By Justin Thyme
Over the last May bank holiday weekend, we headed down to Plymouth for a three-day trip. Despite the constraints of the weather, the group made the most of the weekend with some memorable dives, good company and plenty of post-dive cake!
Saturday: JEL/Scylla & the Breakwater Fort
We kicked off the trip with two charming bits of rusty history, with Yellow heading for the well-known Scylla and my boat, Blue, heading to the JEL.
Named after James Eagan Layne a second engineer in the US merchant navy, it was a Liberty ship – an ugly duckling of the sea. As ever, there was plenty of life, including wrasse, pollock and spider crabs.
A good start, but the weather wasn’t on our side and for the rest of the weekend, we couldn’t get outside the breakwater … which is where our second dive of the day ended up – always a good option when the weather’s closing in.
The wall had the usual characters — squat lobsters, nudibranchs, and curious tompot blennies peeking from crevices. And we were treated to meeting a few of the local dogfish/catfish/cardboard box. (Mr Thyme is here displaying his deep knowledge of marine biology.)
A curious tompot blennie
At the end of a busy day there was nothing left to do but head out for a quick pint at the Gipsy moth and to the Way Point Bistro for dinner.
Sunday: Cawsand Bay (Stretch & Silk’s Mark)
[As I didn’t dive the first dive, you’ll just have to insert your imagination here!]
The second dive was at ‘Silk’s Mark’ (named after our very own Nick Silk. Ed) This site featured a varied terrain, with large boulders providing plenty of hiding spots for marine life, and it was a personal favourite for the weekend.
Searching through the crevices, we found moray eels, lobsters, crabs and, for several divers, octopus aplenty.
Unfortunately, neither Mark nor I were lucky enough to even catch a glimpse!
An incurious octopus
Sunday’s dinner hit a Caribbean theme with a visit to Turtle Bay followed by a meat platter food coma. After dinner back to the Gypsy moth …
Pre-coma Clidivers
Monday: Duke’s Rock & Breakwater Fort/Wall
Monday’s conditions were even more restricted by the worsening weather. We managed to get out to Duke’s Rock for the first dive – a bit of a drift with the gentle current that ran alongside the thoroughfare into the harbour. The water was a bit murky, but the site still delivered some great diving. Plenty of sea anemones and small crustaceans made it a great macro dive.
For our final dive, we returned to the breakwater, diving either the fort or the wall depending on which boat we were on.
Cake highlights
Mark & Jon, our favourite cake chefs …. and Chris, our favourite cake eater!
As should be mandatory on all dive trips, the carrot cake went down a storm! It is always nice to share something sweet after a day in cold water, and the cake quickly disappeared over tea and debriefs.
Overall, despite the weather keeping us close to shore, it was a fantastic weekend of diving and marine life. We’re already looking forward to the next one!
The Breakwater Fort – always worth a dive!
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