I'd never dived out of Salcombe, just Plymouth, so I thought I'd give it a try. I booked Top Gun, which is normally based in Plymouth, for the weekend. There aren't any dive shops in Salcombe, so everyone needed to bring all their gas for the weekend. Most people were on rebreathers, so it wasn't really an issue for them, but I brought two twinsets and a stage. Accommodation also isn't cheap there, but I camped at Alston Campsite which kept the price down to under £20 for the two nights. It's a bit of a walk from there to the pub, but it is doable.
The first dive was the Riversdale. This lies in the race and despite it being neaps tides, we didn't get any slack on it. One minute it was running in one direction, the next it was running in the opposite direction without actually stopping. It may have been better on the other tide. We did it on high water. Still, I did manage to get down the shotline and then inside the holds which got me out of the current, but it was quite hard work and I had a lovely CO2 headache on the bottom, so not the best experience. The viz wasn't great either, about 4m.
Sunday, I decided the do the Skaala. This was much better, the viz was more like 8m and there was a nice big slack window. It lies upright in 47m and there are coal blocks packed everywhere. Everyone had a much better time and there were a lot of smiles on the boat afterwards. It was one of those rare occasions in the UK when the sun's out, the sea's flat and the viz is good.
There are apparently some wrecks in 55m which are not well visited in the area, so that might be a plan for next year.