Duo-Divers

Typical farne site, a 'wall' down to a slowly sloping rock and boulder bottom.

But so had the bag full of non-ferrous finds that were picked out and kept.

On the West side of the site towards the South, the bottom shallows slightly and changes from grit to fist sized stones.

A grey seal pup (Halichoerus grypus) swam past and had a good look at me before........

K - So the next step was to find someone to make a base, I thought about mounting on four wooden legs but that was 'too vanilla' so we went to a local blacksmith

A Bloody Henry (Henricia oculata) common enough but a splash of purple on a dive!

Lots of scallops (Pecten maximus) if you know what to look for!

Again the wreckage from the port side, there are more planks than you would think as I am sure that the wreck would have been heavily salvaged by locals!

The joint 'tween twelve inch gun and turret at one of the rear guns, these are some size!

Not a great photograph but this little critter is a Fifteen Spined Stickleback (Spinachia spinachia) it's really camouflaged and only became apparent when it made a dash for some kelp! A small fish maybe 10cm long I am sure that they are more common than they first appear!

Having extracted this common lobster (Hommarus gammarus) I found it was berried, grrrrh!

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!

Common Cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis), probably why a lot of 'non-locals' dive Babbacombe, I was a touch late this year.

A dead female lumpsucker, found at Saltburn but common enough around the coast

A view inside a deck gun, this one has a more intact breech assembly and you can make out the various gubbins

Into Staple Sound and providing there is no current its just coarse sand and fist sized stones with some Dead mans fingers (Alcyonium digitatum) and other small creatures, not worth the swim guys!

A butterfish (Pholis gunnellus), these colourful critters live from rockpools to depth, just stop and look, you'll see them

Arty-farty shot of a pinnacle

A common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus), this one was a tad larger and seemed to have eggs around the rim of the shell.

Along part of the site there is a definite step of maybe a meter, a very good spot for picking up lost weights but note the general lack of life here in 10m of water!

A Sea lemon (Dorididae) on dull purple sea-weed, these nudibranchs are always easy to spot and this shows why!

The 'hump' of anchor chain

Sitting and waiting........

These weeds 'reached for the surface' and with the small fish swimming about they were like trees and the fish like birds, this time with the pier steps shown going into the water.

A very large, well the largest that I have ever seen Common Octopus (Octopus vulgaris), she was out and about for a full day so I guess that she was replete having eaten crab and either was enjoying a post-paradial sun bathing session or had a full stomach meaning she couldn't get in and out of her hole with ease!

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.......