UKRS#02 Plymouth : 23rd to 26th July 1999

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Jason P organised UKRS#02 for us using the Maid Maggie hard boat out of Plymouth...

(From Alasdair A)

The academic contingent ready to dive

Arriving in Plymouth on the Thursday night we all met up at the B&B and  found out why it was so cheap to book, describing it as being "close to  the station" is somewhat inaccurate, perhaps "in the station" would be  closer. After a quick beer at a nearby pub, we went to bed with high hopes for the weather conditions the next day. Being woken up at half past five on Friday morning by the first Intercity of the day made it obvious to me that I hadn't really needed to pack an alarm clock. After a couple of hours I decided I might as well get up and met everyone else downstairs for breakfast.

After breakfast we gathered ourselves together and drove to Mountbatten to meet up with Glen (the Skipper) and have out first look at the sea. It was hot, there wasn't a cloud in the sky, and no wind at all. The sea was perfectly flat. After sun bathing for an hour or so, we reluctantly started to kit up as we approached the first dive of the day, the Persier lying in 30m of water. I was diving in a three with Tim and John, and we ran into problems right away as John found a problem with his mask just as we were waiting to roll over the side. Taking Tim's spare as a replacement we got into the water and went down the shot line, and found out that we might have good weather and a perfectly calm sea, but that the visibility was pretty poor.

Tim and I arrived at the bottom of the shot and turned around to wait for John (who was last to leave the surface), when he finally appeared through the murk we found out waht had taken him so long...his borrowed mask didn't fit and it was filled with water up to his eye level. After a minute or so trying to clear it we decided to head for the surface, after getting up, we borrowed another mask for John (from the Skipper) and decided  that we were going back down. This time I was last down and proceeded to get tangled in the shot line, after my buddies resurfaced and untangled me we went down (again) and around 20m we all stopped as my left ear refused to co-operate and I had to ascend a couple of metres to get it to clear. So after mucking around on the shot for a couple of minutes we finally managed to get onto the wreck. Despite the poor vis (2-3m) I quite enjoyed the dive (32min, 30.1m max depth) since the last time I dived the Persier the vis was even worse!

The "hive of activity" on the way to the dive site.

In the afternoon (after lazing around on deck again), we kitted up for the second dive of the day, a drift dive off Hillsea Point. I was diving with Tim and John again and we dropped over the side and started down, at about four meters Tim and I looked back up and couldn't see John anywhere. So we started back up, this time it had been his turn to get tangled in the shot line. After unwrapping him we decended and had a  nice (although slow) drift over the sea bed (38min, 28.4 max depth). This time the vis was about 2-4m, reduced mometarily when Tim assulted a sea cucumber...with predictable (if messy) results.

At the end of the dive John got out his reel and DSMB and lacking a third hand I took hold of his reel for him while he got the delayed end sorted out. We got a bit confused on who was doing what and I ended up holding the reel as he filled the delayed (defiantely not to plan) which was a bit of a shame as I didn't know where the trigger was on his reel (not being the sort I usually use) and proceeded to follow the delayed to the surface. I'd only shifted about half a metre from the bottom by the time I found the trigger, so no real harm done. Under the (false) impression that I'd been clipped onto the reel and it had briefly jammed Tim was a bit irate and made some insulting jestures in my direction, so I wiggled  my eyebrows and handed the reel, which wasn't of course attached to me, to John to wind up, after which Tim looked a bit confused.

The next dawn dawned hot, with no wind, and I greeted the morning Intercity from Plymouth at four thirty with some degree of optimisim. KeithS, Dave and Karen joined us on the Saturday filling the boat so I got a new dive buddy (KeithS) and we proceeded to sea. The morning dive was Hand Deeps, a wall dive with its top at around 15-20m and the base at around 60m. The vis was bad, very bad. Especially for Hand Deeps, which is known for really good vis. Below 20m, when we got to the wall, the vis wasn't too bad but is was really dark as most of the light from the surface was blocked by the milky plankton above us. The dive (37min, 27.5m max depth) was okay, marred only by the appauling vis. The afternoon dive was the James Egan Lane, I was diving with KeithS again (43min, 21.4m max depth) and had a good root around in the muck. Despite the poor vis (2-5m) a nice dive. Sunday, and it was even hotter there still wasn't any wind, and the remnants of BR waited until six thirty to start the trains rolling.

