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LUNDY - What is it about that place? Most divers who follow the shipping forecasts will be familiar with Lundy the sea area -but far fewer will have visited the island that lends its name. The fact is - at 20 miles offshore, exposed to the prevailing winds off the Atlantic and the fierce tides of the Bristol Channel - Lundy just isn't a place you 'pop over to' without a bit of serious planning. I'd visited it myself on a couple of day trips by RIB from Ilfracombe and one hardboat liveaboard weekend, and had been captivated by the island, its wildlife and its varied diving and determined to organise a longer trip.  Lundy is a three-mile long, half-mile wide chunk of granite, rising sheer out of the water and surrounded by spectacular underwater scenery, readily accessible wrecks and a friendly resident seal population. The waters are rich in life, including some rare species of soft coral, and are designated a Marine Nature Reserve - so leave those lobbies alone! Topsides, the island is also popular with climbers (for the granite cliffs) and twitchers (puffins the main attraction). Accommodation on the island is administered by the Landmark Trust, a charitable body dedicated to the renovation and reuse of historic buildings of interest. The Trust has 23 properties on the island ranging from The Barn, sleeping 14, to The Radio Room which sleeps 1 (ideal for the snorers in the party!). Others include a lighthouse, a castle, and an admiralty lookout. Many of the properties are booked up well in advance - particularly in the peak season - but there is the option of camping which, although it must be booked in advance, is generally available. The camping field is conveniently close to the pub (open for cooked breakfasts!) and well-stocked shop, and has good showering facilities. We booked our party of 10 into the Old Light, and The Castle - with a couple opting for camping. We also booked a space in the diving gear store down at the jetty, and arranged our diving air with Ben Sampson, the Lundy Warden. It's a long, steep walk up to the accommodation so the facilities at the jetty are very welcome. There's room to change, a toilet (earth-closet style), a kitchen area with utensils to cook a meal or just brew a cuppa, and a secure lock-up for your gear and boat fuel. The compressor-room is right alongside, but you need to arrange pumping with the Warden. Came the appointed weekend - a Saturday with a high spring tide in the morning - all the better to give us a push out to Lundy on the ebb. We had elected to launch at Watermouth Bay, a sheltered inlet just to the east of Ilfracombe. The launch window is a bit tighter for RIBs (only half and hour either side of high water springs), but it's much easier when it comes to parking cars and trailers than Ilfracombe. 
Because we were taking all our fuel for travelling and diving for the four days, plus dry clothes, spare cylinders etc, our three boats would have been overloaded with all 10 on board - so we sent 2 over on the MS Oldenburg. This handsome little supply ship/passenger ferry is also operated by Landmark Trust and sails from Ilfracombe or Bideford (depending on tides). After a trouble-free launch and having embarked our Oldenburg group we set off in a slight sea and near-perfect planing conditions, making the crossing in a little over an hour, and just beating the Oldenburg in. We were in good time for our first dive on the Robert, whilst our luggage was taken up to the accommodation by tractor. The Robert is a small but intact freighter, lying on its starboard side in about 20m on the generally sheltered east side of the island. It is usually buoyed. The superstructure, to the stern, is festooned with plumose anemones and other soft corals, and is home to shoals of Bib and Pollack and a collection of fairly impressive Congers. The wreck is an ideal one for novice wreck-divers because it provides a simple-to-understand introduction to maritime architecture - an obvious pointed end, and a clear arrangement of steering gear to identify the stern. 
I was kneeling on the port rail of the Robert, photographing a passing jellyfish illuminated by my buddy's torch, when I felt a tug on my fin. I glanced around in time to see a smooth grey shape moving swiftly away - too swiftly for my camera unfortunately. I had encountered the playful grey seals close in to shore before, but never this far out and this deep.Back in Landing Bay, tucked behind the new steamer pier, is an earlier stone and concrete jetty and a shale beach which provides a sheltered landing in all but a north-easterly. After a change of cylinders and a quick brew we were off again to Knoll Pins. Further up the east coast of the island, this is an attractive scenic dive which has to be done at slack water. Slack water times vary enormously at different places around the island and dictate the pattern of your diving. We had a useful tidal flow chart from the Lundy Warden - but found this was only an approximate guide. As the name suggests, Knoll Pins are two rock pinnacles, which just show at low water. Our typical Lundy slack meant a short pull down the line to get into the still water at the foot of the rock. We then worked our way round it along gullies with vertical walls plastered with jewel anemones, and crustaceans in every crevice, gradually climbing towards the kelp zone where we huddled down amongst the holdfasts to while away our safety stop. Then it was time to send up the DSMB and be plucked off the rock, to be picked up 30 metres or so downstream. We were weary but satisfied as we walked up the winding path to the village and our accommodation. The last sunlight was disappearing from the Landing Bay, but there was still a distinctly Mediterranean appearance to the view - a couple of big yachts accompanying our three orange RIBs at anchor in clear waters of the bay. The accommodation lived up to its description in the Landmark Trust Handbook. Solid, granite exteriors with simple but well furnished and well-equipped self-catering apartments. The Old Light has two apartments and the stone tower is accessed by an open spiral staircase - definitely not for vertigo sufferers! The old lamp platform is now graced by two deckchairs pointing towards the setting sun - your own private conservatory 30m off the ground. The Castle has three cosy apartments looking onto a central courtyard - in ours there was a view of the sea from the toilet. After a quick shower we were off across the fields to the pub. The Marisco Tavern is the meeting point for the island - and is where the Warden is based. It's always beer o'clock on Lundy and from