Lyme Regis 2007
Dived from Lyme Regis onboard Blue Turtle skippered by Doug.
Blue Turtle is an offshore 105 and is very spacious. On our days diving we had onboard 9 divers - 2 rebreathers, 2 twinsets with stages, 4 singles with ponies and 2 plain singles and there was still plenty of space!
Plenty of tea and coffee is provided onboard and a light lunch of pasties and beans was very welcome.
Doug was very helpful in kitting up and getting in the water and I'd certainly use him again, although Blue Turtle is very popular and he books up fast. We dived the first weekend of November 2007 and he only had a couple of weekends left in 2008!
Sidon Submarine
This British submarine lies on a sandy bed at 36m with the top of the sub around the 30m mark. It is generally still in tact and clearly a submarine. The coning tower has deteriorated more than the nearby M2 but the bow and torpedo tubes, with congers ready to launch, are still in excellent condition. There are a number of holes dotted around and several sections of the outer hull have corroded away. Large edible crabs and congers can be found inhabiting many of these nooks and cranies. The back of the sub appears to be more damaged but we had run out of time by the time we reached it and had to head up.
The sub originally sank in Portland Harbour after an experimental torpedo exploded and sank the sub with the loss of 12 lives. The Sidon was refloated and then sank for use as a sonar target.
The Baygitano
This wreck is well broken up and lies in 18 to 20m. It was a British Steamship of 3073 tons, 330 feet long and 45 feet wide although it hardly is recognisable these days. The huge boilers still stand proud and there are a few swim throughs. There was a HUGE conger inside one of the boilers and the site generally is full of bib and pollock with the odd bass. I found my first John Dory on this dive! It's located just outside the harbour so makes a great second dive. Divernet has a wreck tour on their webiste...
As you can see she is very broken up, but don't let that put you off. There is a lot of life on there and a lot of rusty metal!