We had to leave from the Youth Hostel we stayed in last night (see Torbay Report fairly quickly in order to refill the cylinders at Venture Sports who opened specially for us - nice guy, good fast service too & well stocked shop. Our destination today was Thurlestone, where we had been told there was a wreck, the Louis Sheid, within reach of the shore - this was one not to be missed. The village took about 45 minutes to reach. There is a car park adjacent to the golf course which seems to be used by divers so we parked there. The beach itself is about two minutes walk; so once again, we loaded the trolley & set off. Once on the beach, we started to kit up & get ready. This time, Gary, James & I dived with John. Jason took Lorraine, Damian & Jason Cox, whilst Dave had Adriana & Tim (who had driven down this morning for the day).

We set off in our own time, with me leading, Gary & James together & John bringing up the rear. The plan was to surface swim to the end of the visible rocks, drop down to about 2-3m then swim out across the rocks in a Southerly direction to come onto the wreck. This we did & I was suitably pleased that we came straight to it after about 7-8 minutes finning. The wreck was awesome. Considering the shallow depth (6.5m), it is remarkably intact with various wheels, braces & funnels to see. The visibility was probably in excess of 8metres, so we could see the funnel, the engines at the rear & the general shape. We headed off on a tour, peering into nooks & crannies, before making our way to the rear where we came upon the engine area. More fun poking around then we were off towards the centre again. All too soon we had to start back to shore, but with the rocks covering the sea bed, there was loads to see & the journey back was very relaxing. Eventually we decided to surface as we were in about 2 metres of water & surface swim the remaining 100 metres or so to conserve our air for the second dive. When everyone was out we chatted about the wreck & it turned out that we were the only ones to have found it. I could not resist a spot of jibing about the DLs ability to navigate.

We decided a second dive was called for, so after a suitable Surface Interval returned to the water. This time, we would all surface swim to the wreck, drop down & have the full dive time on the wreck, then surface swim back. Good plan & it worked. I took everyone out to the vicinity of the wreck, but John was the first to spot it, actually standing on the funnel to prove it!

Again it was a superb dive. I just love swimming round these things, it gives me such a buzz. The wreck is in about 6metres of water, so the dive time even on a half cylinder, was in the order of 30 minutes or so. The only painful part was the swim back which seemed to take forever. Further tours & poking around yielded small compartments that would have been fun to try squeezing into - but a little dangerous!

This time, everyone saw the wreck & a most enjoyable time was had by all, but with so many divers, the sand soon started to get kicked up & the visibility suffered somewhat.

Back on dry land, the process of ferrying kit back off the beach began. We decided to dump it all at the small road above the beach & fetch the cars round. Whilst we were doing this, a drama unfolded. It seemed that a team of divers were 25 minutes over-due on their dive plan. One of their team notified the Coast Guard. Shortly after this, they appeared & were suitably chastised by their DM after asking why the Coast Guard was called out. 'Because you are 25 f'ing minutes late, that's why'. The Coast Guard were called again to tell them to stand down - too late, they arrived about a minute later. The DM had to explain what had happened. We couldn't hear the conversation but I am sure they were cool about it - better to be called out to find everyone safe than to look for divers.

We loaded the gear into the car & set off for home, stopping briefly for the loo. The journey home was pretty good, only taking 2 ½ hours. The best route seemed to be to pick up the A38 as early as possible which runs straight onto the M5, rather than heading North for Totnes.

All there is left to do now is wash the kit, but that will have to wait until tomorrow; tonight we are far too tired.