27 Oct, 08

Organiser: Gwen

Accommodation: Mount Batten Centre

It is soon becoming a tradition for Sutton SAC to being the diving season in Plymouth.  Easter fell relatively early this year so we were in for a surprise with what the weather would be doing!  Most of the people on the trip went down on Friday and due to severe sea conditions only managed a shallow dive in sheltered waters.

 Not to be deterred we all set out again on Saturday with high hopes of what would be in-store once we got past the breakwaters. The sea was very rough (to say the least) and despite our best efforts we had to turn back and come into shore.  Not wanting to waste the afternoon we made good use of the time and completed some lessons for the people on the Dive Leader or Advanced courses.

 On Sunday there was a ‘we are going to dive today not matter what’ attitude amongst the group!  Thankfully the sea was calmer and we managed to get out towards the James Eagan Layne & the Syclla.  The coxan (and club diving officer) dropped us in right on top of, what he assured us, was the James Eagan Layne – only to be the Syclla!!  It was an excellent dive with really good visibility.  My buddy & I spent quite a bit of time in the engine room and it was absolutely huge.  When we came up we said to the DO it was the Syclla and his immediate reply was “no it is not, it’s the JEL”!!! However we argued our point that the wreck we had just been on was still intact and unless the JEL had been glued back together over the last 6months it was definitely the Syclla!! You can just about forgive him his mistake as there was a huge green buoy on the wreck with the James Eagan Layne clearly written on it!!  

 We decided not to take a chance on the weather on Monday & got the boats back onto the trailers so we could make an early move in the morning! It was then ‘sod’s law’ that the sea was perfectly calm on Monday morning!!

 Never mind, you win some, you lose some!! But it was still fun to go away for the weekend and we made good use of the time with lessons etc but most importantly it was great to get sea diving so early in the season.

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