Plymouth April 2025 Trip Report
In the weeks before the Plymouth trip the anticipation builds, excitement, nerves and hours preparation to jump into the unknown universe of the English Channel. What challenges will we face? What incredible discoveries will the team make?
A few days before the trip everyone receives the dreaded group chat message! “Team the weather is looking bad for Plymouth, the captain is offering to postpone or continue what shall we do?!” The group chat erupts with panic divers! Postpone.... Never! The whole team adamant the show must go on. Luckily at Dive Rutland all of the divers are hardcore, highly skilled and ready for challenge.
Day 1 (Travel Day) Consisted of a steady travel day. The team assembling at the Leonardo hotel. Hit with challenging motorway madness, they battled on ready to start their evening of dive planning over a very important and well-earned beer or two after the long days driving.
Day 2 (Dive Day 1) kicked of with a wonderful breakfast, all the options imaginable from a traditional full English to fresh fruits and muesli. Once the ballast was corrected with large helping of breakfast a short Bimble across town to the marina where Size Matters awaits with Captain Ben from Indeep. We had a very generous late rope’s off. Giving everyone plenty of time to complete the keycode challenge to access the changing rooms. Luke got plenty of exercise helping to load everyone's kit onto the boat (Definitely earning his Cornish pasty and cup of tea between dives).
Everyone had a chuckle at the statement on Size matters door.... “If at first you don't succeed, try doing what the captain told you to do the first time” (Or Tracey told you).
The first dive of the weekend was the FS Poulmic. A French vessel, she was built in 1937 a French transport ship from World War two. During World War two she operated as a mine sweeper from Plymouth before being stuck by an acoustic mine. Sadly, sinking south of the Plymouth breakwater. The wreck sits between 14 metres and 16 metres on the seabed. Descending a shot line to rocky seabed. Sections of the wreck are scattered between outcrops on the sea. Lots of opportunity to explore the shipwreck and surrounding wildlife. A lovely start to the weekend.
We swiftly moved to calmer waters after the first dive. Whilst observing a large ship (Hurst Point) being towed by tugs from the harbour. Quite a sight to see such a large boat being assisted out of port. The vessel was sat quite high in the water with prop slightly exposed due to its lack of cargo.
Our second dive of day one was Firestone Bay. Some slight navigation from the drop off point using “our” compasses. I think most divers following the leader. Then a right turn onto the seawall slowly rolling away. Zig zagging across the wall there was a huge abundance of wildlife to explore. Joe and sham were amazed at the size of lobster they discovered! Claws large enough to be mistaken for fire brigade's jaws of life! They both kept their distance!
After a short siesta. The team settled in a Mexican restaurant to compare notes of the days diving and a relaxed evening. A great social and great food.
Day Three (Dive Day 2) – An earlier ropes off! The team missed their generous lie in from the morning before but a very excited as the first dive of the day was a big ship wreck!! HMS Scylla a playground for all types of divers. HMS Scylla is a Royal Navy Leander class frigate that was decommissioned and intentionally sunk in Whitsand bay, upright on the sea bed also serving as an artificial reef. This was Europe's first artificial diving reef. There are over 278 species on the Scylla dominated by Rosy Feather Stars, with Dead Mans’ Fingers leading to some great photo opportunities. A magnificent scale of shipwreck with lots on offer.
The boat quickly retreated from the choppy ocean and into the protection of of the Penlee point for a calm cup of tea and pasty before moving onto Pier Cellars. Protected from any wind its a shallow dive between 6 and 15 metres. Lots of rocky out crops and sandy bottom home to a vast range of plant growth and marine life. Plenty of camouflaged creatures to find. Nearly every buddy pair had a sighting of one octopus some even more! Lots of cuttle fish hiding amongst the abondance of kelp.
A diver aboard our boat became detached from his DSMB during his safety stop. There were many theories as to how this happened, perhaps espionage from an underwater Russian cable cutting vessel or a speedy rib setting a land speed record. After closer inspection we learnt that the knot on the line had untied itself. Captains Bens advice was to remember..... “If you can’t tie knots tie lots!
After a return to the hotel, Ben lead some of the group to elevator. He was always told that you should ascend slowly, making safety stops on the way up. He quickly found out that this doesn’t apply to lifts; if you press the button to every floor to make sure you ascend at a safe rate, people tend to not let you anywhere near the buttons for the rest of trip!
That afternoon as group of underwater explorers the team took to the streets of Plymouth to explore using natural navigation of the town including the war memorial and great view from the lighthouse out to sea. Joe's hunt for sea sickness pills and Harry trying to find as many Tesco express’s as possible. The exploration also included the mandatory Dive Rutland Ice cream stop. To pass the Dive Rutland certification as a dive trip an ice cream was firmly on the dive slates.
Once the sugar rush from the ice creams had worn off the team made its way to a Greek Restuarant which lived upto its recommendation delivering an exciting range of starters and mains. In time everyone took part in a synchronised dance to Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t she lovely”, rather like kelp to-ing and throwing in the ebb and flow of the waves.
Day four (Dive Day 3) – An Early bird catches the worm. With meticulous weather and tide planning captain ben planned an earlier rope off to lead the team to another incredible shipwreck. Local knowledge and experience is invaluable to lead to safe and ineradicable diving. Just outside the breakwater the team descended the shot line very skilfully place by the captain on the middle of HMT Elk. HMT Elk originally launched in 1902, a side trawler acquired by the admiralty in 1939 surviving one year of service it sank during experimental mine counter measures. The wreck lays upright on the seabed at 30 metres. Largely intact with very good viz there was lots to explore. The 32% nitrox gave everyone a generous extended bottom time with most divers getting time for two laps of the wreck. Largely intact there is a lot to sea and explore.
After a busy shot line for accent the captain took the boat to the calm waters of Cawsand bay were the boat had a visitor. A long-distance swimmer came aboard in his very hydrodynamic speedos and swimming cap. Is he aqua man everyone questioned! A friend of Indeep. This long-distance swimmer was out on a training swim preparing for his expedition swimming of Ireland to Scotland. After joining us for a cuppa tea he carried on his very training swim banking those proper nautical miles ready for his event. (We wish him the very best for his upcoming challenge).
The final dive of the weekend came around far too quickly! A steady dive on Pier Cellars. Competitively the divers dropped off in their buddy pairs. Who could get the most octopus sightings during the dive! With video evidence of cause. A very large dive site allowed everyone to take very different routes zagging the undulating rockery and sandy bottoms with their eyes peeled for the well camouflaged creatures. Occasionally bumping into another dive buddy pairing who would exchange an array of hand signals as to which direction they had seen the best marine life.
After an incredible weekends diving with some much better weather than expected the team had a debrief and farewell before starting their north bound journey back to the midlands. A great weekend was had and lots of different learning points taken from each dive. What discoveries will the next trip hold?
Divers: Agnes / Ben / Harry / Joe / Luke / Mark / Przemek and Tracey
A huge Thanks go to Joe for writing this trip report.
