There was 4 divers, and Mike offering to do shore cover. The divers were Andrew with Michael and Wyn with Jake. Michael and I decided to go and have a nice relaxing dive and not go looking for that Bl***y Sh*t pipe .The vis was 4+ metres and plenty of dragonets, small scallops and a very small cuttlefish. We got a max depth of 7.6 metres and a 35 minute dive. At the end of the dive the swell had picked up and with large waves crashing on the shore, so we ended up crawling out on our hands and knees undignified but effective.
Andrew
Michael Fahy
Although we were in the middle of a heat wave there were only 4 calls, one being Mike offering shore cover. The divers were Andrew, Brett & Nia. With rain and thunder forecast early on and the wind set to pick up from the west in the afternoon I moved the dive from Criccieth to Porth Ysgaden where Bae y Cysgod offers a sheltered alternative. As it turned out the wind was a light breeze so the main bay was fine. Andrew and I were first in with the plan being to get into the gullies on the far side while bearing in mind that it was a rising Spring tide. The tide was already high enough for us to swim out from the bottom of the access road, so we were able to make a bee line straight across towards the end of the visible reef. The first noticeable difference was the extent of the weed and kelp. Peter would have loved it. The viz. was a good 6 to 8 metres as we entered the first gulley, which was interesting enough but a dead end. At about the third attempt we managed to find an entry point over a bar at about 5 metres which took us into the labyrinth of gullies. There was quite a lot of life to be seen with numerous small brown crabs, tompots and leaopard spotted gobis in the cracks in the reefs with plenty of wrasse and pollack about. Even a free swimming small conger. We also came across 2 single and a muddle of at least 3 abandoned lobster pots well stuck in the rock. Needless to say I got us hopelessly lost, with every gulley we tried on the way back turning into a cwm. So there was no choice but to pick a spot and swim up and over the reef. We knew that it was running by the speed we’d been shoved through the channel into the gullies but it was still a surprise to find how strong the current was on top at about 2 metres. Fortunately, the grain of the rock ran along the reef so we were able to find enough handholds to drag ourselves over about a 10 or 12 metre flat summit until we could drop thankfully down into a nice quiet gully which turned out to be the one we had tried first on the way out. We passed over Brett & Nia on our way back and both managed to resist the temptation to practice our shark attacks, which was probably just as well as Nia was reported to have freaked out at the sight of a seal. Mike had watched the seal tracking Andrew and me but we hadn’t spotted it although Andrew had had his fin tugged. Brett and Nia did see it fishing, nudging it’s nose into the seabed and scooping up the sand eels as they bolted. Brilliant except that Brett’s camera was on stills not video. A real pity as that film would have been exceptional. We came back across the bay over nothing but kelp so the sand where Brett & Nia found the seal must have been quite a way out. Andrew complained that his computer went bananas crossing the reef and also that it was his first mountaineering dive. You just can’t please some. It was my first venture out in the wet suit which was toasty as it was 16 degrees. There followed a long session at the Lion where we were joined by John, but it was a pity that so many missed out on such an excellent dive.
David
Well we started the day with 6 divers Andrew, David, Irfon, Jake, Mike and Stephanie as we were kiting up David discovered a slight issue, the fact he had forgotten his fins at home. Shortly afterwards Irfon turns up but also not able to dive, after realising that he had lent his fin straps to someone and could not remember who, so it seems the saying no good deed goes unpunished is true. Well we were then left with 4 so the pairings were Mike with Jake and Stephanie with me. The vis was good 5+ metres and plenty of life to be seen and some very curious Pollack swimming toward us, Stephanie was quite heavy on her air on the way out but was much better on the return. We got a max depth of 6.3 metres and a 37 minute dive, close to the shore we found a large Lion’s mane jellyfish (cyanea capillata) which I first thought was a boulder, Mike and Jake also had a good dive at about 50 minutes. The moral of this report is to double check your kit before leaving home.
Andrew
