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)

Cawsand, Cornwall

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)

(c) Google

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!).

flikr.com

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.

lighthouse-news.com

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