Diving Plymouth on Endeavour 7-8th July 2007

[lloydwatkin]

Awoke this morning to aching muscles and bruises so obviously I've been away on a dive trip this weekend A group of us spent two days diving from Endeavour out of Plymouth. The trip was organised by Morgan original post here: Boat Spaces - Plymouth - 7/8/9 July - 35m Wrecks

I've uploaded some photos here: Plymouth - July 2007 - a photoset on Flickr

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An early start from old man Taylor (Simon) and myself after a late night watching several episodes of Family Guy. My first time on Endeavour which is a nice big boat, free parking nearby which was a bonus too. Simon and I shunted the gear onto the boat before saying hello to everyone and grabbing a few winks on the way out to the dive site.

Dive 1: Persier: Always seem to end up on this wreck on a weekend away, but it's a good dive. Came across a strange looking fish which people later tell me was a John Dory (have I got that right?). Nice dive did a few swim throughs. Ready to launch the dsmb my reel literally falls apart on the bottom. We launch Simon's but in that time have added a bit more deco than we'd planned. Still back on the boat only 5 minutes later than planned

Dive 2: J.E.L.: First time I've done this dive and must say I really enjoyed it. Spent the first couple of minutes following a dog fish along the bottom. Came across a huge lobster and spent five minutes with Simon, "you grab it", "bugger that, YOU grab it!" and so on. Eventually we realised there was no point as neither of us had a bag. Pointed out the lobby to Keith, who is seen back on board with his dinner (after it attacked Noel's fin). Swam around to the stern before entering through a room where the propellar shaft was. A bit of a squeeze to get through. Upon exiting checked to see if Simon was ok, he'd got half way though decided it was too much squeeze and hit reverse gear. Swam back around to meet him. With 15 minutes deco showing we headed for the surface.

After getting back to port we all dropped the cylinders in for fills and grabbed a couple of beers in the Mount Batten Centre Bar. Afterwards we met up at the Boringdon Arms (which was good as that's where we were staying ) for food and beers. By 9.30pm everyone had left and Simon headed to bed leaving me to enjoy the band and the beers. I think I eventually crawled into bed just after midnight (think the band did about 5 encores ).

Next morning we awoke at 6.30am as we had to grab filled cylinders and be on board for 7.30am.

Dive 3: The Maine: What a dive this was. After bagging ourselves a lobby after five minutes we squeezed into another hole arriving in one of the holds. From that point on we spend almost the entire dive inside the wreck seeing the engines and various other parts. If I'd had more gas and some nitrox (was diving air all weekend) I would of blown off the second dive and used all my gas on the wreck. Simon agreed and said it was almost as good as diving wrecks in the flow

Dive 4: Scylla: A nice dive, lots of easy swim throughs. Dry suit inflator popped off on the way down. Got Simon to sort it but couldn't quite get it on. I decided to try and do the dive without it, on the bottom it got quite painful, thankfully got it connected and continued my dive in comfort. This morning there's a zip shaped mark across my back though Came across Jen in one of the corridors and heard a muffled "hello" At the end of the dive decided to give the spool a go as the line was packed. Let's say I didn't do the best job ever so more practise needed on that.




Nice to meet all the guys not sure what all your forum names are but I'm sure you'll be along later to add your own version of events An excellent weekends diving.

Lloyd

PS Annoted version on my website too at Evilprofessor.co.uk » Blog Archive

[morgan]

It was a very good weekend. Thanks everyone for making it an enjoyable trip.
That dive on the Maine was superb - the viz was absolutely stunning.

[Noel Johnson]

Superb weekend chaps, thanks to Morgan for organising it. Keith for putting up with me and the lobster for giving my fin(s) a war wound Definitely one to repeat.