The weather forecast was great, and with very little wind we expected a good weekend. Some of the group stayed in Ilfracombe on the Friday night but two of us drove down Saturday morning. Part way down, Tony realised that he had forgotten his undersuit – too late for us to go back for it and still get to the boat on time.

At the boat we quickly loaded up and went out of Ilfracombe harbour towards Lundy. We couldn’t have asked for a better crossing – much better than last year’s vomit-producing nightmare.

Our first dive was at Gannet Bay, a sheltered area where we hoped to see seals (we could see them on the rocks so were hopeful). Tony jumped in with just his drysuit but no thermal protection and his first words were CENSORED! it’s cold! We were at 16m in 13oC water and saw soft corals, anemones, sea fans, jellyfish and urchins but no seals – maybe better luck tomorrow.

The next dive was on the wreck of the Robert, some of the group spent all the time on the Robert but others moved across to a neighbouring wreck, the Iona. The Robert is at 25m (yes, a reverse profile pair of dives) and covered with anemones (mostly plumrose); there are also lobsters, a conger eel and evidence of octopuses on the wreck. It is possible to swim though a part of the interior with ease as you never leave sight of any of the possible exits.

Overnight we camped on the island. On putting up the tents, Steve noticed that the “A” pieces for his A-frame were missing (the bits that join the side poles, connect to the ridge pole and on which the top corners of the tent clip). After lashing things together with shoelaces the result was a tent that looked like it had been erected by a blindfolded 5-year old, but it stayed up even if it couldn’t be trusted in the force 10 wind it is usually designed for. We went to a talk by the island warden, on the wildlife of Lundy (although it was biased for the benefit of the birdwatchers on the island and had little underwater life mentioned) and then set up the Diving Dragons quasi-traditional barbeque. Richard continued off-gassing all night – although not through the pulmonary route and nothing to do with nitrogen!

Next morning we breakfasted and Richard told the warden that we were diving outside the no-take zone and asked where the best place to find scallops was? She looked at him as if he had committed a capital offence!

Getting back on our boat we set off for Gannet Bay again, and hoped for seals. We went down to 16m again and saw much the same as on the first day, but with the addition of a seal! He was more timid than usual for Lundy seals and wouldn’t let us any closer than about 3-4 meters, but we saw him.

Our last dive was on the sand/silt bed in the area of the Robert/Iona wrecks (25m – another reverse profile!), where we saw crabs, jewel anemones and supper (scallops).

Steve Lander