Guides
Port Gaverne
I don't do a huge amount of diving in the'deep south' but lots of people do, this dive guide has a link to Atlantic Scuba, if you have any questions give Mark a shout and I am sure he will provide suitable enlightenment!
{mosmap lat='50.593495'|lon='-4.823545' }
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Latest Photographs
A Sand Brittle Star (Ophiura ophiura), on the deeper wrecks there were odd ones on the sea-bed rather than the thick carpet of brittles seen on the shallower stuff.
A Red Cushion Star (Porania pulvillus) this one was half on/half off a hatch so made quite a nice subject as there was access to the top as per this shot.
Debris all around and most unidentifiable, in this case it's a section of hull plating.
Back in the day we refered to this as 'scrattings' where lobsters (Homarus gammarus) scraped sand from there hidey holes, you could tell that they were in residence due to the large amount of dirty sand excavated from their summer homes!
A Long Legged Spider Crab (Macropodia rostrata) there are loads on all or most sites, this is the most common 'camouflage'.
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.
The seal eventually lay on the bottom and wanted to have its photo taken.....
This section is the only bit commonly found south of the boilers, you might find some bits of bow but its a swim and they may be covered in sand
Aa bit salty round the eyes so a tad dehydrated
A view of the sections of masts if you are heading towards the Hopper, they are in a section of sand filled gully at the base of the rock face
The head of a Greater Pipefish (Syngnathus acus)
More wreckage but a long way from SS Mistley, from its general condition and rivet pitch I would guess that it is from Yewglen and was lost during the local recovery/salvage operation!
Believe it or not a Gravel Sea Cucumber (Neopentadadactyla mixta) under the tentacles there is a creature living in a hole!
The star of the show the letter 'O' from the ships nameplate for the lost Loch Leven, a nice trinket!
Somewhere in the welter of bubbles is a diver, getting into the water is easy, waddle from your car over the flat concrete and kinda 'fall in'
Being a bit of a pedant I decided that I would need to fix a point where the fishing line could be secured.....
More of the steering mechanism on SS Breda
You can probably see from the general topography that the reef or should that be reefs run east west and as you get closer to the access point you will start seeing more bits of reef poking up, kinda pointing the way out!
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!
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
A very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), I knew that there was a big occie about as there is a noticeable 'lair' with loads of smashed edible crab parts, the trouble is that inside their hidey holes there is nothing to see.
Dropping to the bottom about eighty meters from the cliff face and you are faced with a bottom comprising of boulders with coarse sand between them, the boulders vary in size from the size of cars to maybe a meter cubed.
A pretty little light, one of the guys thought 'deck light' but with a solid back and close to another two broken lights I would think a bulkhead light of some description, date late victorian to pre WWI
A shoal of immature Bib (Trisopterus luscus) this shoal was always around a particular large rock on the site, not sure why, guess that there is a subtle current split or join?
This particular Bloody Henry (Henerica oculata) was a vivid purple/black, something that I haven't noticed previously in the area.
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