Babbacombe

Date: Sunday 11th August            Dive Number: 176
Place: Babbacombe, Torquay       Buddy: Jade K, Elliott N 
Time Down: 1130                         Dive Time: 00:32 + 00:10
Time Up: 1215                               Max Depth: 8.8m
Visibility: 0-1m                             Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F3 BKN015 W18C         Entry: Pier steps

1townhouses.co.uk

Dave and Adrian managed to get away for a club dive relatively early on, and visibility was good to the south of the pier. We ourselves eventually got kitted up after a lot of mucking about with cylinder fills! There was a wedding on at the hotel which also choked up the car park, and Elliott was getting rather hot in his semi-dry. It was Elliott's first ever sea dive and Jade's final Ocean Diver lesson - leading the dive. I constructed a plan that would fulfil both OO1 and OO5 requirements, getting Elliott to do some simple drills at shallow depth before Jade lead the dive to a greater depth.

After letting my wife (dive marshal, keeper of the diveslate) Jen know our air and time in, the fishers on the pier know we would be swimming around the base of the pier before descending, we entered via the steps where I felt the biggest leak in my drysuit I have ever had. Becky on surface support checked my drysuit zip but it appeared fine. I thought my dump valve was letting it in, but it seemed to taper off within a few minutes so I thought no more about it.

We circumnavigated the pier avoiding all the fishers and descended to the base, a depth of around 2m. Elliott did a good fin pivot, it seemed he had the correct weights at the time. Jade then buddied with Elliott and lead the dive with myself behind, with the intention of using the rock wall as a navigation aid, but the silt had been stirred up rather rotten and at times all I could see were the end of Jade and Elliott's fins. I was keeping an eye on our direction with my compass, which Jade did not have or anticipate needing. Jade turned round and signalled to surface so we could get a look at where we were. We were a far way off the wall and about 150m away from the pier. We gained our bearings again and started to go down again but Elliott had problems equalising (popping his ears). We surface swam back to the pier where I suggested we complete Elliott's mask clear drills but he was uncomfortable, so asked if he could get out. This was no problem and probably a good idea, as noone should dive if they are uncertain or uncomfortable, as this could lead to major incidents.

Becky helped Elliott back to the car park while Jade lead the dive back from the pier to the shore, which gave her more of an opportunity in clearer water to check my air, check I was okay and generally navigate to the shore which was successful  At chest depth we did a low-air buoyancy check which was fine, and finally Jade jettisoned her weightbelt to complete the lesson. 

Date: Sunday 11th August            Dive Number: 177
Place: Babbacombe, Torquay       Buddy: Becky H, David C
Time Down: 1515                         Dive Time: 00:31
Time Up: 1600                               Max Depth: 4.3m
Visibility: 2-3m                             Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F3 SCT020 W18C         Entry: Shelving shore

The second wave was later getting away than planned but it was mid afternoon and noone seemed too rushed. My wife had to take the boys home so Jade looked after the dive slate. We planned the same lesson, but the tide was a lot lower, almost at low tide, and the best bet at any visibility was in the bay where Jade and I found it to be a lot clearer previously.

geograph,org.uk

Elliott kindly lent me his semi-drysuit (I have never worn one until today!) which I managed to squeeeeeeze into as my drysuit was incapable of being a dry suit. We stumbled over rocks and boulders to get to the water's edge to the amusement of everyone watching from the beach and cafe! We did buddy checks and Becky have a good brief to David as part of her exercise. The plan was to use her brand new compass to navigate in a straight line out of the bay, turn round after 70 bar (one third) of our air had been used and come back on the reciprocal bearing. 

It was difficult putting fins on in such shallow water so we instead put helped each other on with fins slightly further out. The seaweed was a nuisance as well. We didn't get a very inspirational depth but it was sufficient to stay underwater. David was on the light side of neutrally buoyant when doing the fin pivots, but otherwise seemed comfortable in the water. Becky did a good job leading the dive, checking David's air and that he was 'okay', but found the compass a challenge. This didn't impede on the lesson (aside from ending up at the same dead end twice!) as she took assertive corrective action when she realised the error, and directed David accordingly. Becky signalled that David had finished his first third of air and lead us on the reciprocal bearing back to the shore. Visibility was slightly better, but not as good as earlier. Certainly not the most inspiring dive where marine biology was concerned, I saw a few dead crabs but nothing else of interest! Towards the end of the dive the partial-flood mask clear drill was carried out, Becky maintained a mid water hover on low air at 2m depth, and finally when they were chest deep they both jettisoned their weightbelts. I picked up both weightbelts and unfortunately this caused my compass to slip off into the silty seaweedy tidal waters. I hope someone finds it and has many an enjoyable and memorable dive navigating with my compass! 

