Diving in Lyme Bay 

(Saturday and Sunday, 22nd and 23rd August 2009) by HSAC Chairman Jim Ridings

FOLLOWING the trail of the French Leutenant’s Woman to the Cobb, the 10 intrepid 141’ers joined Dougie on Blue Turtle (pictured above) for a weekend’s diving in Lyme Bay. The divers were John Salsbury, Stuart and Tracy Crump, Jim and Lynda, Alan Harman, Chris “NST” Shorter, Kelvin Price, Andrea Faux and Margaret Fry.

Arriving from their various B&B’s, following a difficult Friday journey through the hoards of “staycationers” meandering through endless roadworks, the 141’ers arrived on the Cobb at Lyme Regis harbour to board the well organised “Turtle”. Space is at a premium on board and Dougie has a well-rehearsed boarding plan which, although seemingly full of rules and orders, worked efficiently and all the kit was quickly aboard and cars parked. A clear and precise boat brief was very refreshing and soon we were supping our brews as we headed for the Moidart, 10 miles into Lyme Bay.

This armed 1,878 ton collier was sitting upright on a silty seabed and covered in life. The ship is broken in half around the engine room with the bows reasonably in tact where Dougie had placed the shot. The bow was covered in dead-man’s fingers with plenty of space to enter the foc'sle area, which was full of fish. The starboard anchor is extended to the seabed with the port anchor hooked over the gunnel.  As we swam towards the stern the wreck became more broken with the boiler and engine visible but not distinct in the fairly mirky visibility.

The inside of the hull, to the port side of the engine were racks of the engineer’s tools; I thought they were spanners but Lynda thought they were hammers. We can never agree. In the fairly poor visibility we didn’t bother to search for the stern section, which lies about 20m away, and returned back to the bows to come up the SMB. 

A 45 min dive time and only 5mins deco; the rebreathers coming into their own. After an uneventful dive we returned to the surface to wait more than 10 minutes to be picked up. Unbeknown to us the rescue helicopter had visited the boat to take John Salsbury for a trip to Dorchester. John had not even entered the water but had become a little breathless with chest pains while kitting up due to a perished neck seal that was temporarily taped up (but Chris forgot John still had to breathe).  Dougie, taking no chances, had called the coastguard.  More about John later (all was well).   After munching hot dogs and onions we headed for wreck number 2.

We dived wreck 2, the Baygitano, lying just outside Lyme Bay harbour in a maximum of 24m off the slack so a fair current was running as the shot was placed. The wreck was a recent subject of the Diver wreck tour (No. 93 and is shown above).  Details at: http://www.divernet.com/Wrecks/wreck_tours/159490/wreck_tour_93_the_baygitano.html). 

Lying mostly flat but teaming with life, in particular the impressive shoals of sea bass darting through the wreckage. The shot was hooked over the rail near point 5 (see yellow arrow above) and we headed sternwards (to the right above) past the upright engine (with large shoal of whiting and a large friendly conger) and boilers. 

Pausing to watch the many fish we crossed the extensive plates to find the upturned bows with bollards and chains. Returning back along the starboard side, Lynda was feeling a bit wet and cold so we freed the shot and deployed the SMB. It was great to return to this wreck after nearly 15 years away.

However, the current had taken its toll on some of the 141’ers with two not getting below the surface and Chris “NST” getting very wet.  Kelvin Price had a big surprise on surfacing, thinking he was diving with Stuart and Tracy, to find he was with Andrea and Margo.  He would not say which one he thought looked like Stuart, or vice verse (votes on a postcard please to www.harlowBSAC.co.uk).

After returning to Lyme and unloading the kit I headed off to Dartmouth to collect John.   After 25miles of scenic driving along the A35 I arrived at A&E to find John in the waiting area.  ECGs and BP measurements had shown all was clear, but better to be safe than sorry, and we headed back to our B&Bs to eat and be merry ahead of Day 2.

Day 2 saw us back on the quayside at 9.30am to reload the boat and head for the Ailsa Craig.   John and Chris did not join us due to wrecked and saturated suits and respectively returned home and we spread out in the extra space. Kelvin was taking photos so he would recognise his buddies and Dougie had provided Lynda with a stool from the toilet. No not a brown one, but a fine shade of purple!

The Ailsa Craig lay only 650m from the Moidart so it was a familiar sail to the wreck site. A slightly more choppy sea was not well received by Margo who started to feed the fish and Andrea, loyal to her buddy, chose not to dive.  

So only 6 intrepid 141’ers entered the water to dive this British steamer (built 1906 - 601 gross tons) that was carrying coal from Cardiff to Granville and sunk on 15 April, 1918 by the German submarine UB-80.  Some historians believe the Ailsa Craig was in convoy with the Pomeranian, which some of us have dived.

More time to kit up than on Day 1 and Lynda was soon resting her CCR on her stool ready to roll over the side. The Ailsa Craig was upright at both bows and stern and collapsed a midships.  The shot was near the bows, once again in about 5m vis. Lynda and I headed to the stern to find the large single boiler (with large crab) and open engine (many pouting) very close to the upright stern sitting about 6m off the seabed.

The prop was in place as we swam around the fairly dark stern with the rudder hard to port; suggesting the ship was circling when going down. Coming back down the starboard side we reached close to the bows again before ascending the SMB for another hour in the water.

No alarms this time and we finished the weekend with Alan, Tracy, Start and Kelvin diving the East Rutts for a scallop collecting competition.  In 26m I was told this dive was very scenic with many pink seafans. The bags of scallops were soon on board and we headed home. (Tracy definitely deserved the title of Scallop Catcher of the Weekend, which Stuart and Lorna took advantage of!)

I enjoyed the diving and will be back again next year.    As for the other 141’ers, they will give you their own stories and you can judge for yourselves whether Chris was “not so thin” and who looked most like Stuart.