Duo-Divers

The joys of a 'professional-hobbyist' (?) lathe is that you can carry out tweaks, in this case off-setting the blank so that I didn't need to set the lathe up to taper turn, rather the work-piece was off-set.

Caught a fraction of a second prior to a zoom away exit a Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), probably why a lot of 'non-locals' dive Babbacombe, I was a touch late this year.

Another 'arty-farty' this time in black and white to try and go all atmospheric

Another shot of the anchor, on this you can see the shaft and that the eye has rusted off, it can be seen just next to the end of the shaft

One of the hull plates, which as you can see were double rivetted in place, a much more time consuming method of construction than welding which was made commonplace during WWII

A Long Clawed Squat Lobster (Munida rugosa), this one was eating a still pulsing Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata)

The concreted in anchor, this is located on its own 'up' the gully on the seaward side of the Hopper rock

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 very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), eyes down!

A shaggy mouse slug, or sea mouse or more accurately Aeolidia papillosa, this one was spotted quite early in the season.

And here they are before line was added, the only bought bits a pair of bearings, one countersunk screw and the wing-nut!

I think part of a mast, I did think prop shaft from a smaller vessel but winter storms revealed that at least one of the ends is sealed.

Settling down on a patch of gravel and waiting until I bimbled over.......

Even more bits from the broken up boiler.......

I - And after lots of investigation into various oils I opted for high quality Danish Oil rather than Tung oil or similar

A very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), side on you can see how she has 'dimpled up' to look like the short weed on the rock. She was unwilling to move and I didn't want to 'provoke' her but her arms were massive and curled under her and down the other side of the stone. A very impressive site and it made the week!

The vis was crap which meant that I was unable to get good shots of wreckage, nut the dirt in the water meant a huge amount of filter feeders were 'out' such as Dead Mans Fingers (Alcyonium digitatum), the shots were a bit atmospheric but came out okay I think....

A pair of Long Clawed Squat Lobster (Munida rugosa) scrapping, not the best of shots because they fled after the first photograph.

The northern, vertical rock face is smothered in hydroids, sea-squirts and boring corals but no dead mans fingers, it's still nice and pretty in bright conditions

A substantial coupling!

The pile of anchor chain, this has obviously just dropped straight out of the locker and forms a big two meter square lump in a gully

C - Getting it cut was a chew but I knew that it was dried after a year in the shed

The inside or West side of the boiler with fire hole etc on show

So it was constructed from baulks of oak and glued and pinned together, I would have liked some brass staples but the wood was mineralised so not practical really