The best moment of the day however was watching an overloaded motorhome trying and failing to leave the steep sharp bend on the hill out of the carpark!

shoredive.co.uk

Porthkerris

Tiverton Diving Club On Tour! Porthkerris Divers are a well establised diving operation situated on the Cornwall's Lizard peninsula. Andy organised a weekend away to sample the diving scene, an overnight stay at St Keverne Campsite was essential, otherwise it was over a two hour drive back to Tiverton!  

We weren't "lucky" with the weather, but thanks to being east facing and protected from prevailing winds by a sheer cliff, we got away with most of our planned dives!

Date: Saturday 3rd August          Dive Number: 172
Place: Vase (Manacles)               Buddy: Chris B 
Time Down: 1230                         Dive Time: 00:29
Time Up: 1301                               Max Depth: 30.5m
Visibility: 8-10m                            Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 SCT030TCU W14C   Entry: Boat Celtic Kitten

Our first dive was a hardboat dive. There are two hardboats that run out of Porthkerris, Celtic Cat and Celtic Kitten, the latter was the boat we were booked on. The boat has a front door like a RORO ferry and fronts onto the stony beach, so divers can simply walk on like it's a landing craft - the benifit of this is so that we don't need to kit up on the boat as the deck itself was quite small. Chris and I were uncharacteristically slow at kitting up, so ended up carrying some kit onto the boat and trying to untangle our hoses in front of a group of bemused looking divers from another club! We soon sat down with everyone else and enjoyed the moderately choppy ride out to the site. Dave, the skipper, was a really chilled out guy - most chilled out skipper I've ever seen! He made everything seem so smooth and easy, which put all the divers at ease. Even when Chris' cylinder slipped through the strap prior to entry, he just laughed, pulled him back, set it straight, slapped him on the back and all was well again. Some that I've encountered in the past would have held a grudge against something like that for the whole weekend! 

porthkerris.com

"The Vase is a very pretty, colourful reef dive. It is part of the Manacles and is a rock that is wedding cake shaped with three tiers at varying depths. The rocks are covered in kelp, sea fans and sponges and beautiful jewel anemones of all colours imaginable, coating the granite on the north-east corner of Vase Rock. There are sandy gullies and coves within the rocks that provide shelter from the current and are home to numerous sea urchins, starfish, crabs, pollack and wrasse. The current here can be exceptionally strong, especially on springs when it is only possible to dive on slack". Porthkerris.com

Once on the shotline we descended to a depth of around 20m on the Vase and headed north towards deeper water. Chris and I had previously agreed not to exceed a maximum depth of 35m, so we planned decompression stops from the BSAC '88 Tables, 1 minute at 9m and 3 minutes at 6m. At a depth of 30m we still had some depth ahead of us but we decided to ascend up the profile again for the sake of our air consumption. It was quite light at 30m, rather misleading as it usually gets dark at that depth in the UK. The Vase of course was very colourful, with sponges, fan coral and several fish, including one big pollack and a huge lobster which Chris saw, but didn't tell me! We found a pinnacle which plateau'd at 6m so our final deco stop and DSMB deployment were made easy for us.

One of the best things about Celtic Kitten is the lift. It's so easy to just stand on it underwater after a dive and then Dave winds it up so we can simply walk back onto the deck. Too easy!

Date: Saturday 3rd August          Dive Number: 173
Place: Porthkerris Bay                 Buddy: Chris B, Keith S 
Time Down: 1500                         Dive Time: 00:25
Time Up: 1530                               Max Depth: 14.9m
Visibility: 4-5m                             Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 BKN015 W13C        Entry: Shelving Shore

After a decent surface interval back on shore we prepared for our second dive of the day - Chris' final Dive Leader open water training lesson. The drill consisted of

• Controlled Buoyant Lift (CBL) of a non breathing casualty from 15m
• Tow casualty on the surface for 50m
• Exploratory dive

We summoned Keith to join us on the dive so he could act as the casualty, which would work better from my perspective of monitoring the skill. We needed a depth of 15m, and much of the bay was only 8-10m. We needed to go around the other side of these rocks.

