On Saturday, 8 UBUC-ers headed down to Charmouth to dive the Baygitano, a club favourite known for its huge shoals of fish and lots of congas. We planned on doing two dives and some boat handling practice for Jake, Emily, Ollie and myself.
After an admittedly slow start, we made it to Charmouth at around midday. We decided to launch from here rather than Lyme Regis as we were all feeling a bit skint and the reduced launching fees were taking our fancy. Unfortunately, the low tide (on springs) meant we ended up carrying the kit and two boats a VERY long way! We finally got out on the boats with blue skies and calm seas, and lots of excited divers.
We got to try out the new echosounder (courtesy of Chris!) and shotted the wreck pretty easily. The first wave of divers descended, in an unexpectedly strong current! The vis wasn’t ideal, at about 2m, but seeing as this was my first Baygitano dive I was still blown away by all the life. We saw countless congas, huge lobsters, pink sea fans, big schools of bib and loads more. The current was pretty strong even down at the wreck but seemed to calm down a little for the next wave of divers.
Unfortunately, we didn’t get in a second dive as planned, as we needed to get the hire van back to Bristol by 9. Returning on a high tide made everything much easier, and we managed a quick pack up and speedy journey home. Despite lots not going to plan, a good day was had by all. For a lot of us, this was our first dive in months, so we were just happy to be back in the water!
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