Six divers, a coxswain and one non diving partner went to West Bay on hot June weekend and were rewarded by some spectacular shallow diving scenes but it didn’t go without some hiccups.
Femti, our Rhib was getting her first outing in some time so Steve and myself tested the engine before leaving the boatyard. She started first time so off we headed into the building traffic, all heading for the seaside. West Bay is a small cute seaside resort with harbour, beaches and all towered over by large sandstone cliffs.
On Saturday morning the rhib headed straight into the waves & it can be a bit much on the spine and the stomach and our first diver became quite seasick and cancelled their dive. The other 5 divers were rewarded with an excellent drift dive on a location called ‘High Ground’ which was only 4.5 metres to begin with but had lots of life and most of the rocks were carpeted with kelp and other sea anemones.
The second drift dive ‘The Ram’ was pretty uneventful until we surfaced, where we were met by a large fast rhib tourist boat who’s crew member shouted to us that our boat had engine trouble and the RNLI had been called to pick us up. They then moved off to alert the other surfacing divers and we floated in the sea comfortably awaiting our rescue.
When the RNLI arrived to pick us up it all seemed a bit embarrassing, in that we were all in good spirits and had simply cadged a lift. The harbour master’s boat towed in the Rhib and the more able club members managed to fix the fault which turned out to be a busted fuel pipe.
The Baygitano wreck on Sunday at only 19-20m turned out to be such a superb dive. Marine life was in abundance and most nooks and crannies seemed to have a lobster or a conger in residence. The one or two bib we saw on day one where now joined by hundreds of their bred surrounding the uprights of the wreck itself. Doubt I have personally seen more life on any of my other 140 dives. We just did one dive, had lunch and got back on the road to London. A great trip, thanks to Stephen for organising and Steve for trailing and piloting the boat.
