Plymouth Hard Boat Weekend

PLYMOUTH DIVE TRIP ON RED ALERT WEEKEND OF THE 11^TH AND 12^TH JUNE

Firstly apologies, the details of the trip are still a bit sketchy as the skipper is currently at his winter residence in Spain so there is a bit of a delay in communications. I know that everyone is trying to sort out their dive plans for the year so best to get this in the diary even though I haven’t yet got all the details.

For those of you that don’t know the boat Red Alert is a lift equipped dive boat with large open deck area, centre benches over the engine cover for kitting up and a reasonably sized cabin with a standard marine head. Lunch and snacks are provided on board as long as you like pasties and doughnuts. If you want anything else you’ll need to bring it yourself. Hot drinks area available throughout the day on a help yourself basis. The boat takes a maximum of 12 divers and there is enough space on board for kit storage so provided no one goes crazy and brings a couple of kitchen sinks with them there is generally plenty of space.

The skipper is a very experienced ex-Naval rebreather diver and rebreather instructor so he does get the whole diving thing. He knows the area very well and will know and advise on what will work and what won’t in terms of dive sites and weather conditions.

Here is where things start to get a bit sketchy. The boat was based in Bovisand Harbour but will probably not be for the 2022 season because of the building work going on at the site. So at the moment I don’t know where it will be picking up. Plymouth Yacht Haven (next to Mountbatten) or Mountbatten pontoon are both options and it is likely to be one of those two but at the moment I just don’t know. Prices haven’t yet been confirmed but work on £60/day per diver.

The skipper has his own compressor at Bovisand which he plans to move and still make use of but again I’ve not had this confirmed so don’t know if this is going to happen or where it will be based. Air and nitrox were both available but again I don’t yet know if this will be the same this year. If you want to use nitrox which hint, hint is a good option for the planned depths you will need to have O2 clean cylinders. Gas will be available from Indeep at Mountbatten if all else fails but it’s expensive, also they don’t require O2 clean cylinders for nitrox as they preblend so maybe a better option anyway for some.

At the moment I’m planning for a mixture of wrecks and reefs in the 30-35m range so if you want to come along please make sure that you’re fully dived-up and ready for those depths along with the obligatory unpredictable UK viz. For reefs I’m thinking Eddystone/Hands Deeps/Hilsea/East Rutts for wrecks the Maine/Rosehill/Oregon (please no one suggest the Elk) but I am open to offers if anyone has any sites that they’d particularly like to dive as long as it fits in with everyone’s capabilities (just as long as it’s not the Elk).

If you are interested or would like any more info please let Mark know.