Whilst not 100% sure, I think I've done every dive of every posse diving weekend that has taken place dating back to when we first started in 2002. During this time, I've had some extremely memorable trips including last year when we saw the basking shark, the first time that we visited the Eddystone aboard the Amoco and two excellent visits to Falmouth. None of these compare though with the weekend that we've just had.
Why was it so good? Well I thought the combination of weather, sites, skipper and some excellent good fortune combined almost perfectly. Even though the Maine was a slightly controversial choice, given that it can also be accessed from Plymouth, I think the contrasting reports of visibility on the two sides of Start Point proved that it was the correct one. We were also extremely fortunate to get on it both times on slack and, even better, to get it to ourselves on the Saturday. I've been looking forward to getting back here for a long time and was really pleased to be able to explore it pretty much fully over the two dives.
Whilst neither of the other two dive sites suggested that they were going to compete with the Maine, I was very pleasantly surprised with them. If you saw nothing on the Saturday pm dive then I suspect you'll have found it very dull but we were lucky enough to spot the Bull Huss and a lobster that made the dive. I believe that Fluff/Rudders also saw the dogfish on steroids too! Sunday's dive was also unpromising but was a first for me as I'd never dived on mussel beds before. The quantity of edible crabs was also far in excess of anything I'd seen before. If only I can persuade my wife to overcome her membership of the crustacean protection league. Of course, the most exciting aspect of the Sunday morning dive was the (re)discovery by Brian, Neill and Rob of the boiler and bows of some long lost wreck. It isn't often that you see a skipper get quite that excited by something that newcomers have discovered!
Added to some great and varied sites was the weather and sea state that meant even the normal suspects managed to largely escape seasickness. A thunder, lightning and severe hail storm added a bit of excitement to proceedings but didn't manage to change our plans at all.
Perhaps the piece de resistance was the sitings on the way back from the last dive of approximately 20 seals enjoying the sun and another large basking shark. I hope that this justifies Brian's decision to dive over his wife's birthday this year!
Finally, many, many thanks are due to Neill for his continued hard work in organising our weekends, Suzi for sorting the cottage out, Alan/Suzi for doing the honours with scoff and Chris for the supply of eggs.
Safe Diving
Dom
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