Eight divers enjoyed a fantastic weekend in Plymouth. With everyone eager to go we set off in the club boat around Pen Lee Point and Rame Head to join every other diver in the area on the Scylla.
On descending to the deck it was good to see that the amount of life on this purpose - sunk wreck has steadily increased since our last visit here two years ago. Lots of Plumose Anemone and Dead Mans Fingers covering the starboard side has started to give the Scylla something I thought it lacked on my previous dive here, character and atmosphere. Finning around the bow gave us a good opportunity to put her size into perspective, as we looked up at the outline of her sharp bow you couldn't help but be impressed by the Scylla's enormity. Once back on the deck there's plenty to explore, with all the doors and windows open. It's good fun poking around in what was once a place of work for hundreds. The time to leave the wreck and ascend to the surface came all too soon for myself, but at least I got to dive the Scylla. There's a rumour that two of our more advanced divers missed it altogether. Maybe they preferred the sandy bottom?
So with all safely aboard we made the wet journey back to Mountbatten for lunch and to poke some fun at the two unnamed divers with lack of compass skills. Even the best get it wrong sometimes!
The James Eagen Layne was the next dive and as always well worth the visit. Everyone on board enjoyed a good dive on the old liberty ship, although the vis could have been a little kinder to us. When descending onto the bow of the wreck you can't help but smile at her. Full of life, her bow still reaches up from the sand to the surface. The decks which have been eroded by the sea opening up the inside of this impressive ship to all kinds of life forms, making for interesting diving by carefully finning in and out of the skeleton - like structure. After finning around and over the wreck, and with 45 minutes on the clock, it was time to ascend the bow shot line and head for home.
Sunday was something else, with force 5 - 6 winds the decision was made to head for the relative shelter of the breakwater. With three divers down and two left on the boat the weather decided to give us a run for our money. Within 40 minutes we had a force 7 coming straight at us and three divers to get back on the boat was going to be no fun. Did we manage? Of course! With a long, wet white - knuckle ride back to the slip it wasn't a hard decision to cancel all diving plans and head for the pub for a well - earned pint, hearty meal and to enjoy some good company for the evening.