The first (and for me) only dive of the day was the Elk, a fairly intact rawler lying in 30m of water. We probably had the best vis here that we'd had (or would have) all weekend, however there was alot of muck on the bottom, many apologies to Emma and John (I think) who were sitting in the hold I dropped into after coming off the shot kicking up a whole load of muck and ruining their vis. Mea culpa...

Please don't try this at home...

I was diving with KeithS again, who was on Nitrox. This was going to turn out to be important in what was to turn me into the butt of the gang's jokes for the rest of the day. Having lent my Aladin Pro to someone else (diving in St. Abbs) I was diving during (most) of the weekend on an Aladin Sport. Now this is supposedly a no-deco computer, in other words it knows how much deco you have to do, it just won't tell you. So with KeithS on Nitrox we were a bit unsure as to how much bottom time I should clock up, as it turned out we lingered below 20m on-gassing for a bit too much and ended up doing 18min deco after which we surfaced (conviced that the computer was lying to us) in the process bending my computer which was very unhappy with leaving the water. We later worked out that the thrice cursed thing probably would have cleared if we'd been just a little more patient (about a minutes worth of patience would have done it). Total dive time 55min, with a 30.3m max depth. Moral of the story, try and pair the air divers together and the Nitrox diver together, mixing the two is a bad thing. After getting out of the water, we looked over the various sets of tables and found that I was probably okay (which turned out to be the case) so we decided not to waste the O2 and steamed into Bovisand for lunch as planned. After lunch and a sit around in the sun we left harbour for the second dive of the day on the Mewstone Ledges. With my computer locked solid, I consulted the BSAC'88 tables (which had only requires 3min deco for the morning dive rather than the 18min I'd actually done) and decided to skip the afternoon's dive just to be on the safe side. This turned out to be a good call as the word everyone used to describe the afternoons dive was "shit". The consensus was that this was the worst dive of the weekend.

Monday dawned a bit colder, with the wind picking up, blowing 4 to 5's and gusting to 6's at time. So the four thirty Intercity wasn't as welcome as it could have been. John, Dave and Karen left us and we were joined by Tony and a three non-UKRS people (two on Rebreathers and a photographer on twin 10l). The two on rebreathers turn out to
be the winner of the Dive magazine's "win an Rebreather" contest and her instructor. We were due to dive the Rosehill in the morning and the Egan Lane in the afternoon. Conditions made the Rosehill impractical so we did two dives on the JEL. With the shuffle of people I changed buddies again, this time diving with Tim again. The vis was roughly the same as our last dive on the Lane and Tim and I had a good rummage around. Tim, having dived the Lane several times before, led us to the prop shaft tunnel which we proceeded to swim through (fun!). Total dive time 56min, max depth 21m.

We spent lunch in the shelter of the headland and Tom, Tim, Emma, Jason and I swam into the beach (the rest of the gang couldn't be bothered and stayed on the boat). Tim and I found a bouy, which suited him down to the ground as the MUSAC club RIB needed a new one. The afternoon was the JEL again. Tom, Emma, Tim and I set out to find a shell that Tom and Emma had found and "hidden" during the morning dive. Tim and I followed Tom & Emma off the bow section along the newly installed rope to the stern and then on to the shell. We attached and lifted it using two of our DSMB's (one from each buddy pair, leaving each pair with a DSMB) and then split up and explored the stern. At the end of the dive Tim and I deployed my SMB and got to the surface, only to find that the skipper noticing that the shell we still fused (erm, whoops!) had chucked it straight over the side again.

