Kudos to our interpid members Martin, Jane, Ali, Mike, Richard and Troy, who recently braved the chilly but millpond-like waters off the coast of Abersoch. Read Jane’s dive report below!
Remember, Remember, the 6th of November – you might think I’ve got the date wrong but we were certainly spot on with the weather.
Martin Hall and I needed to complete some elements of our Dive Leader training so we headed off to the Llyn Peninsular on an early Sunday morning in November.
We were accompanied by our trusty Instructor; Richard B, dive buddies; Alison Newby and Mike Pritchard, Boat Cox’n; Troy (who needs a surname?) Milward, and our minders; Mrs B, Bob Huyton and Liz Wright.
Our expectations on the weather and sea state weren’t great considering the time of year but being ‘roughty toughty’ divers we weren’t going to let that deter us from our mission.
Neptune though, smiles on the brave (or is that ‘laughs at the foolhardy’) and we were blessed with brilliant blue skies, glorious sunshine, an empty beach and a flat calm turquoise sea full of seals.
We launched the club rib from the golden sands of Abersoch and dived on the south-east side of Carreg-y-Trai reef. Ali and I landed on the wreck of the ‘Timbo’ (5.11.22) judging by the metal plates and girders we saw.
We also found a lot of slate pieces which by all account are from an earlier wreck - that of the ‘Omnibus’ (2.10.1869).
We finished our dive with an interesting drift, all the while shadowed by a number of playful seals. For those of you interested in marine flora and fauna, all I can say is that we saw loads of kelp, crabs, starfish, empty mussel shells and one swimming octopus.
Martin and Mike conducted a ‘figure 8’ in depth survey of the reef complex, but they wouldn’t tell me what they saw.
The water temp was around 13c and the viz really no worse than we have experienced all summer on the coast. Surface conditions really were a peach though. I personally put it down to Martin’s skills as Dive Manager for the day; others may say we were just lucky. If only summer’s diving conditions could have been like this!
PS: I didn’t mention the mermaids or Monty Hall because you’d just think I was making up the rest of it too.
Click ‘Read the rest of this entry’ to see pics from Mike and Jane!
