Plymouth Long Weekend May 2024

We've had fairly poor Spring weather this year so it was a bit of a chance that nine members of Mid Herts Divers set off for a long weekend's diving trip to Plymouth. We had booked a complete package with InDeep: 3 days, 6 dives on the catamaran "Panther", gas fills, accommodation and breakfast.

We'd been to Plymouth a few times over the years and James Pemberton took up the challenge to organise his first big diving trip. Unfortunately, at the last minute, Richard Dew couldn't make it, so there were just the 9 of us. We drove down on the Thursday, booked into the accommodation and had a nice meal at the Clovelly Arms, nearby. The food was very tasty and the portions enormous!

In the morning after a cooked breakfast, we met the skipper of MV Panther, Sam and loaded our kit on the boat. The weather was fine and the sea calm as we set out for Whitsand Bay and the wrecks of the James Egan Layne and HMS Scylla. These are classic wreck dives in the Plymouth area in around 20m and with good visibility of 6-8m set us up for an enjoyable weekend. Tea/coffee and warm Cornish pasties between dives were very welcome.

The second night, we were booked in at the Boringdon Arms, close to the previous night's meal. Again, the food was very good. After a sleep and breakfast, we picked up our filled cylinders and boarded the boat, moored just a few metres from the Mountbatten Watersports & Activities Centre where we were staying. As the weather was flat calm, we took the opportunity to get out to the Eddystone Lighthouse, some 13 miles out.

Over the years , there had been precious few opportunities to get out to the Eddystone if the sea was anything but calm. After a dive on the rocky pinnacle, with moderate visibility followed again by a pasty lunch, after all, we were in Cornwall by now, we headed 6-7 miles back to the coast to dive on another rocky outcrop, the Hand Deep. Like the Eddystone, there was lots of kelp with the water temperature between 12 and 13 degrees.

For the evening, James had organised a table in an Indian/Nepalese restaurant in Plymouth. An added bonus was that this weekend was the "Pirate" weekend where there were lots of people in pirate costume and a replica pirate ship similar to the "Black Pearl" of Pirates of the Carribean fame was moored up. The Mountbatten Centre where we were staying was only a short water taxi ride away from Plymouth centre.

Our final day's diving went eastward to dive on the wrecks of the Persier and Glen Strathallan. Again the weather was sunny, sea state calm but as an added bonus, visibility on the Persier was 15m plus and on the Glen Strathallan at least 10m, probably the best that some have not experienced in a few years in the UK .

On the way back home, we'd all managed to get air/Nitrox refills that came with the diving package setting us up for our next dives at Stoney, Portland and Arlesey.

A great weekend, thanks to good organisation, good company and with a little bit of luck from the weather.