Skip to: site menu | section menu | main content
Meadfoot Beach August 2008
So far it has been a difficult year for arranging club dive trips, what with waiting for our new boat trailer, boat repairs and of course the terrible weather, getting wet together was becoming a challenge!.
Therefore it was great for 7 of us (6 Club Divers and one non diver) to travel to the Torquay area for a Weekend of shore dives. Thanks to Gail our accommodation was sorted, five of us were to stay in her caravan and 2 in a tent on a site near Newton Abbott. Four traveled down Friday evening and three Saturday morning. It was decided to dive at Meadfoot, mainly because of the ease of parking for 3 cars, also Ian and Maria had dived here previously and gave it a glowing report.
| After kitting up at the roadside we all headed down the concrete ramp and entered the water, we had missed high water by a few hours but entry was pretty straight forward. This was a nice shallow dive with around 2-3m viz and a max depth of around 7m, all of us saw cuttlefish and plenty of common starfish , a fair amount of kelp park and small Rocky pinnacles. Dive time was 60 minutes with plenty of air to spare and sea temperature 16°c. |
 |
| After a leisurely surface interval sampling the delights of the local cafe which overlooks the beach (The girls loved the cake) most of us carried out a second dive. Again a nice easy dive with cuttlefish, common gobies everywhere, Leopard goby and a Scorpion fish, dive time 45 minutes and 6m depth. |
 |
| It was then back to the caravan to be treated like a Masia warrior by the girls, serving me with food and beer (Thanks Steve), then a hot shower before hitting the town! Three of the girls decided to travel to the cinema at Paignton to watch ''Mama Mia''., thankfully for us 3 men Beverley kindly offered to be our chauffer for the evening. We had an evening meal at a pub called ''The Sloop'' which is just outside Newton Abbot, followed by a few beers in the town. |
| Sunday morning arrived and thanks to Gail we had a very hearty cooked breakfast, we thought we would possibly try Babbacombe ba y for the mornings diving. When we got down to the bay car park though it was jammed packed with divers and daytrippers making it i mpossible to get in so, back up the hill and Meadfoot bay here we come! |
 |
| This time we entered the water more to the left of the beach but still heading out to Shag rock, Ian wanted to try his new semi dry which he purchased from the local dive shop 'Divers Down' and buddied up with myself and Andrew with Gail and Libby diving together. This dive was to encounter a lot of kelp forest on the way out before giving way to rocky pinnacles and sand . Ian spotted a nice shoal of Bib under a rocky ledge and we all saw loads of Red Eye velvet crabs, a few Tompots, quite a few Burrowing seacucumbers and i spotted a nice squat lobster . Depth was around the 7m mark maximum, viz 2-3m, dive time 61 minutes. |
 |