and gasping for breath. Steve watching me all the while, silently chuckling to himself. Once the chilly water was supporting me and took the weight off my equipment I had cooled down sufficiently to be able to gather myself and look like a competent diver ready to sink.
We signalled a thumbs down for descent. The sea bed appeared three meters down like an old familiar friend, rocks riddled with anemone, coral, seaweed and dead crabs. Paradise rediscovered. Steve obviously knew the area well, as seemingly without a visual reference point or compass he signalled 'That Way' and off we finned. We observed several cuttlefish on the way past the submerged South Devon flora. We think there were six, but it could have been the same pair of cuttlefish swimming around us. We swam for about half an hour in Steve's direction before deciding time was getting on and our air supply was getting to the end of the first 'third'.
We saw much of the same on the way back, seaweed, rocks, limpets and cuttlefish. Towards the end of the dive we found a mass graveyard of spidercrabs at the base of the breakwater/pier. It was just after this that Steve signalled 'thumbs up' to surface, and finding ourselves in the middle of the bay. I thought Steve had planned this all along as we could easily return up the shelving shore, but Steve had got a little lost on the way back to the original entry point!
We hauled ourselves back up the beach and up into the carpark to debrief. I had had a great dive and was happy to have gotten wet once more. Not long after the debrief Steve went to get us a lovely cup of tea from the nearby cafe while I was distracted by Babbacombe's resident seal, which was in the bay snuffling towards a dog called Johnson barking at it from the pier edge.
On balance, I would say it was the best day's dive I had had all year.
Personal Accumulated Time Underwater: 3 Days, 7 Hours, 49 Minutes.
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