A good weekend, which I definately enjoyed.

(From Jason P)

"Oh s**t! I've just done far too much deco!

I'm not going to post another dive report. I'm sure that everyone else has had quite enough of reading about the same dives. I think the trip was a resounding success and it proved that a boatload of divers with qualifications from PADI, BSAC, SAA, IANTD and TDI can really get along together and enjoy themselves. I'd like to thank Dave Roberts for his yoke^H^H^H^Hlocal knowledge and the directions. I'd also like to thank the people who weren't driving and had to lug the cylinders over to Sound diving each day. For those who weren't on the trip, the boat was based in Mountbatten where there is a dive shop. However, when I enquired about nitrox I was told that they didn't do it and they didn't really recommend it for use in Plymouth because of the big tides. What a load of rubbish.

Most of all I'd like to thank Alasdair for bringing all his crappy, broken, leaky, convoluted kit along and giving me a really good laugh.

So where's UKRS#3 then? Someone else's turn I think.

(From Keith L)

Well, you've seen the other reports so you know that a good time was had by all despite the crap vis. A short report giving some other snippets from the events follows -

The "kit store" at the B&B

The gang started assembling Thursday evening, mainly at the primary B&B, I was designated a room well out of Jason's ear shot. The B&B were quite accommodating as several thousand pounds worth of dive equipment were scattered around the living room floor rather than left in cars. Alasdair then showed his flair for pub crawls by finding the first crap pub of the weekend. Friday dawned bright and sunny and thanks to Dave's excellent directions we all assembled at Mountbatten and the hunt for Maid Maggie ensued, the dive boats seemed to be on the end pontoon but we couldn't see ours, somebody commented about the state of a red and black boat near the gangway and hoped it wasn't ours. Guess what! Glen (the skipper) and Ash (his son) soon arrived and the boat was loaded. Maid Maggie is not the most modern of dive boats (to say the least) and a far cry from the custom built jobs further East. It was certainly fine for our fair weather weekend and was superbly skipperred by Glen but I would not like to be on it during bad weather due to the lack of storage and shelter - no cylinder racks, no benches, no heads.

Jason drew the short straw and ended up with me as a dive buddy for the weekend, first dive was the Persier with Jason complaining bitterly that I wasn't prepared to do 30 minute deco hangs (you try looking at only Jason for 30 minutes!) which meant that he couldn't play with his new 3L stage. An excellent dive followed with Jason transforming before my very eyes from a PADI diver to an IANTD diver when the computers clicked into deco. Back on the boat and following in the traditions established on UKRS#1 - Jason had carefully prepared full dive marshalling sheets - which were promptly abandoned never to be seen again after the first dive!

Less said about the Hillsea point dive the better, vis was so bad we actually got separated for a short while, Jason commented that the strobe was useless, he found me again when I was sweeping the torch beam around looking for him. Alasdair took us all on an invigorating hike that evening down to the highlights(?) of Plymouth to a rather mediocre restaurant followed by another crap pub, I skipped the pub and after finding taxis were only about a quid per person so we gave up the evening strolls after that.

Saturday on Hands Deeps was a bit disappointing with the milky vis and 'lights out' at about 25m, we went down to 35m where the vis was slightly better and dived an ascending profile up to around 20m before our eventual ascent. The JEL that afternoon was equally bad vis. Best meal of the weekend Saturday night, we took a cab down town and found this weird local/seafood/Greek restaurant which did a superb meal. A far better pub was found afterwards (we'd 'sacked' Alasdair as pub hunter by this time).

Jason P (left) and Keith L ready to go!

The Elk on Sunday was the most enjoyable dive for me, the wreck was small enough for us to do two complete circuits, one around the hull and one around the superstructure. Came across Alasdair & Co stirring up the sh*t for everyone by rummaging around in the holds. Dive ended by mutual consent with both of us on the bow after our second lap and both deciding there wasn't much point in going round again! This was the dive where Alasdair bent his computer, back on the boat I offered him my collection of tables (BSAC88/Buehlmann/RDP) with one of the quotes of the weekend "here - find a table that says you're not bent".

