Not enough members available for the dive on the Illesia or for training.
The Wednesday dive was cancelled.
A little overcast but otherwise perfect conditions. We launched from Criccieth and sped across the bay under the direction of the GPS steer screen. 12 minutes later we had arrived. We had a contact. We lost it. We got a smaller contact, put down a shot and Hugh & Dylan did a circular search around the anchor line. Not a chance. Visibility at 18m depth was between 0 – 1 metre with an incredibly muddy seabed. After 35 minutes they made for the surface. We sped back to Criccieth where David J and Carol and David M and Paul had an excellent dive just off the lifeboat beach in Criccieth in about 4 metres of water.
Five of us braved the elements and ventured forth. There was a wind blowing which seemed like force 4, but the forecast rain did not descend. Hugh, Flash and Humf dived together and David and Lee dived together. As we waded into the surf hearts dropped when we saw how poor the visibility was. But not for long because as we moved out underwater the visibility cleared to around 7 metres and an excellent dive was had by all with a lot of wild-life seen.
It was with trepidation that we set off from Pwllheli towards St Tudwal’s Islands. The forecast was predicting wind and rain. White horses greeted us as we turned right out of Pwllheli harbour. However we should not have worried the weather turned out to be great. Most of our time was spent in the lee of the island.
We did a drift dive which started off at the South West tip of the West island and then took us round the corner to its West side. We were following a reef which is between 10-15 metres depth. Visibility was at least 7 metres. Hugh and Lee had a 40 minute dive. Malcolm, Carol and David managed a 70 minute dive. There was a lot of life to be seen: dogfish, crabs, lobster, prawns, pipe fish, blennies etc. Neil, who was at the helm, gave us a slightly less rough ride back to Pwllheli.
Almost getting to be non-events. Due to the high winds forecast the sea dive on the Tripods was cancelled. Training was offered but there were no takers. Surely the excitement and challenge of Vivian Quarry is not on the wane?!
The wind was howling. Rain was close. It was cloudy and dull. There were white horses and the waves were battering against the shore. Ideal diving weather; well it was for some. It was too much for me, I did shore cover but Malcolm, Gwyn and Dylan along with David and Lee took the plunge into Porth Ysgaden starting at 8:45 pm. The visibility they said was over 6 metres there were a lot of fish, in fact, against all expectation, they really enjoyed the dive. We all then retired to the pub.
Port Ysgaden
Gwyn, Malcolm, David, Lee, Dylan. Ready for the dive.
Mike and Vi came along but Mike had found another excuse not to dive!!
The weather was unsuitable for diving in the sea so its was off to Vivian Quarry for some training. Paul Filby and David Morgan both did extremely well on the third Sports Diver open water training session which involved the simulated decompression stop. I even threw in an ‘out of air’ event which David responded to very efficiently. The two have just the Sports Diver Open Water Assessment to do.
The Gnome Garden Vivian Quarry
David led from the surface until just before the ‘Garden Gnomes’ and then Paul took over the leadership to complete the tour and then get us back to the surface.
The dive plan for the second half of the season was completed in Ship, Llanbedrog. No wine was spilt on the charts despite Alan Gray being present. Several members were not able to attend but this was an advantage as it was not easy to get any of the members present to marshal a dive on a spring tide! The new dive plan will be sent out to members on Monday24th. Those who came along and put their all into the planning session were: Neil, Gwyn, Hugh, Dylan, Paul and Alan Gray.
The advanced divers test was held at Alan Harper’s residence during the evening. There will be a more detailed description of what happened in the newsletter. I have been informed that Ian and Liz passed first time and that Malcolm and Neil were able to take a second exam which enabled them to pass too.
The dive on the Segontium was cancelled due to bad weather. So it was over to Llanberis and Vivian Quarry for a dip. Dylan Humphries wanted some more training, Hugh Evans was able to do the training and Don Williams wanted a dive.
Don decompressing on the 6 metre crossbar.
Luke Skywalker (Dylan) standing on the bottom of Vivian at about 14 metres during the Club Diver instruction. Don is out of sight to Dylan’s right. The visibility as you can see isn’t too bad. There hadn’t been many divers before us. We were numbers 31,32,33.
The dive was meant to have a maximum depth of 20 metres so I got Dylan to put his computer down into a hollow which is Vivian’s deepest part at 19.2 metres. I am nothing if not fair.
The practical section of the search and recovery course under National Instructor Alan Harper Smith took place just out of Pwllheli harbour. Those taking part were Malcolm and Don, Neil and Liz. Visibility was about 3 metres.
Well here we all are again. Vivian certainly has an attraction. It was the training. David & Paul very successfully did their first dive without an instructor. Gwyn & Dylan did the Club diver open water lesson on navigation with Neil as instructor. This was Gwyn’s second experience of the same lesson. some separation seems to have occurred. Carol with the help of her husband, David, who did the corpsing, and her instructor Hugh, completed her rescue assessment to gain her Sports Diver qualification.
