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Dropping into the main gully one of the first things that you notice is the rust stained sand and then larger pieces of wreckage start to appear.
Not quite New Year but into a clarty site for a lobster
It's always a good idea to keep looking up when swimming close to the rock-face as you will get shoals of baitfish, be that 'brit' or sandeels swimming around and if your luck is in you may see them being attacked by predators, be that avian or piscine!
On this particular site on this day there were loads of smallish Edible Crabs (Cancer pagurus) quite an unusual sight as they don't normally show in shallow water.
A grey seal pup (Halichoerus grypus) swam past and had a good look at me before........
A view of the sections of masts if you are heading away from the Hopper, they are in a section of sand filled gully at the base of the rock face
Plastic waste, again, arrrrgh!
Fan worms, (Bispira volutacornis) loads on this site and many others but getting close enough for a reasonable shot without having them snap shut can be a bit of a chore
A close up of some 100 year old teak decking, in the shelter this decking has lasted remarkably well and is still 'tough' and not at all spongey and falling apart.
An oyster clamped down on the pier. there were quite a few on the pier but I didn't spot any on rocks under the water.......
A smallish edible crab or Cancer pagurus, these seem to be more common on shallow shore dives.
Part of the anchor assembly that is concreted into the sea-bed, you can see the anchor behind the main, round, rusty bit
Bear with me....its the port side hawse pipe and the two 'eyes' are where the flukles of the anchor located to sop them 'bashing about' when the ship was operating at high speed or inclement seas.
This is the keel I reckon, only 'obvious' as the weeds have dropped away.
More bits from the broken up boiler
A Devonshire cup-coral (Caryophyllia smithii), there are loads of these multi-coloured critters on the wreckage
The deeper gullies have a thick layer of grit and sand on the bottom, possibly concealing 'goodies'
A whelk (Buccinum undatum) there are loads of shells around the site and quite a few live ones. They are a popular food in some parts of the country and taste like eating rubber.
The capstan on the fore-deck...again!
The tosheroon just after I have started scratting, you can see some scrap iron in the foreground, no interest to me!
After the 'engine bits' there is an area where it's like a giant meccano kit, protruding maybe 4ft out of the sand.
As you move south the wreck doesn't appear to peter out and you do need more than a couple of dives to do the site justice
I just dropped outside of the hull at this point as I was 'bored', hopefully some sense of scale for both vis and wreck size
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