Plymouth 2025 – Dolphins and football
While other TSAC members were diving out of Plymouth competing in the Great Lakes 3 Day fell running event, three of our members were diving out of Plymouth.
A change in accommodation this year as the convenient Mountbatten centre was closed for refurbishment. It meant that we headed to the Leornado Hotel near to the centre of Plymouth, which not next door to Indeep, gave us a slightly better quality of bedroom.
The first day we were greeted by sunshine and a gentle breeze, which promised a good journey out to the Eddystone lighthouse for our first day. Sam and Matt soon had us underway with the boiler on for our first boat brew of the day.
Arriving at Eddysone we had our first briefing and jumped in to a visibility of about 6 – 8m. A good first dive and the first spot of a crayfish on the trip, the first of many.
An hour later we were cruising over to Hand Deeps for our second dive when we were met by a pod of between 20 and 30 dolphins. Feeding on the fish above the pinnacle of Hand Deeps, they stayed and entertained us for nearly 40 minutes, a prelude to a fabulous dive. Hand Deeps walls were covered in Jewel Anemones and marine life was plentiful with schools of small fish, inquisitive wrasse and nudibranchs dotted in amongst the anemones.
The evening was interesting, we started out booking one of the local pubs for some food and found ourselves without a table when the police advised the restaurant to close due to the football. Leeds had gained promotion by beating Plymouth and relegating them, it was busy. Needless to say, we found a Chinese tucked away down a quiet road.
Day two was a bit windier but we headed round to the shelter of Whitsand Bay to dive the Scylla and James Egan Layne (JEL). The Scylla has now come into its own as a reef and provides for an interesting dive with plenty to see. The highlight as ever was the JEL. The hull is splitting apart but the cargo still provides many nooks and crannies for crabs and unusually the any crayfish to hide in. Several congers were spotted, even one free swimming! The visibility was about 10 meters and gave us the opportunity to swim through the ribs, as ever very atmospheric and a wonderful dive. That followed by a great curry made for a good day.
Day three and the wind hadn’t picked up but had turned colder. We headed over to the Persier in sunshine but feeling the chill. The Persier is an amazing wreck, yet another torpedoed ship wreck. It is between 27 and 31 meters in depth so full use of time is essential. Heading down the shot line we emerged from 6 meter visibility to 15 meters visibility and headed away from the boilers to the bow. We then circled round to the stern following the propeller shaft until returning to the shot line to asced. Once more an amazing dive with large schools of fish, some large cod, crayfish, conger and couple of John Doreys.
On board one of our members was looking cast as his camera had dropped away and been lost, the last pair up had found it and thought all their Christmases had come at once, they, somewhat reluctantly, handed the camera back to its owner.
Our final dive was the rocky ridge reef of Faitylands Congers, Crayfish, Cod, John Dory’s, fabulous wrecks and a pod of 30 dolphins entertaining us during our surface interval. It seemed as though all the crayfish from Plymouth had moved into Fairylands, hundreds of them, all shapes and sizes.
As a grand finale, just as we had released our SMB, an octopus came out to say goodbye
Overall a brilliant group to dive with and 6 excellent dives with visibility between 6 – 15 meters. Thanks must go to the InDeep team for making this a good trip and ensuring all worked smoothly.
Dives completed;
- Eddystone lighthouse
- Hand Deeps
- Scylla
- James Egan Layne
- Persier
- Fairylands
Thanks to all who went and to Indeep for providing a great experience.
Antony Waddington’s video from day 2
https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BgSL2U9ey/?mibextid=wwXIfr
I’ve booked for next year, limited spaces for a great experience.
We dive with the team at InDeep, for more information follow the website link; In Deep Dive Centre – South Coast SCUBA, Plymouth, Devon
