[pieater]

What a variety of marine life! Utterly incredible! - that will be my enduring memory of my first sea dive.

I'd been looking forward to it for years, so was quite prepared for disappointment. The forecast was for rain, with quite a stiff breeze, so I didn't know what to expect.

Myself and "the Goat" could only make it to the site in time for the end of low-water slack. Luckily, the breeze was blowing from the South, so the site was quite protected.

We got kitted up and entered the water at the side of the breakwater. We made it to the first pier supports and descended into very shallow waters.
By the breakwater, the vis was perhaps 3 metres at best. I was a little concerned about orientation, and with justification! Next time I'll take a compass bearing from under the pier!

As we slowly made our way along under the pier it become obvious pretty quickly that we weren't going to see any sort of depth at all. What I hadn't appreciated was how much difference a flood tide (albeit weak) could make. I spent a long time fighting against the surge, when I should have been timing it better, but hey-ho. That's what experience is for.

Underneath the pier is a wide selection of small boulders, iron plates, bracing / fallen timbers and metal poles. This jumbled assortment provides an ideal environment for marine life. The pier is perhaps 5 metres wide, and 50 metres long. It took us an hour to complete the dive ( we were both feeling the cold by then), and we managed to slowly work up one side of the structure, then return down the other side.

My abiding memories would include playing with a hermit crab on the sand when we got lost, and finding a bright orange octopus under a rock. I was the only one with a torch, and that was absolute crap. Hmmmm, I fancy a fish fryer!

Maximum depth at the end of the pier at low water was 4 metres, which made bouyancy in the surge "interesting". The vis at the end of the pier was about 4 or 5 metres - better than I'd been lead to expect! A quick count-up of what we saw would include:
Crabs: Hermit
Velvet (loads of 'em)
Shore
Edible
Spiney Spider (some real big 'uns)
Other Crustaceans:
Prawns (big ones)
Squat Lobster
Fish:
Plaice
some sort of Goby
an "elongated seahorse" - help with identification much appreciated!
Octopus - bright orange
Starfish - big 'uns
Anenomes:
Snakelocks
Plumose
"other - multi- coloured"
Sponges:
White ones that grew in concentric circles
Small orange ones

And probably loads of others as well.

All-in-all a fantastic site with a buddy who made the process easy. It turns out we trained with the same instructor, had a similar number of dives - but his experience in the sea counted. All of mine had been in freshwater before. Now I know the quality of diving within 2 hours of my front door, I know what I'll be choosing in future, and I would recommend it to anyone without hesitation.


Cheers,


Martin