Isles of Scilly Trip Report (June 2025)

This was my first proper dive trip with Reading BSAC excluding a couple of small trips to Vobster Quay to try out dive kit and it was a good opportunity for me to get to know a few more people in the club!  I had not dived in the Scilly Isles before, it had been on my ‘bucket list’ for a while and I was really looking forward to it.

We had an early start on Saturday to catch the 8am ferry to Scilly.  It was a flat and smooth crossing and dolphins were visible swimming around the ship on the journey over to the isles.  With the early start, I had not had breakfast and Sue kept everyone well fed with home-made sausage rolls and flapjacks.  Thanks Sue – just what everyone needed!  We stayed at Hugh Town on St Mary’s island and the operation of transferring our gear was very slick with the our personal luggage delivered to our houses and the dive kit left on the quay ready for us to transfer to Skin Deep later.  This easy routine continued through the rest of the week making for a very relaxed diving holiday.  Saturday was a day to settle into our new surroundings, to meet Ed, the Skin Deep skipper, to ready our dive kit for diving and in the evening to appreciate the local cuisine at the Mermaid pub and Cornish beer.

The diving started on Sunday and was a mixture of wreck and scenic diving.  I had not dived in the Scilly Isles before and the aspect of the marine life that really stood out to me was the beautiful corals and, in particular, the Jewel and Dahlia anenomes, that covered the rocks extensively in patches of different colours.  I don’t think that I have seen them so wide spread before.  The sea was also very blue and the visibility very good for the UK.  Some of the marine life I saw included: dog fish, conger eels, Mermaid’s purses, nudibranchs, many types of wrasse, compass jellyfish, crabs, lobsters and crayfish.  Rob saw octopii and Sue claimed to see a rainbow nudibranch.  😉  Unfortunately, I missed the seal dive due to a cold, but everyone appeared to really enjoy that dive and to watch the video of the comical moment when the normally very calm Sean was a little harassed by one rather friendly and persistent seal!

Lobster chilling on a ledge

I enjoyed the wreck diving and there were some interesting wrecks including the HMS Colossus that fought with Nelson in the Battle of the Nile in 1798.  On returning to England, it took shelter in St Mary’s during a gale.  The colossus parted with its anchor during the gale and ran aground at Southward Well rocks.  Today, the wreck is protected and a few of its 74 guns can still be seen, as well, as the copper pins that held that wooden hull timbers together.  You have to be a bit careful not to damage your kit because many of the pins are quite sharp.  It was an interesting dive with a rope trail to take you around the interesting parts of the wreckage.

Pipefish on the Colossus

Another interesting wreck that we did was the Hathor and Plympton.  The Plympton was a steamer ship that ran aground in fog in 1909.  Eleven years later the Hathor was being towed but had to be abandoned due to a severe gale.  It hit rocks, sunk and came to rest on top of the Plympton.  It makes for an interesting dive with one wreck lying on top of the other.   Rob and I mainly dived the bow of the Plympton, but saw the boilers of both wrecks.  The photo of the octopus hiding in the wreck below was taken by Rob on this dive.

Rob’s Octopus

The diving started at a reasonable time most days and finished around 2-3pm to give us plenty of time to relax afterwards.  We had 2 nights eating in, fish and chips or risotto on the beach one evening and the other nights were out in some very nice restaurants or pubs in Hugh Town enjoying the local cuisine.  All in all, it was a very enjoyable dive trip and a great introduction to Reading BSAC for me!  Thanks to everyone who went for making me feel so welcome and for making it such a great trip.

By Simon

Dinner on the last night

Plumose anemones in full bloom