Duo-Divers

This is a Yarrels Blenny (Chirolophis ascanii) and stayed put for long enough for a photo or two.

A Devonshire cup-coral (Caryophyllia smithii), there are loads of these multi-coloured critters on the wreckage

A Sea-Hare (Aplysia punctata) these large nudibranch come in a variety of colours, depending I think on what they have been eating.

A bit of deco after the bounce dive, yes the other guy did make it!

The vessel was scuttled at anchor and you can just about make out the brittle-star encrusted anchor chain just above the deck, the big smear of rust is on the top edge/side of a hawse pipe.

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'

On one particular stone there were loads of Candy striped flatworms (Prostheceraeus vittatus), not sure why as adjacent areas were devoid.

Flat bits of plate, be that deck or hull are all over the site, I think they are deck as they are flat with very little in the way of thick metal ribs, but I do get things wrong.

Sea Hare (aplysia punctata)

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!

A Topknot (Zeugopterus punctatus) you will see these flatfish stuck onto the bottom and underside of crevices if you look carefully on dives over rocky ground. The skin is coarse so you can easily get hold of this docile fish and bag him for tea, should you wish. A word of warning they tend to be infested with worms!

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

Closer still and you can see the layout of the boat with the boiler towards stern of the vessel and some planks clinging to the bows

The sandstone bed-rock slowly steps up towards teh cliffs, in this case it is worn away in tiny steps, probably the equivalent to the layers that were laid down over time.

A Northern Prawn (Padalus borealis) sitting on a Dead-mans finger (Alcyonium digitatum), when you slow down and l-o-o-k there are loads of these prawns all over the sites.

A female Common Dragonet (Callionymus lyra), this one didn't want to move and simply shuffled deeper into the sand as the lens got closer.

A general topographical shot, there are several large stone pinnacles on the site, the largest rising maybe 4m from the seabed and with a circumference of 50m. They do degrade over time as they are formed from a softish rock and do receive a battering every year from Southerly and Easterly storms. They are however perfect lobster ground with their huge number of cracks and crevices!

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

The lower mounting position where the pin would fit

More lead scupper from Mistley, this stuff was from about mid-ship on the keel line so I am guessing that they were pretty much feeding straight into the pump, which has probably long gone.