We're Going To Need A Bigger Boat...

Date: Sunday 21st July 2013          Dive Number: 170
Place: Mewstone, Plymouth           Buddy: Steve G 
Time Down: 1130                           Dive Time: 01:03
Time Up: 1235                               Max Depth: 13.4m
Visibility: 4-5m                             Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F5-F6. Water 19C.       Entry: Boat (Tivvy Rebel)

I learnt something this weekend. Our boat is not called 'Humber' - that is the naem of the model which is glued to the bow The club name for the boat is Tivvy Rebel. We quickly sorted loaded the boat with twelve cylinders, six sets of kit and six divers... and despite the title of this post (a favourite quote of mine from Jaws, so it's staying) there was plenty of manoeuvrability on the boat. Steve

L to R, Steve, Andy and Dave. Photo by D.Dooley.

 took the helm and aimed towards the Persia. As soon as we got past the Breakwater it started to get rather choppy, with salty spray whipping our faces and making my contact lenses feel slightly crispy in my eyes. It started to become rather rough past Mewstone, so we made an about turn and powered back to the lee of the Mewstone where conditions were a little more settled. A handful of other dive boats had exactly the same idea. 

Andy and Dave; David and Elizabeth went on the first wave while Steve gave me control of the boat. After a few figures of eight in the slacker water I decided to try and save some petrol and cut the power for a little while, without consulting Steve. The moment I turned the key I regretted my decision, as we always have to start the engine with a spare battery. Steve looked rather concerned as we repeatedly tried the ignition, followed by a deafening lack of sound coming from the engine. We left it for a minute or so and tried again, and she just spluttered into life. That was a close one! Needless to say I left her ticking over when I decided to drift upstream of the divers. 

Mewstone (bbc.co.uk)

Both pairs ascended almost simultaneously, so we swiftly retrieved David and Elizabeth before catching up with Andy and Dave. David had took some clear pictures of sea fan, leopard spot fish and Mixycola. Andy was triumphantly clutching a speargun which he found on his dive, he plans to clean it up and get it working (hopefully not planning to aggravate George the Plymouth dolphin or any seals with it). Our turn came, we kitted up and spent over an hour navigating our way towards Mewstone. To be honest there was very little to see except for kelp and a couple of fish. I wanted to find some decent kit, or interesting bit of wreckage from something, but nothing turned up. The most interesting thing in my opinion was Mewstone, which we  reached at a depth of 1.3m. We had to turn around and swim back into deeper water so we could deploy my Delayed Surface Marker Buoy so the boat could find us and pick us up. At least we got wet.

Sea Fan. Photo by D. Dooley. 

Date: Sunday 21st July 2013            Dive Number: 171
Place: Plymouth Breakwater Fort Buddy: Steve G 
Time Down: 1600                           Dive Time: 00:23
Time Up: 1630                               Max Depth: 13.4m
Visibility: 1-2m                             Water Speed: 1kn
Weather: F3-F4. Water 18C.       Entry: Boat (Tivvy Rebel)

After a two hour surface interval at Fort Bovisand involving a toilet break, a bottle of water, a packet of ready salted crisps and a Snickers bar, we suddenly realised that it was half three in the afternoon. Each of us called our respective wives to warn them that we would be much later getting back than previously anticipated. Some of us got more stick than others, but thankfully I consider myself to have gotten off lightly! 

Fort Bovisand (panoramio.com)

We decided to stick to the lee of the breakwater where things were calmer and dive a single circuit around Plymouth Breakwater Fort to keep the dive nice and short. To shorten the length of time on the water further Andy and Dave volunteered to crew the boat and miss out on the second dive. Myself and Steve descended on an unassuming area of silt, I propped up a piece of scrap metal against the fort base to mark our arrival. We made our way anticlockwise around the fort, visibility was rather poor due to the silt. It was more interesting to explore though, looking at all the mangled iron and steel which had dropped off the old fort over time. We swam against a slight current on the first half of the circuit, and were rewarded for our efforts with a pleasant drift around the other side. I spied my piece of metal and a rusty ladder which was lying close by, and I signalled to Steve to ascend. We clambered aboard once more and a further 15 minutes went by before David and Elizabeth popped up and we motored back to port. 

Plymouth Breakwater Fort (worldseafishing.com)