breakfast to evening meal there's also good wholesome food on offer - much of it local produce. Though Puffin pie may no longer be on the menu - rabbit certainly is - and there seems to be an inexhaustible supply! It didn't take many beers to have us nodding off at our table - so we dragged ourselves back to our castles, lighthouses and tents, in good time before lights out. Yes, the lights go out at midnight when they switch the generators off - so have a torch handy by the bed. There's no sodium light spillage from the street outside because the nearest street is twenty miles away - so when it's dark it's very dark. It's also worth remembering to put diving lamps on charge as soon as possible in the evening. The following day was bright and clear with the wind still in the SW 3 - 4, occasionally 5. A heavy swell had developed, but our chosen site, which was The Earl of Jersey, a small paddle steamer, was only half a mile off the south of the island, in 28m. The Earl of Jersey is not easy to find as she is wedged between two rocky ridges, but we had a good set of GPS marks and the shot was placed midships, right by the main drive axle. All that remains of the ship is her boilers and engine with that axle and the spokes of the paddle wheels at each end. Ribbed sections of plate lead off in each direction, and the sternpost in particular stands up with remnants of steering gear attached. The afternoon dives were The Carmine Filomena a freighter sunk in 1937 off the southeast tip of the island - and much broken-up amongst the kelp - and Gannet Rock, another great scenic dive with gulleys, sandy shelves and a drop-off to 40m. Gannet Rock is also a favourite place to encounter seals, and on previous dives here I had enjoyed encounters with these delightful animals. It is tempting, having seen their heads bobbing up like so many sock-puppets, to leap in and chase about looking for them under water. It is much better however, to just drop down into a gulley or a clearing in the rocks and wait. They will come and find you to engage in a bit of fin-tugging and swimming through your bubbles. Our third day saw us again on the southwest corner of the island, looking for the wreck of the Atlas off Black Rock. This was a small coaster wrecked in 1942 with the loss of all but one of her nine crew. I enjoy these speculative dives - there's the challenge of setting up the most likely position, from descriptions and various other sources - and then the thrill of the hunt, particularly if it's through interesting territory as this was. It's not shared by everyone though, as my two buddies soon gave up and attached themselves to my fins, so my progress through the water got slower and slower. Persistence was rewarded however as first a propeller shaft, then a large upturned and heavily eroded boiler loomed into view. At 10m, with sunlight filtering down through the condensing tubes and large ballan wrasse patrolling through the boiler - I could have hung around for ages. But, time and tide etc, it was back to base for some sarnies and a brief snooze. The afternoon was to have been HMS Montagu - as far as size is concerned, perhaps the prize of Lundy. At 14,000 tons, this battleship must have been the biggest thing to hit Lundy (in fog, during fleet exercises in 1906) - but in all the times I've been there - I've never managed to dive her. She's only shallow, being tucked up in Shutter Cove on the southwest corner of the island and she's exposed to the very worst that the Atlantic can throw up the Bristol Channel. Heavily salvaged at the time for her guns and armour plate, there is little now left that is recognisable, but her depth makes her a good second dive, and her size makes it difficult to miss her. But the breaking surf indicated that it was not to be this time, so we settled instead for an enjoyable rummage in the gullies through Rat Island, off the southeast corner of Lundy (another favourite place for seal encounters). As we weaved our way back from the pub that night, the air was feeling distinctly changeable for our last day. We had planned two more dives on the east side of the island before heading back to Watermouth. Instead, a knock on our door at 7.00am delivered a metfax forecasting an easterly 5 - 7. The Oldenburg wouldn't be sailing because of the weather so her passengers would be evacuated by helicopter. It was obviously time to go - by the afternoon, the wind would have strengthened and although the tide would be flooding, we knew the wind against tide could create some spectacularly steep seas. At the harbour the easterlies were already making conditions uncomfortable for loading the boats and it was at this critical moment that one of our boats decided to develop a serious gearbox problem. There was nothing else for it - that boat would have to stay, along with two of its crew - and one more would have to go in the chopper. The remaining two boats with five of us aboard set out on what was to be a gruelling two-hour hack back to Watermouth, probably covering the equivalent of 27 miles through the water because of the ebbing tide. The staff on Lundy couldn't have been more helpful - they found a tent for the stranded couple (theirs was discovered in one of the other boats back at Watermouth!). The island's engineer, Roger lifted the stricken boat off the beach with his JCB and carried it over to the pier, and eventually the MS Oldenburg returned it to Ilfracombe as deck cargo. Despite the last minute dramas - and the extra costs of the chopper transfers - everyone judged the trip a great success. Even the two marooned on the island said it was better than going back to work! Lundy is a magical place and staying on the island adds another dimension to what is already great diving territory. I, for one will be going back there next year, and maybe next time I'll manage the Montagu too! Holiday data: Accommodation costs vary but averaged at £65 pp for the three nights in The Castle and The Old Light, £21 pp for three nights camping Passages on MV Oldenburg cost £45 return (with a £15 helicopter levy if the sailing is cancelled owing to bad weather) Travelling, diving and fuel costs worked out at around £80 pp for the 10 divers (inc towing 3 boats from Bristol). This would have been about £20 cheaper had the passages on Oldenburg and the chopper transfers not been needed Landmark Trust booking office: 01628 825925 (for accommodation) or www.landmarktrust.co.uk to order a Handbook Lundy Shore Office: 01271 863636 (for MS Oldenburg) Lundy Warden: 01237 431831 (Ben Sampson) Watermouth Bay Harbourmaster: 01271 865422 England SW main page | ||||
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