Having two days of diving in Plymouth arranged; I was pretty excited to see blue skies and sunshine on the first morning.  All involved arrived on the jetty nice and early, all that is except me, I was enjoying the lovely Devon countryside – or at least that is my excuse!

After kitting up we made our way by RIB to the first dive site, the Elk.  After a professional buddy check, we all descended and began our tour of the wreck. During the dive we saw plenty of life, the highlight being the huge shoal of Bib circling above the centre of the wreck. As we prepared to make our ascent, my buddy confidently drew his delayed SMB and proudly inflated it without assistance. Having deployed about 2 metres the SMB stopped and to the enjoyment of the rest of his buddies, the jammed reel had to be released.  We sat at 30m chuckling as his delayed SMB and reel disappeared up into the blue, well green/blue!!  With his ordeal over, he began looking longingly at his buddies for guidance and leadership. Thankfully we were there to efficiently deploy and recover an alternative SMB!

The Elk was followed by what can only be described as my best ever UK dive; the James Eagan Lane. There is so much life on the wreck! Looking up from 20m and seeing the towering beams that used to support the ship surround which are now covered in dead man’s’ fingers, sea fans and kelp. With shoals of fish circling the beams as well, this made it an enjoyable and relaxing dive and enhanced the fantastic view. Looking down into the wreck... crabs, lobsters, tom-pot blennies and many other fish meant that you couldn’t possibly tire of this wreck.  The only disappointment had to be cutting the dive short due to us coming close to our no decompression limits.

The second day we dived the Rosehill, and then the James Egan Lane for the second time. These dives were as enjoyable as the first two, even now I can still clearly remember being at eye level with the wreck, looking across it and seeing an amazing collection of sea fans with a wonderful shoal of fish swimming carefully in between, a truly amazing view! This just topped off a fantastic couple of days diving.  Thanks to Dave and Matt for a brilliant midweek experience.