porthkerris.com

This required a moderate surface swim which gave me cramp more than once and further flooding in my drysuit which I have found to occur more when I'm on my back. We reached the far side of the rocks and descended to find a clear patch of sand at a depth of 15m, ideal for the initial casualty set up. The first CBL was too fast and it took a while for me to catch them up on the surface. Everyone was okay though, apparently there was also confusion as to the last 6m whether they held on or separated, and who was and wasn't inflated. While we were on the surface I made Chris do the 50m tow which really did seem to tire him out. We dropped down again to catch our breath before retrying the CBL, this time arresting the asecnt at 6m and then immediately descending without surfacing. There was no way we were going to do a third run as multiple ascents can be detrimental to our biology. Fortunately Chris did really well on the second ascent and made haste without speed, hitting 6m before immediately descending again. Finally, Chris navigated and explored our way back to the beach, reaching it spot on to where we wanted. At three meters depth as we were swimming up the final shelf, Chris bent down, took his fins off and attempted to 'walk' up the beach. He really had to lean forward to maintain any sort of propulsion and made it look rather difficult. Impressive, funny, but not really appropriate if he was leading the dive, or even looking after his buddy should anything happen to them. All we need to do now is to get him to do simulated rescue breaths and compressions on a dummy. Maybe Keith will be available again... 

Back at the campsite, Andy and Sue sorted everyone out with a slap-up barbeque dinner. It was a little cold considering it was August, but it's truly the only way to relax after a hard day's diving!

Date: Sunday 4th August             Dive Number: 174
Place: Volnay (wreck)                 Buddy: Steve G, Keith S 
Time Down: 1200                         Dive Time: 00:43
Time Up: 1243                               Max Depth: 19.5m
Visibility: 4-5m                            Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 OVC002 W14C       Entry: Boat Celtic Kitten

We didn't know if we would even be diving at all today as we had such bad weather overnight and it was so windy at the campsite. We underestimated the degree of shelter the site had though, and when I asked Jo at the front desk if the hardboats were still going out she looked in comic disbelief and exclaimed, "hell, yeah!" 

"Homeward from Canada with luxury goods and ammunition, [Volnay] detonated a contact mine on 14th December 1917 off the Manacles, and was bought into Porthallow bay and anchored a quarter of a mile off Porthkerris beach, where she sank in 21 metres onto a sandy bottom. It is a non-tidal, nice and easy wreck to dive. Although the wreck is well broken up, there are still some very large pieces, but the whole site is covered in a fine layer of silty sand and you must be careful not to stir things up.  You may find some shell cases, lead balls or cordite if you’re lucky". Porthkerris.com

We were back on the Celtic Kitten for this dive and also joined by the same club as yesterday. Dave explained all about the wreck and suggested, as the Celtic Cat had already dropped divers off, that we go north rather than south, where the other divers had probably gone to stir up the silt! Didn't find any treasure though. Found a shoe, but it looked new, so left it to grow some barnacles for next time.

Date: Sunday 4th August            Dive Number: 175
Place: Porthkerris Bay               Buddy: Toby & Kate 
Time Down: 1430                         Dive Time: 00:31
Time Up: 1501                               Max Depth: 8.2m
Visibility: 2-4m                            Water Speed: 0kn
Weather: F4 OVC002 W14C      Entry: Shelving Shore

Final dive of the trip, and after a chicken baguette, a cup of tea, fig roll and two hours surface interval we were ready once more. I took Toby on his final Ocean Diver open water lesson. Drills included

• SEEDS Brief 
• Lead the dive between 12-20m
• Mid water hover on low air
• Weightbelt jettison

Kate, Toby's partner also came along on the dive as Toby's dive buddy, and I would swim along behind and monitor his dive leading. Toby gave a good brief and I was very impressed that he reviewed and reconsidered his original decision to enter via the smaller entrance where swell was being amplified up the shore and took the safer entrance, even though it meant a longer surface swim to where he wanted to go. He was also keen to practise compass navigation, which wasn't necessary but very useful for the exercise.

Toby's conduct in leading the dive was outstanding. He regularly checked Kate's (and my) air - even if it was every ten bar at least he was mindful of it. Assessing the length of time to leave between asking again comes with experience. He was also good at checking the 'ok' sign with Kate and myself as well. Toby successfully used the compass to navigate north through the gully to the left of the bay, and after the first 'third' of air supply then took a reciprocal bearing as he planned in his brief for the second third, leaving a third left in the cylinder as reserve. We reached the final shelf leading up to the beach where Toby demonstrated he could execute a mid water hover whilst low on air, and then I got him to sit down on the stones at 1.5m depth, where he jettisoned his weightbelt and safely bobbed up on the surface. 

We then walked up to the kit washing station and debriefed while spraying each other with cool fresh water, after a salty weekend it felt so good! I was able to sign off OS5 in Toby's book, he has a few more to get signatures for but otherwise I look forward to seeing him and Kate in Sports diver lessons very soon!

porthkerris.com

Total accumulated time underwater: 3 Days, 14 hours, 39 minutes