Another
great weekend's diving, brilliantly organised as usual by Tracey.
This
year we stayed in the Mount Batten Centre itself, and used 2 dive boats:
Seeker and Venture - both with electric lifts!
Those
of us who were able to go a day early enjoyed dives on the Scylla and
James Eagan Layne on the Friday. Having dived the Scylla only a
couple of months after it was sank last year, it was interesting to see
how much marine life had colonised the wreck in a relatively short
time. It will be interesting again to see it next year. As
usual the James Eagan Layne had a spectacular show of plumose anemones,
actinothoe and dead men's fingers, as well as plenty of fish: a John
Dory, shoals of bib, wrasse etc. However, it was sad to see signs
of decay all around.
The
evening we went over on the shuttle to the Barbican for a wander around
the town and a meal. Just managed to get the last boat back!
Saturday
saw us at Hands Deep, amongst the kelp admiring the jewel anemones, sea
urchins and starfish. Plenty of crabs wandering about. After
a pleasant lunch, we visited the Glen Strath Allen and enjoyed drifting
over the wreck. Cuttle fish, conger eels, John Dory and male and
female cuckoo wrasse were all around to catch our eyes.
Our
deepest dive was on Sunday morning - the Persier where we were dropped
right on the boilers. Large shoals of bib and pollack. Spent
time looking under plates and into crevices for crabs, conger eels etc -
and found them! Another good dive.
Back
to the James Eagan Layne for our second dive for those who hadn't been
able to be down on Friday. Somehow the weekend isn't quite
complete unless everyone has dived this wreck. A nice end to the
weekend.
As
usual, the weekend was enjoyed by all and we look forward to next year -
17-18 June 2006.
See
some photos of the weekend.
