Congratulations to Mike and Vi on their 40th wedding anniversary. The emotion of the event was obviously too much for Mike who arrived at Porth Colmon without his regulator. He was in good company as Lee forgot his dry suit. Malcolm was able to come to their rescue. A large group turned out. Malcolm, David, Lee, Mick, Tim, Neil, Gwyn, Mike in his own RIB with John. Neil’s non-diving presence was gratefully accepted as it meant that we could reduce the amount of sitting around.
The two dives were on the Porth Colmon reef in different spots. Both dives were very interesting. Hugh & Malcolm opted for a deep dive beyond the reef which proved to be mainly gravel with some small rock outcrops. There was very little current. The second dive was right on the reef some 1:48 minutes before low water slack. There was a trace of current but not enough to blow one off the reef. The scenery was great and there was a good range of life including a conger whose presence had been given away by some very large Northern Prawns in the immediate area.
The remnants of Hurricane Alex was due. High winds and rain from the east. Caswenan wasn’t on. diving didn’t seem to be on. However David prevailed the east side would be very sheltered. So David, Carol, Lee, Malcolm and Hugh decided to give it a whorl.
Malcolm and Hugh decided on a 23 metre dive on the reef to the left of Porth Colmon for the first wave The terrain was a little flat, cobbles and large boulders, but there was plenty to photograph. David, Carol and Lee did the second wave close bye but starting shallower their dive was a drift, with very little chance of stopping. However it did follow the reef all the way.
A scorcher. The temperature reached 26 deg C during the afternoon. Seven in the Club boat which is the highest for some time. Neil, Arwyn, Paul, Chris, David, Mick and Hugh. Neil was unable to dive but took over the surface cover so that the rest of us could all go in together. The omens were not too good for slack. It was a 9.5 am tide but we did think that we could find one or two slack areas. Our first was off Port Fein in sight of Maen Mellt. Unforunately there was a current and two couples went for quite a fast drift past Maen Mellt. The others clung on.
It was back to Porth Colmon for a very hot and sunny lunch. Then it was off to south of the tip of Penrhyn Melyn. Just North of Porth Colmon. There were lobster pots in the area so we took them as an indication that there was something interesting to see. Although the sea bed was flat there were large boulders scattered around and good bit of wild life. There was next to no tide and that half way between high and low water on a spring.
