Fantastic May Diving In Plymouth

By Ben Mitchell

For the May bank holiday, six of the Newbury Scuba Diving Club’s divers ventured down to Plymouth for a weekend of diving with In Deep Diving at the Mountbatten Centre to experience some of the great wrecks that the area has to offer.

After some five + hours journeys (thanks to the bank holiday traffic), several narrow roads and one flat tyre, everyone finally arrived on the Friday evening at our accommodation at the Borringdon Arms pub a short walk from the centre.

We were diving on In Deep’s big RIB “Eclipse”, complete with benches, tea and coffee making facilities and even a toilet on board. Luxury! After a reasonable cooked breakfast, and a bit of time sorting our kit onto Eclipse, we were all set to get the weekend going properly. The plan for day one of diving changed a little after a discussion with the skipper to make the most out of the fairest conditions that the weekend would offer. The first dive site, Hand Deeps was a set of pinnacles about 12NM out from Plymouth featuring plenty of bright blue wrasse, starfish, urchins and even a couple of cat sharks.

After the first dive and thanks to the choppy conditions, I (Ben M) got my first proper experience of sea sickness (which was fortunately fine for the rest of the trip thanks to some great advice and a donation of Kwells from Andy), and elected to sit the next dive out. Fortunately the other divers with slightly stronger stomachs managed to get a great dive in on the rocky reefs around the Eddystone lighthouse.

With the day’s diving done, and my previously drained colour starting to return, we headed back to the Mountbatten Centre to unload our kit, drop off our cylinders for the next day, and find a table at the nearby Mountbatten Hotel for some refreshments and discussion about the day’s dives. We opted to stay at the Borringdon Arms for dinner (with mandatory puddings), before the early start the next day.

Day two had us all up nice and early to catch tides for two of the wrecks that everyone knew they had wanted to do, The Scylla and the James Eagan Layne. The first target, the Scylla is a relatively more recent wreck in the area, commissioned in the 70’s and deliberately sunk in 2004 as an artificial reef, just 500 metres from the James Eagan Layne. This dive was the strongest current I’d encountered on a dive so far, and most of it was spent in the shelter of the port side of the wreck swimming in and out of the railings and enjoying the small short swim-throughs available on from the upper deck.

The afternoon’s dive on the James Eagan Layne was one everyone had been looking forward to. A Liberty class cargo ship, sunk in 1945 by a German submarine and one of the most popular diving sites in the UK, the JEL had no problem living up to the expectations.
With much of the protruding metalwork towering above us as we explored, it almost gave the feeling of walking through a grand cathedral. With plenty of sea life around to see as well, including plenty of crabs, starfish, wrasse and even an octopus spotted, it was certainly a highlight of the trip.

Once the day’s diving was finished, all too soon it was the final evening of the trip and the group caught the Mountbatten ferry across to the city centre where Ian had booked a table for us all at the Rockfish restaurant for some excellent locally caught dinner (and a few bottles of less locally caught wine).

Ropes off for the final day of diving wasn’t until after noon due to the availability of a skipper, which fortunately meant there was plenty of time to pack things away and checkout of the hotel.  Once we were underway, the first target of the day was the SS Persier, a Belgian cargo ship also sunk in 1945 and sitting at around 30 metres. Whilst it’s a lot more flattened than the JEL, it was still a great dive. Ian, Richard and Andy used this dive as an opportunity to practice line laying, while the rest of us (Alan, Phil and Ben M) explored and looked at the plentiful crabs, wrasse and even a conger eel or two.

All too soon, the final dive of the trip came and our skipper suggested the Glen Strathallan for the target. Once a private yacht, turned training vessel, scuttled in 1970 as a planned diver training site, it was quickly blown up by the Navy when it was found to be blocking the port entrance. Sat in 15m of water, there is still wreckage to be explored, including her boilers, as well as an abundance of wildlife with plenty of wrasse, starfish and even a couple of cuttlefish spotted. Vis had been pretty good for the whole trip, but on this final dive it was superb. All too soon, time was up and it was time to climb back onto the boat for the last time.

With the diving all completed and evening drawing close there was just time for a quick pasty before loading the cars up, getting changed, and starting the long long bank holiday drive back home. A massive thanks to Ian for organising the trip and to In Deep Diving for three days of fantastic diving, and a great time had by all.