Battles of Bovi
The story of Bovisand as a diving centre is a romantic rescue saga featuring a complementary yet disparate duo: Jim Gill, farmer, soldier, pragmatic visionary, engineer and graduate in art and architecture; and Alan Bax, mercurial optimist, professional deck officer in the Royal Navy, and ship's diver.
They met by accident in India in 1962. Alan's ship HMS Gurkha had headed there for repairs after "the side of the [Suez] Canal came out and hit her". Their dream was to turn a neglected Victorian stone fort at the mouth of Plymouth Sound into a Mecca for divers.
In 1970 they acquired a nightmare: a lease on the fort. Not quite an archaeological relic, it had reached a state of decay that would deter any but the most foolhardy from redeeming it.
I remember that year sleeping in a dormitory, later the cafe or "canteen". Despite the whitewash, and electric fires targeted on the walls, they oozed more damp than you would find in any rainforest.
That was just one epic battle for survival of many fought by these two men to make Bovisand the legendary centre for diver training and recreation, archaeology, research and underwater engineering work that it is today - the star of Europe, prescribed like mother's milk to all newborn divers.
Kendall McDonald, diver, early onlooker and long-time friend of Alan and Jim, has written a colouful account of Bovisand, its history, geography and development as a diving centre, and included a guide to all the dive sites around it.
What a good, workmanlike labour of love this is, with some surprising revelations on the role of the fort in two world wars, and as a gunnery-practice centre between them.
In 1939, England and Wales were defended by just 139 "big" guns, and of the 31 ancient 12-pounders, almost an eighth were mounted at Bovisand. If only Hitler had known...
Kendall traces the prehistoric development of the Sound and of the name "Boye Sand", corrupted over the ages to Bovisand. Then he describes 59 dives, from modern steel wrecks to 18th-centurcannon sites, starting with a useful general briefing for dive planning in a complex of merchant and warship moorings, fishing boats and restricted areas.
Illustrated with many old prints and photographs, and a plan of the fort and its environs, this book is required reading for any diver who wants to put Bovi and its history into present-day context. Author, please note: for the next printing an index, or at least a full table of contents, is needed.
After reading this story, I could not suppress a small shout of: "Long live Bovi!" From its rescue by Bax and Gill, it has survived every vicissitude. If Fort Bovisand should ever vanish from the diving stage, there would not be a dry eye in the house.
Fort Bovisand: The Diver's Complete Guide to Europe's No 1 Underwater Centre, by Kendall McDonald, Wreckwalker Books (01548 560239, fax 01548 561042) Softback £9.99.
Rex Cowan
Essentially upmarket
"Deciding on which boat to travel on is like choosing your hotel, restaurant, and dive shop all in one."
So reads an extract from Astrid Witte and Captain Casey Mahaney's Live-Aboard Dive Travel: The Essential Guide.
Stan Waterman's introduction led me to believe that this would be a volume aimed exclusively at those with budgets sufficient to use the likes of the Aggressor fleet. In fact I found it relevant to liveaboard diving almost anywhere in the world. With more than 20 years of professional on-board experience, the authors are well-placed to advise on all aspects of the subject. A diver/passenger properly prepared will always have a better time than one who is not.
The book's detailed guide to liveaboard diving locations worldwide is itself extremely useful. It gives a clue for whom this book was originally intended. The Bahamas, Bay Islands, Belize, Cayman, Turks & Caicos, Cocos, Galapagos, Hawaii, Fiji, Indonesia, PNG, Coral Sea, Solomons, Palau and Truk are all expensive to get to, and the sort of liveaboard vessels operating in these areas are inevitably from the premier division.
Bear in mind that some of the liveaboards used by we Europeans may reflect a lower-priced holiday with sometimes poorer on-board facilities, and you can still use this book to help you choose the right destination and vessel and get the most out of the experience.
Live-Aboard Dive Travel: The Essential Guide, AquaPress (01702 335929). Softback £12.99 (£2 p&p).
John Bantin
Appeared in DIVER - August 1997
Back to 