lyme bay

True Grit…..

On a perfect diving day we headed down to Burton Bradstock beach (Hive Beach) which is run by the National trust. Ten divers (John Beer, Kerrie, Ian, Courtney, John Blessing, Kevin, Chris, Grainne, Andy W and Howard) and one sunbather (Josh) set up camp on the beach just to the East of the cliffs that mark the more interesting seabed to the West end of the main beach. A nice set of Gabian cages formed a perfect kitting up bench there so we claimed them for ourselves.

The biggest problem on this day was basically keeping the damn grit out of our kit and suits. Just walking down to the water we found that grit got into wetsuit boots and fins. Once in the water which was nearly perfectly flat calm, we found very good vis – at least 8m in places. Dropping to the seabed there were a mixture of boulders and sandy seabed. Depth was not much more than 7m but lots of like about. We found cuttlefish, dogfish, lots of pipefish fry and several big crabs and lobsters. Depth being shallow we didn’t need to change tanks – Kerrie managed four dives on just two 12Ls. All in all in one day we managed 21 dives between 10 divers which was pretty good going. We kept going on coffee and buns from the beach cafe.

Note for future trips here – the carpark is £5.00 all day and you need change. The National trust run the place and wont let you take vehicles onto the beach so if you want boat cover you’ve got to lug them down there by hand or launch elsewhere and come in from the sea.