I managed to get on a trip to Lundy yesterday, June 2nd, to dive with the seals. We were leaving from Clovelly harbour, which is about as close as you can get to Lundy really, ropes off at 8:30am. The weather had decided to be very good and apart from a small Atlantic swell the sea was flat for the hour long trip.
The dive choice was up to the divers but seals were what we were there for so the boat moored up in a small bay just beneath Gannets' Rock. We were very sheltered from any swell and the vis looked OK, a few seals heads popped up to see what we were doing. One small seal came very close to the boat, we were told this was unusual. The boat only took 6 divers, 4 of which had massive housings with DSLR cameras which took up half the boat
We were told to swim close to shore then sit on the bottom and wait, the area was covered in kelp which thinned out in the shallows. There were loads of jellyfish in the water, of different types, the blue'ish ones had 4' long stinging tentacles which had to be avoided. Visibility was reasonable at around 6-7m. It wasn't long before the seals started appearing, the first you knew was a tug on your fins. Divers were outnumbered by seals. They were very playful, hiding in the kelp then popping out to nip someones fins, chasing each other and lots of underwater acrobatics.
After about 90 minutes the seals started to be less obvious and we all headed back to the boat. Apparently they only hang around underwater at high water, once the tides drops they find a rock to sunbathe on. We were offered a choice of 2nd dive, a wall, a wreck or stay where we were. Everyone wanted to stay with the seals so we jumped back in after about an hour on the boat. To start off with we didn't see any seals but then a couple turned up to play, some of the divers didn't see any. We only stayed in for about 45 minutes this time as the seals were appearing less and the vis was diminishing.
We were offered a 3rd dive, the wall or the wreck. There were only 2 of us left with enough gas to complete a 3rd dive and I fancied a wreck dive. The Robert was a small coaster that sank in 22m on it's starboard side very close to Lundy. It had been heavily salvaged but was fairly intact. We were also told if you swam away from the stern on a bearing of 255-260 degrees and we would end up on the Iona II paddle steamer wreck. There was also an anchor and chair dropped recently that lead from the Robert to within 10m of the Iona II, from the anchor just swim at 45 degrees and you'd see the Iona. The Robert was permanently buoyed so easy to find
Another boat had just dropped 3 divers onto it, we passed them sitting ariound the bottom of the shot line. The Robert is covered in Plumose Anemones as well as lots of other life, nice easy swim throughs in the cargo holds, a little tighter through the bridge. It is only a small coaster and we were soon at the stern. We found the chain and headed off. The other diver was low on air and headed back to the shot line. I found the anchor then started swimming at 45 degrees. Dark shadows appeared through the 3-4m vis and there was what was left of the Iona II. Four boilers were visible, two each side of what looked like a huge crankshaft where the paddle wheels probably were. There were two cylindrical tubes about 4' diameter & 6' long which may have been the centres of the wheels, if they were one was way off where it should have been. The Iona II was also small and both wrecks can easily be done in one dive, two dives would have been a little less rushed, better vis would have been nice though.
Afterwards we caught a few mackerel and large sandeels which we cooked and ate on the way back to Clovelly, we couldn't get into harbour until 7pm.
There are some video clips on You-Tube or HD ones on Facebook.