For the Mewstone Ledges we were joined by Keith S, another dive marred by the appalling vis, it was this dive that prompted my "no more bloody scenic dives - I want rusty metal!" quote - at least rusty metal has some form and shape in bad vis, one rock looks much like the next to me! I had trouble getting down on this dive, I was to find out why later. Diving in a three is always difficult so Jason led, me and Keith S looked after each other, both of us kept an eye on Jason. Highlight of the dive was a nice cuttlefish - which Jason scared off with a fin just as I was pointing it out to Keith.

The ascent was interesting if a little delayed, we all decided to ascend and then just sat there - Jason not deploying his DSMB because he was leading (any excuse.), me and Keith S not doing so because we'd both done so on the first dive! After a while I gave up and we came up on my reel/DSMB. It was then I discovered why I had difficulty getting down - guess who was diving with the auto dump nearly closed! I overshot the safety stop by about half a metre before I sussed out what was wrong, we needed the safety stop anyway because Jason was diving on air according to his computer.

For Sunday night we all assembled at the China Garden for the worst meal/service of the weekend, but we can blame somebody else for recommending that one (I won't say who for fear of embarrassing Dave). Sunday was basically blown out, we did the JEL twice. First dive was rather nice actually, vis was better (4m at times!) we went around virtually the entire wreck including the stern section. For those interested the dive details were as follows -

Persier : 30.4m/59 mins, 34% and 4 mins of mandatory stops, Air Consumption (A/C) 17L/min, Water Temp (W/T) 14oC.
Hillsea Point : 17.4m/23 mins, 36% and >99mins no stop remaining, A/C 20L/min,W/T 15oC
Hand Deeps : 35.3m/41 mins, 28% and 9 mins no stop remaining, A/C 19L/min, W/T13oC
JEL : 23.6m/41 mins, 32% and 27 mins no stop remaining, A/C 17L/min, W/T 14oC
Elk : 31.7m/39 mins, 32% with 3 mins no stop remaining, A/C 17L/min, W/T 14oC
Mewstone : 20.3m/43 mins, 32% with 42 mins no stop remaining, A/C 15L/min, W/T 15oC
JEL : 21.1m/65 mins, 32% with 17 mins no stop remaining, A/C 18L/min, W/T 14oC
JEL : 22.6m/35 mins, 36% with 45 mins no stop remaining, A/C 16L/min, W/T 13oC

Overall a good weekends diving, I did 8 dives and spent 5h 46mins underwater. A great crowd of people and my thanks to all - especially Jason for organising it. Next time we'll have to find a real Dive Master - the one we had didn't make me a coffee all weekend! <g>

(From Dave R)

My g/f and I joined the hard core crew for the Saturday and Sunday. It was 8.15am on Saturday morning, the sun was high, and it was hot. Not a cloud in the sky, and hardly a breeze to stir up the ocean. I guessed that the others hadn't been out on the beers that much, as they all seemed bright and chirpy as they turned up at the marina
where the Maid Maggie was berthed.  Alisdair was recognisable from his accent, Jason from a description, and Keith L from the grinning mugshot found upon his web pages. Some introductions were made, and we set off for Hand Deeps.  A pinnacle that comes from the 60m sea bed upto about 15m, which lies about 10 miles out of Plymouth.

On the way out, Keith performed his "sad old man" act admirably, as he whipped out a bright yellow flag with "UKRS" emblazened on it, and stuck it somewhere prominent.  (Though some would say, not where it should have gone! :)  Others were also relaying stories from yesterdays dives, and the promise of months of public humiliation for those concerned was high on the topic list.   I'll leave these details to those that were there. Still, the pressure was on not to screw up.  We didn't have to wait long.  First off the boat was Tim and his buddy... (I was still trying to remember peoples names at this point, and cannot recall Tim's attentative buddy - although I'm sure someone will be quick to name drop :-).   They made their way to the shot line, gave each other a signal, dispelled air and descended.... well Tim's buddy did anyway. Tim was left there with no more air to unload and about 10kg worth of positive bouyancy still left to compensate for.  Ooops.   Pass the weight belt please.

