Lundy

[pwood2457]

Hi

I thought it was about time I submitted a dive report. Deep and Wide Dive shop organised an August bank holiday dive to Lundy Island. We leave Surrey on the Friday and all meet up just out side Barnstaple for our accommodation. On the Saturday we drive over to Ilfracombe to the boat we have hired, this Saturday the dive was cancelled due to strong winds. So we all went on a magical mystery tour of North Devon looking for something to do and ended up at Westward Ho! Queue a lot of board divers all trying to act like bad arse rappers and doing Ho type stances.

The Sunday was fairly windy but the skipper gave it a go, so we had a 2 hour choppy sea trip. When we arrived at Lundy the sea was lovely and calm, so we kited up and in we went. The vis was, at best ok, we decided on doing an in close coastal dive to try and see the seals.

Guess what? I am a fully paid up member of the “who's had their fins chewed on by a seal”

Me and my buddy (Darren) had a totally unforgetable15 minutes of swimming around the seals. There were 3 – 4 grey seals that swam over, around and on top of us, they nudged our fins, tanks and masks and just played with us. Its hard to put into words how outstanding it is to have a seals loop the loop over you and then come back, upside down to swim between your legs and then to watch a seal rest on your buddies tank.

The second dive was on a couple of rocks (Pins?) that teamed with wild life and fish. There were Lobsters of an unbelievable size (after seeing this you cannot tell me a no-take zone does not work).

Then on to Monday wind up again and the diving was cancelled.

In summary the diving on Lundy was worth the long boat trip, and the seal experience was one of the best I have had in all my years of diving.



Phil

[MATTBIN]

Nice report Phil, wondered about doing Lundy for the seals after a similar experience with them off the Farnes.

Matt

[JasonP]

What boat did you use? I'd like to go again but there's no way I'm going out of Clovelly again.

Jason

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by JasonP

What boat did you use? I'd like to go again but there's no way I'm going out of Clovelly again.

Jason

No, we made that mistake when we went! Wonder if we had the same skipper as you....

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by Kirstie

No, we made that mistake when we went! Wonder if we had the same skipper as you....

Probably, think there's only one. It was the combination of the hill and the very unfriendly locals that did it for us. I stood at the bar and watched two groups walk in from outside and get served before me. They whinged about us driving down to the bottom despite the fact we actually put everyone's kit in one transit van.

Plus having the harbour half way up the beach wasn't very convenient, but I guess it's going to be the same all along that coast.

Jason

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by JasonP

Probably, think there's only one. It was the combination of the hill and the very unfriendly locals that did it for us. I stood at the bar and watched two groups walk in from outside and get served before me. They whinged about us driving down to the bottom despite the fact we actually put everyone's kit in one transit van.

Plus having the harbour half way up the beach wasn't very convenient, but I guess it's going to be the same all along that coast.

Jason

We had to get to Clovelly for 8am. We actually sailed at 4pm, after the skipper decided it was too choppy, then the tide was out.......There's bugger all to do in Clovelly for 8 hours!

[JasonP]

Originally Posted by Kirstie

We had to get to Clovelly for 8am. We actually sailed at 4pm, after the skipper decided it was too choppy, then the tide was out.......There's bugger all to do in Clovelly for 8 hours!

You must have had a lot of cream teas. We didn't stay on the island and only managed to get out on the Sat. Dived the Robert, which was a nice wreck, then played with the seals.

Jason

[Kirstie]

Originally Posted by JasonP

You must have had a lot of cream teas. We didn't stay on the island and only managed to get out on the Sat. Dived the Robert, which was a nice wreck, then played with the seals.

Jason

We camped (which was an experience), and managed three dives over the weekend, the Robert, Jenny's Cove and Knoll Pins (I think that's the right name).

Phil, you were so lucky to have the seals with you; they didn't come near us although we saw them during our surface interval.

[pwood2457]

Originally Posted by JasonP

What boat did you use? I'd like to go again but there's no way I'm going out of Clovelly again.

Jason

The boat we used was Obsession out of Ilfracombe. There is a couple of car parks on the Harbour so you park where you load the boat. The skippers are both desent blokes who help out

Phil

[Ian@1904]

I went in June 2003 and the six of us a had a spectacular time diving off Lundy. Loading the boat in Clovelly had to be timed right of course. I am assuming that you dived off Jessica Hettie, which is a tad small, but we knew that we we booked.
As for the locals and being served in pubs, we had no issues there.