Three Arden Divers, Will, Chris and Sophie, recently joined our neighbours Solihull Sub Aqua Club on their trip to Plymouth for a great weekend of diving.
We were made very welcome by Solihull who had organised a fabulous trip. We dived with InDeep on their boat Seeker, and were well looked after by skipper James and crew Matt. Unfortunately the pleasant sunny weather was somewhat spoiled by a strong easterly wind that rather limited diving choices, but James still managed to find some great dives for us in more sheltered spots.
On the Saturday we ventured around Rame Head to dive the James Egan Lane. A lovely, somewhat broken up wreck, the JEL has never quite made sense to me when trying to navigate it. But thanks to James’s excellent briefing it all fell into place. A great example of how much difference a good briefing can make to a dive.
With James deciding that conditions weren’t suitable to stay in Whitsand Bay we took a rather bouncy and wet trip back around the head to do our second dive on the Breakwater Fort. A site I’ve not dived before, there was some interesting history and plenty of life to be seen.
For Sunday we stayed in the shelter of the harbour and dived the Glen Strathallen and Canonball Alley, another two lovely dives that I hadn’t dived previously. Even in this sheltered spot the wind made for some interesting pick-ups, and left a few on board feeling decidedly queezy.
All in all a great weekend, with some fantastic company from the Solihull crew. Huge thanks to them for having us along and making us feel so welcome. We’re looking forward to some more collaboration between the two clubs.
