When the day started we did not know what a mammoth day of events lay before us. It was an early start to be on site for 8.30, and initially all went to plan. The protagonists being new member Julie Holland, David J, David H, Lee, Carl, Wyn, Micky and John. We had Micky’s boat joining the Club rib.
The first problem came on the beach where the decision to roll the trailer into the water with the car before pushing it out by hand left the trailer well and truly stuck. So we pulled it out again and started rolling it from on the harder sand out of the water, which worked much better. Annoyingly, Micky launched his boat without a problem.
Carreg Ddu was amazing, with vis. being a good 10m! it was marvellous. Carl and I were greeted to a large shoal of Pollock when we first dropped down. There were also numerous large wrasse. Wyn and new member Julie Holland went in second with no major sightings but enjoyed a good dive. Micky and John did a long drift as there was still some flow.
David J and Lee did coxswain duties first, for both boats. They then went in on to the West of the island (downstream to flow of tide) but found this had little fish, they were all round to the East. But they had the best sighting, of an octopus, which let them go right up to it, until it got worried about their intentions and jetted away. We went back to Aberdaron beach for lunch. Although the sea was calm there were reasonable waves coming ashore. This fact proved to cause us a problem on going out for the second dive!
What happened, was that Micky decided that he did not want to wade out through the surf to get back on his boat, after lunch. He pulled it up to rest on the beach. John and Micky then went off to find a pastie, as the rest of us watched Micky’s boat roll back and forth in the braking waves, with water splashing over the side. After lunch all was well and we changed cylinders, thanks to Lee retrieving them from the top of the hill in his Landrover. We set off for the islands of Ynys Gwylan. Micky headed out before the rest of us, but when we caught him up at the islands his engine had stopped. After much trying, he gave up on starting it. It then came to light that last time he was doing work on it he had not replaced all the bolts on the petrol tank, this may have allowed water from the beach to get into the petrol. So those on the club boat proclaimed salvage rights and towed Micky and John back to Aberdaron. We then helped to get the boat on the trailer. The waves hindered us with their size as they threw the boat about, Micky’s bad luck continued with his car engine playing up, but did pull the boat off the beach after coughing and spluttering some.
Now without Micky and John we headed out again for the second dive. As the tide was running a bit too fast at Ynys Gwylan, Wyn suggested Trwyn Talfarach point. So off we went, Carl and I then Wyn and Julie testing the waters. The site was full of boulders covered with Kelp, this then changed to large stones without kelp and then sand. Both pairs reported crabs and wrasse but not much else. The vis was still good at about 8m and gave an interesting dive. David J and Lee went back to Ynys Gwylan Bach to find Carol’s lost weight belt. Lee went in with odd fins due to a breakage. No weight belt was found but a nice dive was had.
Finally extracting the boat was our last trial of the day. The local tractors had cut up the soft sand on the exit to the slip way. As Lee was unable to engage diff lock this could have been a problem. David J suggested going to Porth Colman but Lee played the hero and stuck to the task. We removed the kit from the boat(not easy with big waves). Then with a long rope Lee gave the trailer (now out 30m from the beach with boat on it) a mighty tug. The rope broke and we were back to square one. Second go with less speed gave desired result and the Landrover overcame soft sand to bring trailer ashore. After attaching trailer to said vehicle, Lee then negotiated the tight turn at top of slipway with cars parked right up to corner. One was moved for us, but the turn did take a bit of manoeuvring. And finally a second car refusing to move from the second tight turn before the bridge. AGGGGGH!!!! the day was finally over and David J remarked that this is why we do not come to Aberdaron much, until we have forgotten about the bad access. All praise to Lee for coping with a tricky job, although he did win the silly hat competition.
Dave H.
Another clear morning and we were to launch from Porth Colmon. Our first dive was on Maen Melt, where Dave J and I were on a search and rescue mission for Pete’s weight belt. We found the weight belt on a rock on the west side of the island. We tied the weights on the lift-bag and carried on with the dive. We noticed the current had picked up after around 20/30 minutes when we came around a rock to be thrown back by the power. Dave J abruptly signalled to go back on ourselves. On our way back we spotted two lobster pots that had broken away from their lines, so we finned over to have a good old nosey. After a few minutes of shoving our heads inside the pots to have a look for any living creatures we suddenly saw the bed moving further and further away. I looked up to see Dave spinning around dumping the air in his drysuit. Not having a clue what was going on and being a lemming, I followed suit and scrambled my way down to latch onto a rock. My first experience in a vortex. Robin, Mickey and John were the second team in but the current got hold of Mickey and, surprisingly, he was separated from the other two. John came up with a nice rusty bit of metal, thinking it was a sword and Robin brought a spider crab for supper.
