Here are some pics from Elspeth's and my trip to Peru!
Some pics from last weekend's diving including some Grey Triggerfish (off the stern of the James Egan Layne) which aren't normally seen in the UK!
We don't normally dive this late in the year because of the risk of the weather being bad but the sun shone and the water was a toasty (for the UK) 15°C and good visibility (5 to 6m, again for the UK!). The air was bloody cold though.
The other pics include:
- Divers getting ready for first dive
- Loo on the HMS Scylla!
- Elspeth on the HMS Scylla
- A spiny lobster (James Egan Layne)
- Edible crab (James Egan Layne)
- Blenny (James Egan Layne)
- Conger eel (James Egan Layne)
- Being picked up by the Seeker
- Some structural steelwork on SS Persier
- Shoal of bib on SS Persier
- Rudder (SS Persier)
- Steering mechanism? (SS Persier)
- John Dory (SS Persier)
- Thornback ray (Glen Strathallen)
As an added bonus, there were Saturday evening fireworks on the Hoe. An excellent weekend!
The grey seals are breeding around this time of year so there are plenty to be seen. Here are some photos from our dive trip last weekend.
A week or so ago, Elspeth and I grabbed a couple of spaces for the weekend on Phil Corbin's Tango boat in Weymouth. We dived the wrecks of the HMS M2 submarine, the SS Gertrude, the SS Frogner (allegedly) and the HMS James Fennel.
The M2 was amazing. We've dived this before but this time the visibility was excellent (for the UK), the tide was perfectly slack, the sun was shining and the wreck was covered in life: conger eels (E counted 12 of them!), lobsters and shoals of bib. Top dive!
The SS Gertrude was another excellent dive which subjected us to a bit more current this time but it was still possible to stay over the wreck without too much effort. The propeller was still present on this wreck which is unusual since they're usually made of bronze and salvaged. We also saw remnants of the engine and a big old boiler. Toward the end of the dive we saw not one, not two but three cuttlefish!
The next day, our dive on the wreck of the SS Frogner was frankly crap. It was fairly deep for us air-breathers at 37m, due in part to the super-moon induced spring tides. Also, it was really dark down there. I was unable to read my wrist-mounted dive computer without using a torch. We missed the wreck having found nothing obviously wreck-like at the bottom of the shot-line and spent the dive swimming around aimlessly over an almost featureless sea bed (although we did see a lobster!) This unrewarding dive still required us to do about 8 minutes of decompression - which was about as interesting as the dive itself.
The following, shallower dive on the wreck of the HMS James Fennel turned out to be much nicer!
Anyway, here are some pics...
Elspeth and I visited amongst other places the Boots D10 building as part of the recent Beeston Heritage Open Days event.
It's a fairly enormous factory building built around 1930 and the first (in the UK at least) to be constructed of concrete and glass. It's a seriously impressive site and looks modern and forward-thinking, even now. D10 has a large, central atrium with a concrete and glass roof that allows light to enter and fill the four-storey factory space, which is criss-crossed with bridges connecting the gallery-like floors in a very exciting, almost sci-fi way...
Interesting facts about D10
It is (or was) known as the "Wets Factory". The idea being that all products requiring similar handling and process requirements would be in the same place. So potions, lotions or other runny pharmaceuticals along with shampoo, perfume, toothpaste, etc. would all be made and packaged here. Pills, powders and other dry stuff, elsewhere.
These days, it's the Boots Contact Manufacturing building. They make toothpaste and all sorts of other stuff for the likes of Colgmithsodyneodent or whoever. I made the name up obviously and they were cagey about who they make stuff for and keen we didn't take photos of products or trademarks on the line.
From Boots' fact sheet on the day:
- D is for Dunkirk - the Nottingham area it's officially in - not Beeston!
- more to come...