Alasdair seeing if he can afford some decent kit. Jason prepares the 50m buddy line.

Jokes soon flowed from the non-BSAC divers, as more talk of public ridicule was had. Anyway, about a mile or two out of Plymouth, the water had turned a light turquoise... all very pretty for postcards I suppose, but this is the stuff that we were warned about by those that dived yesterday. "Like diving in milk" someone said. Sadly it was true.  When I first stuck my head under the water, it was literally like milk.  Viz was reduced to less than 1m, despite the sun beating down from up above.  It was about 20m down before the milk cleaned up, but by this stage, all the light had been absorbed.  It was the first time ever that I'd used the aiming lights in both my cameras strobes, just so that I could see something. The viz in the light beam was ok at depth, and as I was taking macro photos anyway, I wasn't too concerned, but it still made for a poor dive, especially for the Deeps, usually renown for its epic viz. Ironic that we finally had some brilliant diving weather, only to be let down by the worst viz of the year.  In fact, possibly the worst viz that I've ever dived in down here.

Next stop was a look at the James Eagan Layne.  We decided that we'd check out the colour of the water first, and if it was still milky, then we wouldn't bother... but it cleared up enough to be deemed ok, so in we went.  Viz wasn't too bad, but was still very poor.  Usual stuff to be found on the Layne, but it seemed that a lot of the fish were hiding.   Also my primary strobe packed up (later turned out to be a loose connection with the battery pack), so no photos were had here.

Sunday was similar really.... more nice sunny weather, which if anything was hotter than it was yesterday.  No wind in the morning, but a little more in the evening which started pushing in a little swell.  We started with a pretty good dive on the Elk, a trawler lying in 32m, where the viz was actually reasonable, until another 6 or so buddy pairs came along from another boat.    There's a limit to how many divers can easily explore a 30m long wreck, without kicking up all the viz.    One comment was "the viz was brilliant at first, we went all around and it was great.  Then Alisdair dropped down and ruined it".  I wasn't there at that time, so I couldn't possibly comment :).   I think it was pick on Alisdair day actually, but top bloke for taking it all in his stride.

Sunday afternoon was a dive on the Mewstone Ledges.  The viz was so bad that I had difficulty finding subjects to photograph in amongst the never ending kelp fields.  Definately worst dive of the weekend for me, and by the sounds of it, every one else.   Keith L emerged from the water stating that he didn't want to do another bloody scenic dive and that it should be only wrecks for Monday.

I hope it went well for them today.  The wind has picked up and is moderate with some strong gusts.  It was supposed to be offshore, but looking out the window, seems more variable, and cross shore.  I'm sure a full report will be forthcoming from the others. I should get my photos back tomorrow, but don't hold any breaths.  I also took some when back on the boat, so may have some faces to name   (with permission of course!)  Alisdair had a digicam with him, so will no doubt have some web pics a lot quicker than I. All in all a good weekend with a great bunch of guys (and girls), the viz definately let things down, but I still enjoyed myself.   The sense of humour of the group was really good, and I think we all had a laugh.... we'll soon find out :) Many many thanks must go to Jason Poynting for doing the organising.

I've knocked up a quick web page with some of the photos from the weekend scanned in.   It's basically the trip report that I posted, with some modifications, plus about 10 photos.  Feel free to take a look. I will update the text to include links back to other peoples sites, reports and Al's photos... but that's later.

Click on the "trip report" link in the following page :- http://www.geocities.com/Pipeline/Halfpipe/2895/scuba/swuk/

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