Following the success of the Cornwall trip 2006, we returned again in July for another weeks diving with Looe Divers.

We were welcomed by a smiling and beaming John Bass, Course Director and owner of Looe Divers, who couldnt have been more pleased to see his favourite divers returning !!!!! We are probably the preverbial pain in the butt team from Leicester with more seasick divers amongst us than any other group.

After much deliberation about what dives we were going to do, it was decided that we would do 3 days boat diving in a row. I cannot imagine how that every happened, because, myself and Jacq just absolutely hate boats with avengence and never boat dive unless we absolutely have to. It was decided that we would do some local short journeys on the boat, but that the Syclla and James Eagan Lane just also had to be done as well.

Monday is the day when John and his team lie down in dark rooms for the day, recovering from people like us on their boat, so we decided to shore dive in front of the dive shop on basket rock. The weather had not been good so the vis was quiet poor, but it was certainly an exercise in navigation, having to negotiate huge beds of kelp, to make our way to the agreed exit point.

Monday night saw the storm from hell. As most of us were camping it was quite a night. The lightening hit the tree at the back of Aarons tent and most of us where shook from our beds. The storm raged all night with torrential downpours of rain, which unfortunately found its way into Aarons £19.99 Aldi special tent and flooded it, causing him to evacuate into his car. After being woken up at 6am by Aaron in distress, we bailed him out, got him warm and dry and fed him breakfast to stop him from whinging about the bloody weather. At 8am we received a phone call telling us the boat trip was cancelled due to the sea being too rough..........."yes, yes, fantastic" I thought. No boats today.

At Carls request we had to shore dive at Cawsands. This is the worst shore dive in the UK. It was pretty crap last year and even worse this year. The vis was less than nil and although the sea looked calm, underwater the kelp was swaying nicely. Our visit started off with an old guy of about 70 threatening Brian with 5 of his mates because his car was temporarily in the way while we unloaded the kit. Then it only got worse. Jacq and I buddied up, fed up with waiting for the guys to get themselves kitted up, and went off on our own. Having launched the SMB, we set off to meander amongst the wildlife, the only problem was we couldnt see a thing. Even each other. We were bumping shoulder to shoulder trying to find a clear patch of water, but after 10 mins we both looked at each other and decided that a cream tea was definitely a better option than finning through thick silt.

Navigating back to the shore we were almost garroted by a passing speed boat which sped too close to the SMB for our liking, so we huddled together under the Ferry buoy lying as flat as we could waiting for it to go away, which it didnt. After 5 mins we were fed up and finally crawled along the bottom to get out. Stomping up the beach in female temper, we dumped the kit and headed off for the nearest cafe to await the rest of the divers to exit. Carl tried desperately to convince everyone he had had a good dive - but he failed miserably.

The next day was a reef dive, about a 10 minute journey on the boat. The sea was ok but it was rolling a little. The skipper of the Morning Glory is a fantastic guy called Commodore Dave. Hes about 5' tall and a real man of the sea. He had experienced Jacq and me on the boat last year, so was of course delighted to see us back !! He was great. We were last on and first off at every dive. The reef dive at Downderry was really beautiful. It was just a mass of gullies on hard bedrock, so not much kelp at all. Unfortunately we had been saddled with an inexperienced diver in UK waters and despite Jacq and I wanting to be last on the boat, we only managed a 14 min dive time before we had to ascend.

Jacq felt particularly sick on the boat and as we were quite close to shore, we legged it overboard and swam back to shore, missing out on the Looe Island dive.However, the next day was the biggie !!. We were planning on diving the Syclla and the James Eagan Lane, which meant 5 hours at sea. I have never done 5 hours at sea on any vessel let alone a small dive boat, and was not a happy bunny at the thought of it, but decided that I just had to do the dives, so would muster the confidence from somewhere. With the aid of a Scopoderm patch overdose and the knowledge that my dive buddies would leave me alone and not talk to me for 5 hours, I crept onto the boat at 7am the next morning with my kit already put together and my Divemaster fully briefed on how he was going to chuck it on my back and throw me in. The sea was beautiful. Totally flat calm and Commodore Dave was fantastic. He explained he would keep the boat moving in between dives so it wouldnt roll as we had to wait an hour and a half between dives.

The first dive was the Syclla. The current was incredible. It was hard to actually get down the shot line as you were being pulled backwards at such a force. So we just went hand over hand down into the deep dark gloom. Everyone was breathing hard as you couldnt see a thing and battling the current, but once on the ship it was amazing. We dropped over the Port side to lose the current and finned for England to get down to the bottom. The ship has a number of door ways you can enter and swim through some of the rooms, but its important to know where you are going and we navigated carefully avoiding stirring up the silt. I had a plasma torch which almost lit up the whole ship it was so powerful. The rooms inside are big and spacious allowing plenty of safe investigation if you are careful and dont go too far unless you run out your reels behind you. Its a big ship and easy to get lost in so do a wreck course first.

The second dive was the James Eagan Lane, and with the current still running fast we descended again into the gloom, onto the shallow bow section. Making our way down the wreck we peered through the large cracks in the side at all the cargo and collapsed decking. We swam into the mid ships section and through the wreckage again careful not to stir up the silt and gently drifted along her sides. Peering into one section revealed the most enormous conger eel I have ever seen. Its scary staring eye is sufficient to make most divers flee, but I love them. Leave them alone and just look and they just keep on looking back, guarding their hidy hole. It was another great dive. Launching the SMB I was smiling knowing that it was time to get onboard and start our journey home and that I had no more boat diving to do. We chugged back to shore, where I was greeted by a smiling John Bass saluting us on the harbourside as I had managed not to chum for the whole 5 hours. A personal acheivement I can assure you. With cheers and plenty of back slapping I was off that boat before you could say "has anyone emptied the head". I was promised a Blue Peter badge, but sadly it was not forthcoming.