Plymouth Bank Holiday August 2005

Eddy, Hand & Hat.

The target of this trip was to dive the three Pinnacles off shore from Plymouth; the Eddystone, Hand Deeps & Hat Rock.

 The original plan was to take two boats with 14 divers Saturday & Monday and 15 divers on Sunday.  A week before the trip 2 divers dropped out and then a couple of days before the trip one of the towers fell ill, leaving us with 11 divers (12 divers on the Sunday) and one boat!

 So after a late night replanning session on the evening before setting off the following was scheduled and then executed.  Each wave had a maximum of 8 divers on it and a non-diving Coxswain.

Saturday 27^th

Wave 1 – Depart 08:30 to Dive Hand Deeps.

Wave 2 – Depart 12:25 to Dive HMS Scylla in Whitsand Bay.

Wave 3 – Depart 14:45 to Dive the James Egan Layne in Whitsand Bay.

Sunday 28^th  

Wave 1 – Depart 08:30 to Dive Hat Rock.

Wave 2 – Depart 14:30 to Dive HMS Scylla in Whitsand Bay.

Wave 3 – Cancelled due to Wave 1 overrunning.

Monday 29^th

Wave 1 – Depart 08:00 to Dive The Eddystone.

Wave 2 – Depart 11:30 to Dive The Eddystone.

So despite the initial set backs the trip still achieved its target of diving all three of the offshore pinnacles.  Hat Rock was a particularly good dive and new dive for NSAC, which we now have good fix for.  Over the three days 12 divers conducted 50 dives.

…After the diving

On Saturday Night we had a BBQ at the campsite, Helen did the catering and we hand tonnes more food than even eleven hunger divers and guest that we were could finish.

On Sunday Night we ate at the Foxhounds Inn in Brixton, excellent food and excellent beer.

Not want I would call a low-stress marshalling exercise, sitting up to nearly midnight replanning the weekend on the night before you go is never a good way to start and it was a bit of a baptism by fire for George doing his Assistant Marshal & Marshal under supervision for his Dive Leader.  Well George if you can marshal this kind of trip you can marshal anything, I will have a word with the next DO and you can run the August Bank Holiday Trip in 2006.  Despite all of that the weather was kind to us and we managed to do what I have set out to do which was the three pinnacles. I don't know if anyone else noticed but George and myself did get to do all three, there has to be some benefit to marshalling :-)

The most memorable dive for me was Hat Rock (sorry Gordon:-), the combination of difficulty in safely diving it and the stunning scenery underwater will make that one of those dive you don't forget.  It is certainly rivals the U-772 for the position of the best dive I have done this year (sorry Patrick:-).

I have worked out why the Mark I had for the Eddystone was crap, I had taken it straight out of the 'Diver' article and not checked it, where as I had taken the Hand Deeps and Hat Rock Marks off the chart.  Just goes to show check everything, good job Pops ignored the GPS and just headed for the big Lighthouse sticking up on the horizon.

Thanks to everyone who came along your understanding and the fact that everyone help out made this trip in all it complications work.  Particularly thanks to my able assistant George and Kevin who towed the boat down and then gave me a lift to the slip each day.  I still haven't dived the Scylla but I don't think it is going anywhere.

Dirk.