August Bank Holiday In Plymouth
29 August 2005
Trip report by Tristan Hassan
First published in London Diver, November 2005
Morgan, Tobias, Keith, Richard, Mathew, Hannah and I met up on a beautiful and sunny Saturday morning last August bank holiday, after a good night’s sleep at the Mountbatten Centre. After a hearty full English breakfast (including a cherry tomato) we headed down to met the skipper from Deep Blue Diving. Due to past events including a certain Land Rover we would be using Deep Blue Diving’s RIB and after a quick-debrief we were flying across the water to our first dive for the day. The first dive was very special, especially for Hannah and me, as it was our first ever in English waters (I hadn’t ever dipped my toe in the English Channel let alone dive in it!).
Apart from being my first ever UK dive it was also my first time dive off a rib, and before I knew it we were gently sinking into the deep abyss. When we finally got to the bottom I was amazed at how clear the visibility was, a lot better than I ever expected, but more importantly how much life there was. I think a lot of this praise has to be given to my dive buddy Keith who looked under every rock and crevasse to find more and more interesting things to see including my first ever Cuttlefish.
When the dive had finished and we were all safely back on the boat I found out (to Keith’s amusement) that the big junk of debris on the bottom was in fact the Glen Strath Allen and apart from being my first rib and UK dive was also my first ever wreck dive too!
After lunch, I was eager to get back out there and before I know it, we were again skimming across the water to Hilsea Point.
If I thought the first dive was good then this was 10 times better, a lot of this praise has to go to the skipper from Deep Blue diving who dropped us right on the point. Again, I was teamed up with Keith and had an enjoyable dive swimming in and out of the gullies.
That evening we ventured across to Plymouth Old Town and headed to the infamous Platters. After enjoying the biggest portion of fish and chips EVER while trying not to stare too long at the guy in the doggy wig, it was time to head back for a last minute beverage before getting a good night sleep for tomorrows dives.
If there was some confusion over the Glen Strath Allen being classed as a wreck dive then the same could not be said for the James Eagan Lane, know as being the most dived wreck in the UK. Now this is what I call a wreck! Budding up with Tobias we delved in and out and even saw my first John Dowry. What a fantastic dive!
After lunch, and with everyone back on the rib about to head off for the second dive of the day Tobias’s dry suit zip broke and unfortunately he was unable to dive. This bit of bad luck was unfortunately going to continue, while I was diving I appeared to have a leak from my first stage, much to Matthew’s distress. This meant that the dive was made a lot shorter than my poor dive buddy Keith and I wanted.
Back on dry land the leaked didn’t appear as severe as it must of looked underwater and just involved tightening up my hose pipes so luckily (unlike Tobias) I was able to dive tomorrow.
That evening we again ventured to Plymouth Old Town and after negotiating our way through the hordes enjoying the sunny evening weather found ourselves a place to eat.
The next morning was very different and unlike before where we had had bright sunny weather we instead woke to very thick looking fog. I guess I can’t complain too much as the weather and conditions had been perfect up until now, still this wasn’t going to put us off as everyone (especially me) was excited as we were going to dive the Scylla today!
Now my knowledge of UK diving is pretty poor at the best of times, but even I had heard of the Syclla, which was sunk about three years ago to become a natural reef. Having heard many stories about this dive, one being how popular it is with divers / boats everywhere, it was to everyone’s joy we turned out to be one of the few boats there. Budding up with Morgan we stayed mainly around the first and second floor decks swimming in and out of the cabins, and holes that had been cut specially for divers.
I have to admit that I didn’t enjoy the dive as much as the James Eagan Lane which apart from being a much older ship had more aquatic life on and around it. Still the Scylla had only been sunk recently and in places was already looking to provide its objective of becoming a natural reef. Upon surfacing it became apparent, to the delight of the skipper, eagle eyed Keith made the first ever sighting of a conger eel to make its residence on the Scylla!
The last dive of a very successful trip was back to Hilsea Point. Budding up with Morgan again we had a nice dive in and around the gullies, but it appeared to be Richard and Matthew that had the final find of the trip by stumbling onto a small cave, again much to the joy of our skipper who had been looking for this cave for ages!!
On reflection, I can’t thank Tobias, Keith, Morgan, Matthew, Tom, Hannah and Deep Blue Diving enough for making my first ever UK dive trip a most enjoyable and unforgettable one. I honestly had no idea that there was so much life, colour (and debris) right on my door step and honestly saw more interesting and wonderful things on those 3 days than I ever did in six months diving in Turkey! I’m afraid that I’ve got the diving bug now and can’t wait for my next trip with BSAC No.1.
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