 |
Bovisand
|
Trip Report by Kathy Gubbins
Divers:
- Peter 'Happy Bunny' Huxley
- Ken 'Pepper Chopper' Shum
- Angie 'The Teddybear' Lee
- Iain 'AM (Acronym Man)' Smith
- Ed 'Get out for the speed bumps' Coney
- Jamie 'Master Chef' Wilkinson
- Kathy 'The Catfish' Gubbins
- Daryl 'The Ear' Spelman
- Tom 'I think my suit may be leaking' Riley
- Jessica 'Rocks are much more interesting' Warren
- Matt 'Erm - Sorry Peter' Gubbins
"Ha!"
"Plymouth in March, you must be mad!" people said (and yes we are, completely, but that is beside the point!)
Gorgeous weather every day for the week. Flat calm, gorgeously sunny - we are talking serious risk of suntan here. We couldn't have asked for better. It certainly beat the first day in Malta!
It all started well with Peter realising his directions for Bovisand might not be quite right when he ended up doing a scenic tour of Plymouth city centre, but no-one was more than 8 hrs late...
Fort Bovisand
We stayed in our own 'penthouse appartment' after a certain amount of grovelling and charm. A balcony view of the whole of Plymouth Sound, a choice of beds, self-catering kitchen and a shower that bore a remarkable resemblance to a cave. The disadvantage? - approximately 120 steps - I did count them on the way back from the bar once but seem to have forgotten the exact number.... A big incentive not to forget the kit store key. With everything on site, life was easy, the perfect way to relax after the end of term.
The Diving
With the tide being out during the afternoons, early morning starts struck me as a good idea, facilitated by an interesting variety of 'wake up calls'.
While Peter heroically started introducing the 5 Novices to the excitement of 'sea' diving, the sports divers started to explore Bovisand Harbour- a place that we now know well!
The viz was generally good 3-6m. Enough for the reefs and kelp beds to be visible if 'atmospheric'. Sports diver dives were happily spent exploring kelp beds, catching dogfish, and visiting the local underwater tourist attractions of :-
- the anchor
- the large anchor
- the bottom of the bouy
- the other large anchor
Peter, meanwhile, was NOT having a hardtime convincing the Novices that the sea around Britain is overfished, instead the variety and size of the local 'female hygiene and contraception products' population was being carefully studied. Bonus points were awarded for wings and novelty items...
The diving was ideal for getting back into the swing of things and introductory dives. Easy, convenient, with nice scenery and life. Consistently good if not exciting or dramatic dives. The marine reserve appeared no different from the surrounding area but there was still lots of life doggies, wrasse, flatfish, crabs, sea urchins,starfish (not to mention the deadly starfish variety that can be found near the end of dives), sponges etc.
The day's adrenalin rush was provided by the step-in entry off the harbour wall. A feat the Novice's did not seem to bat an eyelid at but caused the sports divers a few problems- Ken's weightbelt deciding to continue towards the seabed (an ideal opportunity to demonatrate the use of lifting bag), Angie's 'who needs a DV anyway?' and Kathy's 'what is all this red stuff filling my mask' for instance.
We did a total of 90 dives between us not a bad week's diving in all!
The Highlights
- Anyone need some dive kit? Just go diving at Bovisand - it grows there on the bottom - we collected a knife, a mask, and a watch in the first 3 days.
- 'Diving cocktails' - The 'Sea Snakebite' and 'Slippery wetsuit'....need I say more?
- The point at which I decided to 'jump in' whilst rock climbing.
- Getting out of Ed's car for every speedbump...
- That 'zero' moment
- The 'yorkshire farmer' helping Iain with CPR
- Tom's sea urchin impression
- The 'damp suits' on hire from Bovisand
- The Boddies can
It was a great week - lets do it again sometime!