Cawsand is a small village across the bay from Plymouth, just across the border into Cornwall. The bay is well sheltered from prevailing winds and the bed is between 10m and 15m in depth, with some spots going down to 20m.
Date: Sunday 19th May 2013 Dive Number: 167
Place: Cawsand, Kernow Buddies: Dave and Linda
Time Down: 1200 Dive Time: 23:00
Time Up: 1230 Max Depth: 13.0m
Visibility: 5m Water Speed: 1.2kn
Weather: CAVOK Entry: Boat (Humber)
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A small contingent of Tiverton Divers; myself, Linda, Dave, David, Elizabeth and our cox; Captain "Dragged-Along-By-Linda-To-Drive-The-Boat" Mike Brice, met at our initial pre-trip rendez-vous (Andy's house). We drove down in a convoy to Plymouth where our boat "Humber" is being kept. Humber is a RHIB or RIB, which is an acronym for Rigid Hulled Inflatable Boat. In previous years we had a van which could carry half a dozen divers and equipment as well as towing the boat. Unfortunately the van has seen better days and needed a substantial degree of work required to keep it running, so the decision was made to keep the boat in Plymouth docks which would make weekly logistics easier at the expense of restricting our options for launching exclusively to Plymouth. At the moment we are all agreed there is enough variety of diving opportunities within reasonable distance of the docks to keep members keen!
Arriving at the docks Dave noted that Humber had been inexplicably moved - which was rather suspicious. The boat was all there and all in working order though, that is after a bit of a jump start from our portable battery. The tractor arrived almost immediately to take us to the slipway which was very efficient, but we weren't ready so reluctantly sent it away to come back later! For Linda and I it was the first dive of the year, our drysuits had become rather stiff in storage and the latex seals had turned plastic. We wrestled ourselves into our diving skins and loaded the boat trying not to forget vital pieces of diving equipment and waited for the tractor driver to return (he took his time, possibly as punishment for us making him wait!).
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We were soon motoring across the harbour, of which one of the more unusual sights was that of HMS Illustrious, one of the two aircraft carriers that the UK operates nowadays, which serve as helicopter carriers. We radioed the coastguard to let them know we were around, they took all our details including our planned dive depth and time which was quite a comprehensive approach! It took about twenty minutes to reach the dive site near Cawsand. David and Elizabeth were first buddy pair to go down, and after they had descended down their DSMB line Mike handed control of the Humber to me so I could get a bit of a refresher on my boat handling. The hydraulic steering was much harder than I remembered, otherwise I felt comfortable piloting our fine vessel and felt confident enough to pick up David and Elizabeth on ascent. The visibility was gradually declining as a weather front with thickening clouds and rain encroached from the east, but we were able to see Eddystone Lighthouse on the horizon. I handed control of Humber back to Mike, assisted the David and Elizabeth with de-kitting before we prepared to jump in the water for the next wave.
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Linda, Dave and I were a buddy triple. Dave and I each had 220bar in 12l cylinders, and Linda had 180bar in a 10l cylinder. Basing the 'rule of thirds' on Linda's supply meant that after 600l of air had been drunk on the first half of the dive we would turn around to return the way we came, hopefully surfacing with 60bar still in Linda's cylinder. Poor Linda had a complication where the drysuit inflate was not working and was half bumping half crawling along the bottom of the bay, she had to maintain propulsion to gain some degree of momentum which also will have increased her breathing rate. Nevertheless we had a good 23 minute dive. There were lots of starfish, Dave and Linda were having a 'mine is bigger than yours' competition, which Linda won after she pointed out an immense starfish which could well have been the mothership. Linda also picked up a rather suspect object, not dissimilar to a rather large "Type Three" on the Bristol Stool Chart. Apparently it was a sea cucumber, which was rather lucky I thought as it could well have been an enourmous human poo. It was good to dive again, to feel the icy cold water stinging the sides of our faces and feeling that friendly trickle of water into our drysuits. UK diving really is a hobby only done by a unique slice of our population, we are sort of eccentric masochists.
We ascended, reboarded, dekitted and bumbled back home, with a quick buzz around Illustrious which we imagined were eyeing up our approach and possibly considering warning shots to ward us off. The one man on the deck waved a friendly wave back at us, so I am pleased to say that tensions between TivSAC and the RN have now been eased slightly. We refuelled the boat and returned it via tractor to her original resting place. I had to rush off quite sharpish due to a domestic emergency where my son had run into the flipper of a fibreglass charity turtle in Plymouth Aquarium, so my family and I followed his hospital check-over it with a belated post-dive trip to Pizza Hut to make it all better again. Aside from that little drama it has been a brilliant day, and from my viewpoint a good start to the diving season!
Personal Accumulated Time Underwater: 3 days, 8 hours and 11 minutes
