Duo-Divers

A typical north east wreck dive, plates, boilers n bits. In this case probably Jan Van Ryswyck although a few vessels have foundered so the bits are somehwhat mixed!

Once inside there is plenty of room to move about without many intact bulkheads you'd struggle to loose your buddy too. The floor was wood with no metal plate behind so it's rotting away rapidly.

A bit of scrap for you rust heads out there, you will also find a wreckage field from the Mistley.

A Common Whelk (Nucella lapillus) I had to double take as this one was eating what seemed to be an edible crab and on checking yup they do eat crabs, amazing!

I think that this is part of the range-finder arrangement which was located on the conning tower, basically the wider apart the two sighting positions , the wider the angle and the more accurate the range calculations!

The Montagus blenny (Coryphoblennius galerita), not the best of shots but this critter was on a pile of sand infront of his lair.

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

A crushed brass bell! An ornament? It looks too small to be fitted to a door so I really have no idea but again interesting.

Feedin' the wrasse!!

In this case Ballan Wrasse (Labrus bergylta) on a smashed edible sea urchin (Echinus esculentus), don't try this at home kids.

The point where the gun meets the turret

The cascabel is turned and there is a 10mm hole machined in the brass blank and it's time to go!

Wrecky bits against the reef- face

A brass RN sailors button, I would have thought that there would be a story behind this, was it from a dead body washed ashore during the wars?

A general shot of the rock formations complete with kelp and bits.....

Kelp (Family laminariales) does tend to be quite a long lived plant with the stem above say the first twenty centimeters quite a safe place for a plant to grow without the risk of sea-urchins 'browsing' you away. In this case dulse and other sea-weed encases the stem, making an eco-system up in the water column!

Rust, rust, rust......after every storm the coating of plants and cruid is 'bashed' away leaving bare metal which rusts and in colonised by the sea only for the process to repeat, eventually leaving noting behind but the larger structural pieces of steel.

This site is home to a multitude of Common Hermit Crabs (pagurus bernhardus) and they do seem to be involved in a never ending squabble or 'pagger', the behaviour possibly derived from its latin name?

The head of a Greater Pipefish (Syngnathus acus)

Scrapyard, if you look carefully you will be able to see Albert Steptoe, he's a dirty old man!

Nudibranch alert! This particular species appears to have electric blue tips when viewed in the water.

Leopard Spotted Goby (thorogobius ephippiatus) the knack is getting them to stay still, lots of phtographs come out as a puff of silt and a tail.