Exmouth, Devon. 22nd and 23rd July 2006. Dive Trip Report

Luke's trip report

Summary - we went diving. It was great. Thanks to Steve for organising it!

In slightly more detail...

People on the trip

It was the weekend of the 22nd of July and I hadn't been diving for a whole week! Naturally, I was very keen to get back into the water and, fortunately, had the opportunity as Steve A had organised a much-anticipated trip to Exmouth, diving from a hardboat! With one cancellation, we had 9 people going - Steve A, Simon, Sam, Sinead, Sollie, Sluke, Slou, Sjen (she must be Scandinavian) and Schris P. A couple of us had rented cars for the weekend (only £12 per day for a tiny little thing) and so we all met at the hut to pick up kit. All of us, that is, apart from Chris, Jen, Oli and Steve A, who were either not heading down or had already left (in the hope of getting some sleep to recover from Jetlag - oh, it's a hard life!). Actually, not that many of us met at the hut, but we got kit anyway. Since we were expecting to need some air in the cylinders and there wasn't any, we had to get fills too - Simon and I took a couple of hundred cylinders (okay, 6) to be filled down in Exmouth while the girls got theirs from the Oxford Dive Centre (only because they needed a couple of extra hours to pack and Jurassic Coast Diving would be closed by then!). We all arrived safe and sound (pretty much) in Exmouth and found the campsite. Nice and warm at this point. We headed to the local pub for a swift pint (we only had one, honest!) and then went to sleep in anticipation of an early start the next morning!

Saturday

Ropes off was going to be at some ridiculous time like 8.30 (or even earlier - I don't remember and I can't read a clock before about 9 without the help of caffeine...). Next morning, we dragged ourselves up and headed to the jetty where the boat was moored. After gazing in wonder at our fantastic looking boat (Wave Chieftain III) (lift, nice big lounge area, nice and modern...) we realised that we were actually on the old fishing boat next to it (Wave Chieftain). Never mind...

Bretagne

All kit on board and then off to the first dive site - the Bretagne. This was a boat that sank some time in the past - I can't remember anything else but I'll put all kinds of exciting information at the end of this report (so that you don't have to read it if you've fallen asleep by then...). Straight down the shotline to the wreck and we find a rather nice, relatively intact boat. She went down after being struck by another ship (I think) and so there's a deep cleft in one side. Sea bed was about 30m(ish) and it was a bit chilly down there (colder than Weymouth!) but the boat was really interesting and there was loads of life on it - lots of Tompot Blennies, congers, crabs, something Chris informed me was a Topknot (some kind of flat fish...) and lots of other assorted fish life. No incidents, no lost kit and a good dive for everyone! Back on the boat (up a ladder with a twinset, stage, torch...why couldn't we have the one with the lift?) we had some kind of food and a continuous supply of hot drinks from the skipper who was a walking canvas - there wasn't much of him that we could see that wasn't tattooed and I certainly wasn't going to ask him about the bits we couldn't see!

Start point - drift

Second dive was a drift over something we were told was called Start Point and this turned out to be fantastic. We collected a large amount of food (scallops, crabs and a big Plaice, 'caught' by Simon (let's just say it had a big knife shaped hole in it!) and saw things including dogfish (must have seen about half a dozen), cuttlefish (2) and a pipefish. Since we had such an early start, we were back on dock well before 3 p.m.! We sent some off towards the supermarket for food, took the cylinders to be filled and then went back to the campsite to start preparing food. Several hours were spent shelling scallops, gutting the fish (useful how to fillet plaice! guide) and trying to find a big enough pan for the monster crab we caught! Simon and I went to play with the kites on the beach and then went to pick up the cylinders. There was then an 'incident' involving one of the cylinders getting a bit empty on the way back (it was an accident - I didn't know that they would slide so much in the boot and turn on the valve when we braked!). We then spent the next 6 hours or so eating and drinking before we all staggered, stuffed (and knackered from playing drunken football) to the pub for another pint or two. Of water. Honest.

Sunday

Next morning was another start that was only not impossibly early because Simon was good enough to make us all sausage, egg and bacon butties! Back to the jetty (surprisingly feeling great without a hangover - must be the nitrox!) and off out to sea for the first dive.

Radaas

We went a lot further out this time to a wreck called the Radaas. This was meant to be a little deeper but not a lot, with distance to the seabed reported as 30m (it was actually a bit more...). This was another lovely dive - unfortunately, it looked like a fishing boat had draped it rather recently in netting and so there were literally hundreds of crabs (and some lobsters) trapped all over it. Some of these were amongst the biggest I've ever seen - we tried to cut some free but at 30m and with struggling animals, we weren't getting anywhere and so we had to leave them. A tragic waste :-(The deck hand from the boat dived on his own and came back with a lobster, a HUGE crab and a brill) since the crab ripped the arm off the lobster on the ascent, he let it go (though Simon kept the loose arm as a momento) and the crab later became Steve A's dinner!

Drift...

Second dive was another drift and again, we came up trumps! The biggest haul of scallops I've ever seen from a single dive, another plaice (once again, Simon's lightning quick sword play soon had him in the bag) and more cuttlefish - this time, fancied having a go at catching one to eat but he got away (they're remarkably slippery...next time, I'll use my knife!). After quite a long bottom time (the promise of scallops outweighed the cold water - note to self - wear proper undersuit next time!) we headed back to the boat, recovered all the loose DSMBs supporting goody bags, and headed back to the jetty! Dekitting the boat took little time as we were getting pretty slick at it by this point, and so once again, an early finish and then back to the hut to wash down kit. (Simon was home by 7.30...). All in all, a fantastic trip - one of the best I've been on. A great bunch of people (thanks guys!), lots of fun, lots of food, not too much drink (honest...) and great diving. Let's do it again soon - Farnes anybody?

Thanks!

Although they probably won't read this, thanks to the guys (Ian and Kevin) running the boat. They were helpful and gave us tea, coffee, biscuits and seafood! Mention also to the guys at Jurassic Coast Diving. They stayed up for hours filling cylinders for us and stayed open long past their normal hours. Special thanks go to Steve for organising the whole trip and to everyone who came for making it the magical experience that it was (okay, I'll stop now!).

So...who got wet?

Sam - leaking drysuit neck seal
Chris P - leaking drysuit (at least you know where from now...)
Oli - Semidry let in water (yes, I know you're meant to get wet, but it still counts!)
Everybody - bloody rain overnight meant that I got decidedly damp striking camp on the Sunday morning...at least the tent didn't leak!
Oh, and Oli the mincer threw up off the side of the boat!

Cheers, and see you all down the pub, and in the water!

Luke