Day – 1 Friday
As usual, an early morning start with the 4-hour drive to Devon, laden with kit. We quickly grasped that the roads on the south coast were not so friendly to a small convoy of cars as we got to our first site, minus a bit of paint. It was about midday when we arrived at Hallsands, and the first wave (Thomas and Chris) went to the water with much haste to avoid boiling in the fearsome British sunshine. This beach was relatively shallow (~4m) but had lots of life in the form of great forests of kelp and a great deal of spider crabs. There was also one cat shark sighting, no 5ft lobster sadly. Between dives there was ample entertainment provided by the newest addition to our equipment load, a shovel. Some members didn’t share the enthusiasm about this great entertainment, but we can’t all be perfect. This day ended with another precarious trip back to our accommodation where we all enjoyed a well-deserved spoons trip.
Day – 2 Saturday
Waking up bright and early we set off to our second site at 8:00am. Immediately tragedy struck. Erin decided to destroy one of Glue Boyz’s finest glue jobs and ripped a neck seal clean in two “on accident”. After much umming and ahhing it was decided that she would use my drysuit after my dives. Our first dive was to Thurlestone rock, which consisted of a long surface swim out followed by an interesting look at the gulleys formed in the natural rock formations and a mild swell.
The second dive of the day was a quest to find the wreck of the SS Louis Shied which was supposedly to be found here. Thomas and I set out at 13:30 on the first wave again to find and shot the wreck if we can. After a long surface swim (too long it would later turn out) we descended onto an endless sandy plain to try and find the wreck. After 20 minutes of yellow we gave up and ascended to swim back. By sheer dumb luck, on the way back we happened to cross over a darker patch of water. Thomas popped down to check it out and landed bang on the boiler (much to my dismay and irritation). After leaving a DSMB attached to show the location we swam back and told the next wave, who then had a lovely wreck dive from the footage we saw (not upset). After the next wave went in Thomas and I quickly dashed away to make it on time to our organised fills in Teignmouth.
Later that evening at 20:00 we went to Meadfoot beach in Torquay for the trip’s night dive. Entry here could be difficult in the dark due the numerous slippery rocks and the waves, but the visibility was decent and there was lots of life. Thomas, Erin and Hrisyan even saw a catshark and a cuttlefish! After this we all headed home for a good rest.
Day – 3 Sunday
Sunday brought with it poor weather for most of our sites. This left the only diveable site to be Meadfoot beach, the same as our night dive. Here many members decided to not go in and preferred to bask in the sun and play with rocks instead. Hrisyan and Thomas, on the other hand, braved the sea and went for a short dive in the shallows. Whilst exiting the water Thomas discovered a new leak in his drysuit which, in his opinion, should have stayed undiscovered. After a quick ice cream it was decided that we would all head home early instead of waiting around when we couldn’t dive. And with that we went back to the thrilling 4 hour drive back up to Coventry and arrived back at the kitroom for 16:00.
Leave a Reply