An evening with rain clouds all around but luckily no rain fell. Cathy had OO4 training to do, (CBL & tow) along with some mask clearing. Carol did her stint as a casualty. Peter and Irfon came alone for a dive and so did Robin and Kate, later! The training went well with Cathy completing her CBL & tow on Carol. By the time everyone was out of the water is was getting quite dark. Cathy’s next practical is swimming in depth 6 – 10 metres.
No diving possible due to bad weather.
One of the biggest tides of the year. Irfon organiser and Paul marshall. The first dive coincided with high water slack on Maen Mellt but dispite this the current was running when we went in. It was possible to keep on the currentward side of Maen Mellt and my main memory is of a lot of large congers (at least 6).It was excellent. There was no slack for David & Irfon who elected a long drift (1.6 miles) from well North of Maen Mellt to well South. Irfon was quoted as saying that it was a bit faster than he expected on his first dive. Mick & Robin’s dive was cut short by Mick losing one of his weight pods.
After lunch Neil left and Wyn joined us for his 12-15 metre dive. This time to stay out of the main current we dived to the north of Porth Colmon. An interesting sea bed but at 14 metres it was covered in short vegetation. So apart from Paul striking a rock with the RIB as we came into Porth Colmon, all had gone very well. (Hugh and Neil spent a lot of Friday repairing the damage). Oh and there was a bit of the problem with the plumbing at Pendre where the hose connection on the engine flushing unit kept bursting off – see photograph.
A training session for Dewi, Wyn and Cathy. Hugh & Neil were the instructors. A lovely evening. Dewi had just to complete his training with a CBL and tow, a jettison of his and casualty weight belt and a weight check. This was all done an Dewi is now a qualified Ocean Diver. Wyn is not far behind he had an AAS ascent and some of what Dewi had. he hasn’t got much left to do for the qualification. Cathy made progress with mask clearing and did the rest of the third open water lesson with a lot of confidence.
We launched from Aberdaron! The name is enough to instill fear into any God fearing boating enthusiast. Difficult parking, narrow access, soft sand, broaching waves and people for Malcolm to talk to, all conspire to make Aberdaron our least favorite launch site. Undaunted Paul started his diving plan for the day from there. To be fair it worked well.
Our first dive: Malcolm, Mike, Hugh, Peter, David, Paul and Chris was West of the South tip of Bardsey; not far from some lobster pots. Interesting under water seascape but not a lot of life on one dive to 37m. Others found more. Peter has now completed and passed his Ocean diver qualification. (He already holds a diver 3rd class qualification). (Complaint received by the Editor from Paul and Chris who wish to say that they had a marvelous dive of over 1 hour with lots of life).
It was then back to Aberdaron to take on dewi, Irfon and Wyn. We had to finish off the depth component of some of the open water lessons. We went over to Porth Felen. Unfortunately a bit of a dead site (out of the current and so silty). However the depth components were completed and as a result Irfon is now a qualified Ocean Diver. Wyn’s next depth component is 12-15m from OO3.
Dive leader rescue management scenarios for Lee, Arwyn and Mick. The weather was definitely iffy. When we arrived at Porth Colmon, despite what Mike had said earlier, it was OK. OK that is until we turned SW for Porth Ferin. As predicted Porth Ferin was calm as can be seen from the photographs and we were able to enact three scenarios despite heavy rain. Once again David added a little extra ad libbing to one scenario but with good rescue skills by the team and the eagle eye of Arwyn he was spotted and dealt with.
Despite forecasts of bad weather at 7pm with one exception we were all there on time. All being Wyn, Peter, David, Irfon, Lee, Hugh and Cathy. The viz was terrible at around half a metre. David explained that it was much better when he came to inspect conditions earlier in the afternoon. The viz was a bit better further out so forgiveness was in the air. David took Wyn and Irfon, Peter and Lee dived together and Hugh took Cathy in for mask clearing and a swim around. We were joined by Malcolm after the hard work had been done who took us off to the Lion. It was there that David wet the floor while doing a demonstration. Don’t ask!
