Babbacombe and Teignmouth May 08
Well my diving year got off to a very poor start this time.
The plan had been to join my clubs usual ‘dive in’ at Babbacombe for some shore diving which always gives me the opportunity of testing all my kit out after its winter break. However, because of car problems I had to skip the first day and join them for the subsequent two days boat diving.
The second problem was largely one of my own making. I had failed to check out my camera set up until the night before I was due to leave… only to find the strobe wasn’t working! During the winter I had bought a second hand F30 as a back up, and while I had been looking forward to trying it out under water, I never thought that it would be the only camera I would have for my first dives of the year. Fortunately I love taking macro pictures and in the UK this is all you can seriously expect from a small digital camera like the F30 with no strobe. As long as you work within the limitations of your camera, taking into account the sort of water you are working in, you won’t be disappointed. I have no wish to start buying strobes etc for this camera, the whole point is that it is a back up camera that is small, easy to pack and take along whether I am diving up in the Shetlands or abroad somewhere.
Diving this weekend was to be with Teign Diving Centre Teign Diving Centre. I hadn’t dived with them before but a quick look at their web site seemed to imply they had a lot to offer and were very active. Everyone gradually arrived and having sorted out kit it was loaded onto a trolley and pushed the short walk to the little harbour where the boat was waiting. Although nervous, as this was my first dive trip for five months, these were dives aimed at the novice divers in the club and therefore nice shallow ones to start with…. I was looking forward to getting wet again!
The first site was called Long Quarry. I had arranged to jump in with another pair of divers leaving them and continuing in my usual solo style once I felt happy that my kit was all okay. We jumped into about 5m of water and down we went ready to work our way along the wall. Sadly the visibility was appalling being just over a metre at best. I kept myself glued to Barry’s side who was toting a large video unit and briefly kept glancing down and around to try and get some idea of the site. From the little that we could see there seemed to be a fair bit of life around clinging to the rocks and I nearly landed on a dog fish at one point. We eventually decided to call it a day and ascend after about 25 minutes. A disappointing dive for the others and although the visibility had been dire I had achieved what I had set out to do, checked my kit and got over my ‘first dive of the year nerves’.
The second dive was Thatchers Rock and a fairly brisk drift. Loads of stuff littered all over the sea bed and it was very frustrating not to be able to linger and take pictures. Once or twice it seemed to briefly slow down and pause and I managed to snap a few pictures of the numerous hermit crabs that were scuttling around but the current seemed only to draw breath before whisking you off flying over the sea bed once again.
The following day saw us up promptly and ready for the first dive on the SS Bretagne. Never having dived this before I was delighted to find the largest pink sea fans I have ever seen, growing in many places on this wreck. Large lumps of yellow boring sponge dotted the rotting ships carcase reflecting back its sunny colour in my torch light. I spotted another dogfish taking a break and chilling out on the seabed while shoals of stripey bib patrolled the deck.
Our final dive, The Ore Stone, was probably the best of the weekend, but then I prefer scenic to lumps of rusty metal :). The dive started off with a short swim through, coming out the otherside, I then meanered about the seabed and rocky outcrops which were rich with marine life. Floating over the top of a ‘garden’ of dahlia anemones I was amazed at the number of colour combinations and my camera was kept very busy.
Unfortunately we had been requested to keep dsmbs up again throughout the dive which is very frustrating when you are trying to hold a camera still. Clipping it on to my BC somewhere is not really an option as any slackness in the line makes the possibility of entanglement too great. Added to this is the fact that it really is not safe practise. Despite this it certainly was a super dive with loads of crabs, sea stars, anemones, sponges etc.
