Five club members, Malcolm, Paul & Chris Turkentine & David & Carol Jones spent the last week of June diving around the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides. Paul arranged the trip as a follow up to a gale blown MCS trip last year. Malcolm’s buddy was a girl from Aberdeen called Melanie, who gave him a lesson or two in air consumption!!! Despite an exceptional effort, it has to be admitted that he failed to match her.
The diving was as variable as the weather, although not in the usual way for D&C, Their first dive was aborted due to an open suit zip. Then Carol’s suit dump valve stuck giving her a few buoyancy problems. The following day her suit inflator valve stuck open and another dive had to be aborted. Then David got lost and failed to find the ” best wall in the country” on the island of Hashgar 10 miles off the west coast. Carol then gave a demonstration of how to wretch underwater. The old problem of kitting up in choppy seas with a 2 stroke running! After that it did get better and some excellent dives were had. Malcolm, Paul & Chris missed out on most of the problems and had good dives throughout, with Malcolm’s highlight being buzzed by guillemots. Both Chris and Melanie suffered suit inflator valves sticking open, causing Chris an unplanned ascent. The lesson is perhaps to wash out the suit valves daily when not washing out the gear.
Although the sea life generally was excellent, with the viz remaining good whatever the weather, the seeming absence of lobsters on the east coast may be indicative of where over fishing is taking the sea around the Lleyn. (DWJ)
Four members only rang in. David J, Neil , Hugh and Malcolm. Forecast sunny and calm. OK there was a 9.5 metre tide since when was that a reason for not diving. We had a brilliant day. We launched from Porth Colmon. One negative comment, the smell was worse than usual. We motored down to Braich y Pwll over a mill pond of a sea. The 90 Hp Honda did not let us down. Malcolm and Neil did a dive North from the cave. The dive was a little boring to start with but became more interesting later. We were on high water slack and there wasn’t much tide to talk about. Hugh and David went in to do another of David’s dive leader practicals.
We then motored over to Bardsey, ignoring Malcolm’s advice to have a go on Maen Bigail. (One wipe off at maen Bigail is enough for a life-time). A couple of hours were spent resting off Carreg Honwy and then it was down to the SW corner for the final dunk. David was able to cross another dive leader practical off. And again no tide. There was a great variety of life, examples of which are below.
The return journey was magic. Not a ripple and a quiet 90 Hp Honda pushing the rib at 30 mph.
Some of the members found themselves back in Coleg Meirion Dwyfor-Glynllifon for a Dive Leader theory lecture. David J, David M, Paul and Hugh resisted the temptation to join in with the Festival which was going on, on the site. Instead they spent over two hours in the lecture room doing the transitional training requirements for Sports divers doing Dive leader training.
7 p.m. Trefor pier or rather under it. David J, Neil , Carol and Hugh. A lovely evening with a bit of a sea swell. Hugh took David for one of his Dive leader practical lessons, while Carol and Neil endeavoured to remove some of the fishermen’s rubbish that had built up underneath the pier.
Conditions were not as good as the time before. The visibility was poorer and initially there seemed to be less life. However as the dive progressed large spider crabs came lumbering into view, we were accosted by a very persistent female cuckoo wrasse who wanted to be photographed from all angles. Pipe fish, edible crabs and the nymph stage of some sea creature.
On the Saturday 7 club members (Neil, Malcolm, Elfed, Meic, Lee, Gwyn and Mick) plus Lizzy attended a Seasearch Observer Course at Hugh’s place of work, Glynllifon College. The course is aimed at the identification and recording of marine life and is supported by the Marine Conservation Society. It was run by Kirsten Ramsay and Lucy Kay of the Menai SAC, both of whom are marine biologists who work for CCW. They had a long day to almost 6pm, but all seemed to have enjoyed it,
On Sunday they were given the chance to put their newly acquired knowledge to the test. They were joined by Don, David (Jones), Rohan Holt (also of Menai SAC), and a somewhat sceptical Mike Duke. Just for a change the weather played up causing the dive venue to be changed from the south coast to Trefor. The morning dive was about half a mile west of Trefor pier, on a flat cobble bed at 12-13 meters, and with immaculate planning we hit high tide slack spot on. The viz. was good at 4-5 meters and there was plenty of life. Most people reported seeing things that they had never seen before, and in fact did not know to have existed until the previous day. Malcolm’s suit leaked again so he had another very short dive, but nearly everyone else enjoyed an interesting dive. The exception was Don, the only person not to have done the Seasearch course, so perhaps there is something to it.
During the lunch break Rohan described some of the things he had collected on the dive, including a cowry, a squat lobster, a worm that can grow to100 yards in length and some very delicate sea weeds. Even Mike started to show an interest in the goings on! The afternoon dive was a drift further to the west near Nant Gwrtheyrn, on a slightly deeper and slightly different seabed (more boulders and areas of gravel). Another interesting dive was reported by all, including even Don and Mickey, who saw an octopus swimming in open water.
Unfortunately the club boat had a bad day, under performing with a full load up and suffering a bilge pump failure in a heavy sea during the second dive. The situation was saved by Lee and Mick operating the hand pump rigged up to the inflator hose. Neil had intended to take Mick on his first sea dive under the pier at the end of the afternoon, but they decided that they’d had enough fun for one day! – David W Jones
Neil, Mick, Malcolm, Elfed and Mike went off to Vivian Quarry for a dunk.
Vivian Quarry. David W Jones did his first Dive Leader Open Water dive:” Deploying DSMB mid-water. Hugh Evans instructing/assessing. David successfully completed the required tasks to the standard.
After the practical, Hugh said; “the ascent and then the mid-water DSMB deployment have been really useful skills to practice. I made a better ascent without a computer, but using small air bubbles, suspended particles etc as a reference, than I did later with a computer”.
Finally they did it and with a flourish. There were comments like; “Not again; I’ve been down five time already”. “Let’s have none of your tongue”, “A good seal but no blowing” and “Who wants this sausage?” Quite a day in the life of the Club. Three Dive Leaders going for their Advanced Diver Assessment. Don, Malcolm and Neil. Hugh was the assessor. Before lunch, the controlled buoyant lift and the 10metre tow.
Then after the barbeque it was the rescue management assessment. They all passed with flying colours. Thanks to all the helpers Elfed, Mick, Paul and Karen without whom the assessment would not have been possible.