Once the 5 of us were out of the water the wetsuit boys, Peter & Dave H, jumped in for their first dive and we all watched closely for their bubbles as we would have no chance of spotting their SMB due to the thick fog that had surrounded us. There were doubts in our minds whether a second dive was on the cards but just as the tough nuts surfaced the fog cleared. The visibility was not as good as the day before but there was much more life compared to the previous days diving. I nearly filled my drysuit when a large Bull Huss came swimming over a rock. We also saw a colourful male cuckoo wrasse and again plenty of dogfish and ballan wrasse.
As we head back to Porth Colmon for lunch we were met by a huge black afro chugging along in a yellow canoe. The helmsman was so taken aback by this apparition that he inadvertently swamped the canoe. It’s not very often that you see a look of terrified surprise on Malcolm’s face but Peter managed it. Malcolm had decided not to go micro-lighting and was on his way to Maen Mellt to say hello, en route for a panad in the café at Porth Oer.
The second dive was a fast drift right infront of Porth Colmon. Mickey and I didn’t dive this time so Dave J, Robin, Dave H and Pete all jumped in. From the surface their SMB’s were flying across the surface, where I can confirm that Pete and Dave H drifted a good 100m further than the other two. Dave J, the bad loser, blamed it on Robin’s scallop hunting. After a 40 minute dive Dave J and Robin surfaced. Dave also noted that he got his SMB stuck in a lobster pot rope (All the excuses were out today). The dive started off at a shallow 14m but ended up at around 28m towards the end, not what the divers expected when they jumped in!
A good weekends diving was had by all and thankfully the weather held out for us to get the full 4 dives in on the weekend. I really do hope dive planning is as straight forward every weekend.
Richard.
7 willing divers turned up on the beautiful summer’s morning, ready to put the newly serviced engine under plenty of strain. The engine ran without a problem and the boat cruised at 5000 rpm. The only issue was the water infiltration from somewhere on the boat, nothing the good old bilge button couldn’t handle though.
Our dive manager had planned an easy days diving for us: “Out in the boat, turn left and carry on until we find a decent reef”. Not a bad plan for my first time as dive planner. We found a reef at roughly 23m so Dave J, Anja and I jumped in, heading east back towards Port Incline (Mickey says that this is how it’s pronounced), followed by Mickey and John who head west. The wetsuit boys, Peter & Dave H, were the last group to jump in once we had surfaced and they also head west. Visibility was surprisingly good at 5 or 6m but there wasn’t much life during our dive. Our highlights were a few dogfish and 3 little spider crabs humping on a rock. Reports of the reef on the west side were much better; Mickey and John saw a John Dory and brought back a huge edible crab. After Dave H and Peter surfaced safely we head back to Porth Dinllaen for some dinner and to change the cylinders round ready for the second dive.
Our second dive of the day was North East of Porth Dinllaen. Dave J and I jumped in first followed by Mickey and Anja. We hit quite a strong current and had a fantastic drift. During the dive we drifted over numerous different seabeds, a sandy wave bed and several types of rocky reefs with linking areas of shingle. There were even a couple of brittle star beds. The only fish we saw were dogfish, but we were travelling quite fast and if you blinked you missed quite a large section of the seabed. Once all had surfaced safely Mickey wanted to write his name on the Buoy he has fixed in Porth Dinllaen so we headed over, where The Duke impressed us with his boat handling skills. We didn’t hit moored boat…. Honest…..
Richard.
Four soles were overdue for a soak, and as the sea resembled a washing machine spin cycle, an inland freshwater dive site beckoned. Llyr, David, Peter and Irfon were the desperados with Carol and the dogs coming along to perform shore cover.
We had the place to ourselves which is a rarity, so a quick briefing and we were good to go. Similar dive plans were implemented by both buddy pairs with Peter and David hitting the water first and heading for the tunnel, Irfon and Llyr quickly followed. Both pairs showed impeccable pilotage and returned to the concrete platform. A few small fish had been seen as well as a three foot Santa and “friend”, and no, we weren’t narked at 20m before you ask! It’s good to report that the viz had improved remarkably since our last and is now a good 8m.
The most difficult part of the evening was trying to locate a suitable watering hole, where ideally we could leave through the door rather than the windows. It is rumoured that some of the local inns are so rough and dirty that even the vacuum cleaners have mud flaps! We decided in the end to perform our off-gassing and moisturising at Bryncir, and very nice it was too.
Irfon.
