A trip on Paul and Chris’s boat. Many members were invited but all were busy except Hugh. The three of us set off from Pwllheli. Came across 10 dolphins just after St Tudwals. We were rewarded by seeing one dolphin leap clear out of the water twice. Fantastic.
The dive was next to two small islands on the right hand side of Hell’s Mouth. There was a bit of a current running when the first pair went in. They had a dive of 1.5 hrs. The visibility was around 8 metres and there was only a little current. The second diver went in, picked up his buddy and had a 2 hr dive.
There were a lot of Dahia, Snakelock and Plumose Anemones, Dead Man’s Fingers, many spider crabs and Jewel Anemones. The was a very attentive male seal who took a great interest in the diving and the boat. We called him buddy.
No diving. Poor weather.
We did a dive that was on the dive programme! David please note. The Gwenfaen. Two boats. Micky Duke in Sparrowhawk with Neil & John Wright and the Club boat. Chris, Paul, Gwyn and Hugh. An easy launch from Porth Ysgaden then follow the GPS co-ordinates to a couple of buoys marking the spot. Brilliant. Gwyn and Hugh dived the wreck. There was around 5 metres of visibility. Lots of fish. Paul and Chris dived a reef nearby. After a surface interval of 2 hours we did a drift which took us towards Porth Ysgaden. A lovely day. Oh yeah, we did have some hassle with a microlite (jet skiers of the air!!)
No dive due to poor weather conditions.
It was all organised. 9 a.m. Pendre, 11 a.m. Carreg Ddu and Caswenan Rock 1 p.m. from Aberdaron. David, Malcolm, Mick and Hugh. The name Aberdaron should have been a warning. With difficulty we offloaded the boat into the water only to be unable to move it for two hours as the tide finally came in. This made us late for the slacks.
We found a site near the shore to the East of Carreg Ddu. David and Mick went in first. There was a bit of current but they eventually ended up reaching the mouth of a cave a bit further east from their starting point. They had a brilliant dive. Congers, lobsters, crabs, anemones and more besides. Slack was a distant memory when Hugh and Malcolm went in. The current steadily increased as the dive progressed. Both DSMB were deployed and it was like a merry go round with up and down currents. Malcolm felt he had done too many ups and downs and went on to oxygen after he got back into the boat.
We returned to Aberdaron only to have a problem recovering the boat. Finally after removing the kit from the boat we got the boat on the trailor and it was home. A new battery was fitted and marked.
The day dawned with the sun shining and not a breath of wind; ideal diving weather! How could the organiser have got it so wrong? How could she have cancelled? David wasn’t going to take this one lying down. Hmmm. He tells us that he sorted her out. Oh yea. Carol still had a smile on her face when I arrived to take David to Vivian Quarry.
So it was Vivian Quarry again. Gwyn and Mick to have another go at the assisted ascent and the navigation. David to get a bit more practice in instructing. There was a very good demonstration on assisted ascents from both trainees. The second half did not go as well and it was decided that what had to be redone could be done during a club dive.
