Weather too windy for the sea so David and Hugh over to the quarry to finish off sports diver training for Gwyn and Mick. Mask removal, AAS ascent, explore and free ascent.
Hugh, Malcolm, Lee, David and. We met up with Kirsten at 10 a.m. at the Pwllheli Harbour Master’s Slipway. We decided to try for Hell’s Mouth. Paul with Kirsten’s Seasearch group were also there.
Our first dive was close to the West side of Hell’s Mouth. We dived down on boulders interspersed with cobbles, with sand and gravel infill! The first group drifted South and saw a lot of life. The second group drifted the opposite way and saw a lower number of interesting organisms.
Our second dive was on the Hell’s Mouth Reef or we thought it was. It was different. Smaller boulders with more cobbles. To one side however was an area of barren sand and gravel in ridges which looked as so it had been trawled. The only things living on that were Gravel Sea Cucumbers.
David, Carol, Neil and Gwyn had two Search dives around the reef at Penychain.
David Jones organised a Seasearch refresher course at Glynllifon for members in preparation for the weekend. Arwyn, Mick, Hugh, Lee, Carol, Neil and David were present. Kirsten (accompanied by Rohan) ran the course which was excellent.
Before that Arwyn & Mick had their Sports Diver written assessment. Congratulations to Arwyn on passing. Mick was within one mark of passing.
David, Carol.
David organiser, Malcolm marshal. The day held hope. We were trying for Caswenan again. It was a 7.9 neap and the weather was brilliant. Also diving Paul, Gwyn, Lee and Hugh. There were problems launching at Aberdaron (and in recovering. That was a winch job)
Our first dive was West of the South tip of Bardsey. That was the way the current was going. The area that Paul & Hugh dropped onto was the side of a drop off which gave protection from the tide. The seascape was really interesting and the high point was the very large crayfish photographed below. Lunch was on Bardsey. Then it was off to Caswenan. We dropped the shot on a pinnacle at 23 m, close to the position given in Chris Holden’s book. We then found a pinnacle at 18 m. We went back for the shot but it was jammed. So in we went at the 23m site with fingers crossed that we would get a good dive. A lot was depending on this as it was Paul’s 1000th dive and he didn’t want rubbish.
What a dive. There was very little current. We worked our way up from about 35 metres up to the top at 23 metres. We found a plateau half way up onto which the shot had landed and then finally we were on top of the rock when it was time to make for the surface. The visibility was around 8-10 metres. There was a lobster, velvet crabs, a butterfish and finally carpets of different coloured jewel anemones. A veritable feast of colour. A memorable dive.
A goodly collection of members, Neil, David, Lee, Hugh and Arwyn, took advantage of the tide and the weather to sample the distinct waters of Trefor. It was good to see Bert (Honorary club member) who came along to give his support and Nikki very soon of the famous Broad Peak (Faichan Kangri) 8047 meters/26,401ft Italian Expedition 2004. Herbal Lee decided that he was going to do without his undersuit; well he hadn’t got a lot of choice. The conditions were good. Under the pier the visibility became gelatinous and was around 2 metres, sometimes less.
There was quite a bit of life to be seen, long-spined sea scorpions, velvet swimming and edible crabs, one clawed lobster, dead dogfish, butterfish, corkwing wrasse, snake pipefish and prawns. Not bad for a shore dive. Then it was off to the Rivals Tavern to warm Lee up.