With the wind picking up and continuing from the West saw the dive sites limited to the South side and a meeting at Castlemarch where Wyn, although not diving, had kindly agreed to launch Lleyn, Gwynedd & Rhosneigr dive boats – a big thank you Wyn. Lleyn club ventured out first to check on the slack around the islands and Half tide rocks. Bit rough around Half tide rocks saw David & Julie Holland (guest from Shewsbury club), Carl & Anja opt for the slack at St Tudwals east. They were quickly followed by divers from the Gwynedd & Rhosneigr clubs. David & Julie were first to surface with a reported good dive, whilst recovery of divers took place a yacht under sail passed perilously close to the DMSB belonging to Carl & Anja only seconds before they surfaced. Dewi joined the Gwynedd club for a drift dive around the Tudwals which was then followed by lunch at Porth Ceriad where Sea Wasp made attempts to become an amphibious vehicle whilst dragging its anchor.
2nd Dive site was limited to Porth Ceriad with all divers reporting difficult washing machine conditions with a relative plague of huge Spider crabs to be found. A return to the Warren saw the recovery all 3 boats to Castellmarch.
With weather deteriorating for Monday the diving was cancelled – A mixed bag of diving but a good weekend was had with the reciprocal diving weekend to look forward too – lets hope the weather will be more favourable.
Dewi
Planning started early with a Wednesday evening meeting with Neil & Ruth from the Gwynedd club. It was clear from the itinerary from Ruth that many Gwynedd members were turning up for the weekend.
The Weekend forecast was scheduled to get worse with Saturday predicted to be the best. Lleyn Club & Gwynedd members decended on Porth Colmon for 0800hrs. A quick briefing as to what was on the agenda namely Bardsey & Caswennan. Sparrow Hawk & Sea Wasp were first to be launched with Red Warf deciding to plough some furrows on Porth Colmon Sands prior to launching – some teething engine problems for Red Warf saw them playing catch up en route to Bardsey – Sea Wasp was also suffering with a sluggish engine and ended up last to the Island despite having a huge head start.
Slack was found on the east tip of Lighthouse point – Anja & David H went in from the Lleyn Club with 6 divers going in from the Gwynedd club – With all divers in, Sparrow Hawk was dispatched to survey the conditions for the next dive on the Caswennan and shot if possible. Lleyn Divers & Gwynedd Divers were recovered with all reporting good dives. On arrival at the Caswennan site it was still running with the shot having already slipped off once. With it shot again the buddy pairs made ready – Irfon & Dewi in first who tried to follow the shot down, it was still running at a rate of knots and the dive had to be aborted at 17.7 metres. Mike and John Wright were next in followed by David & Neil (Gwynedd Club). Both pairs reporting lack of life on the dive – perhaps it was a bit early in the season.
Lunch on the Island followed by a 2nd dive – a drift just between Maen Mellt & Porth Colmon saw Gwynedd & Lleyn Club divers gather their supper off some well stocked Scallop beds.
Dewi.
The BH weekends diving with the Gwynedd and Rhosneigr clubs went ahead on Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd, at Bardsey and St. Tudwals respectively, and, with one or two minor hiccups, worked out well. Dewi will post detailed reports shortly. The one thing that we didn’t do was to get together with them socially, which hopefully we can remedy when we travel up to Anglesey to dive with them in early July and again in August.
Those two weekends are planned as camping weekends, details of the first of which should be forthcoming from the Gwynedd Club soon. There were, however, a few nasty moments, particularly around St.Tudwals and Porth Ceiriad, which the Club Committee are meeting later this week to consider with the intent of preventing recurrences.
Since then the weather has been very windy with both last Wednesday’s and today’s diving being cancelled. There was some activity though. Ben serviced the RIB on Thursday 7th evening with Peter, Irfon, Mickey and myself assisting. He’d never had it so good, but amazingly we all seemed to have something to do pretty much all of the two hours or so that it took.
Peter though was separately engaged under the console changing the primary fuel filter and trying to sort out the radio, which is misbehaving badly, and one or two of the gauges. All seemed OK except for one wheel bearing which was sufficiently knackered for Ben to limit us to trips no further than Pwllheli until it is repaired, hopefully next Saturday. We should now be able to complete Simon, Carl & Anja’s boat handling training.
Then on Saturday 9th there was a Chartwork and Position Fixing course run by Jeremy Carroll of the Gwynedd Club in Menai Bridge. Eight members attended, Rhian, Lois, Brian, Wyn, Peter, Carl, Anja and Neil, together with six Gwynedd Members. The consensus was that the chartwork part was fine but there was a lot of unnecessary padding on subjects such as worldwide weather patterns and tides which could have been left out. The plan is to do the practical chartwork with them within the Club. However, ironically, the main point that came across was the need to make all Club members familiar with the operation of the GPS unit on the boat.
David J.
