Dive Trip Skomer 2011

Myfyr, Mark, Kevin and Carol enjoy a cuppa courtesy of the Skipper!

The Skomer 11 head off to the pub!


Many thanks to Mike McCann for organising. It was a great few days diving and the weather was FAB!



Vis was really good - a luxury we're not used to!!

Cable Bay 12th June 2011

Carol and I went on a Route March with Nina this morning

Wait for us!!!!

It was a very nice bottom - as they say - with lots of these

Carol and Nina

Once again our Dive Marshall very cleverly arranged a fresh water rinse for us on emerging from the briny

Porth Eilian

Had a nice dive with these lot yesterday
Saw lots of these
And one of these

That's all

The slate wreck Pwllfanog

Here is a pic of the slate wreck surveyors - in one of the ally boats - before they were painted orange - left to right - Jeremenemenemeney Caroll !!!!!, Sid Wignall - famous explorer - ran lots of world wide surveys - including to Panama (John Stubbs went as well) looking for Francis Drakes coffin - a lead coffin which was chucked over the side - no-one has ever found it! Next is Cecil Jones - a psychologist originally but threw himself into marine archeology and marine biology and surveys of any sort, then Andy Jones great stalwart of the club - secretary, TO etc. during the 70's and 80's - now living in Oban, next is Anne Carroll and finally Ellis Jones the vet.










Picture taken at Pwllfanog in 1978.






Owain in mud - Llanberis 1979.


Thanks to Liz Healey for the pictures and the info.

Trefor Pier April 17th 2011

Gethin enjoyed his first UK sea dive!!

This fish is actually alive - it was having a nice sleep before Tommy woke it up!!

Thanks to Mike McCann for organising a nice dive and even arrranged the weather - how kind!

More Segontium

As it happens, Don (see earlier blog) was in our house last night knocking back the wine and he began rambling further about the Segontium - she was built in Holyhead and went down in 'suspicious circumstances' - all her nets were out and anchors also - it was rumoured she was pulled down by a mystery sub?? and had deployed all anchors to try and slow it down

The aforementioned non-ferrous prop has since been blown off by 'persons unknown' ??!!

First Boat Dive of 2011

The first boat dive of 2011 - current was a bit stong though! Everyone left with a smile anyhow!!
The first group out were Myfyr, Carol, Tommy, Mike and Nina.

The gang kit up!

First Dive site: Maen - y - Fran and Rhoscolyn Beacon
Kevin goes out to Catherdral Cave with the 2nd dive group

The Segontium

During our Dive Planning meeting on Thursday night, the possibilities of diving the Segontium were discussed. This reminded me of the first times we dived it. We went out on a trawler with a fisherman who had mysteriously lost nets somewhere and tried to pull them up but only succeeded in nearly pulling his boat under. Don and Dave H dived (into the mouth of the net!! aaarrrrggghhhhhh!!!!!), also Andy B, Frank and Graham Scouse were there. It was a rolly day:

Don clings on!

Graham and Frank relax amongst the nets

So abit later (or it might have been before the trawler)

we found it in our boat and had a lovely dive: good vis, flat calm, found slack, big lobsters etc. but sadly Jeremenemenemeny was not there so we drew our impressions of the wreck on a paper napkin in the pub to show him what he had missed:

We dived it another time when Jeremenemeny was back on one of those days when you couldn't tell where the sea ended and the sky began:

On this occassion (or was it another one?) Dave and I missed the wreck and I remember swimming along a flat murky bottom in an increasing tide, not knowing where we were in relation to the wreck and not daring to surface in case we were swept into the nets!! Happy days!!

Jeremenemenemenemenemeny's Celebration

A toast for Jeremenemenemenemeny is proposed by Mr Wood

Where's my dinner????

Wojciech, Aleksandra, Suzanne, Kevin and Woody are still smiling.....

Aaarrrr - that's better

(Kevin leans back to make room for his tummy and reveals Dave!)

Our future divers (currently forming the Nintendo Club) - Elen, Tomos and Cerian

Helen embarrasses Jeremenemeny by telling him how brilliant we all think he is.......

(Tommy, Hazel and Sue listen carefully)

Jeremenemeny looks bashful

(also starring Nia and Ann and others previously mentioned, and Caroline and Martin leaned back too far)

(This is taking ages - I'll finish the story later)

from Lig

Ice Times

I have just returned from my field season so I thought I would share a view of the Antarctic summer. The view is not so different to a UK dive, you will see dead man's fingers and a sponge, but there are a couple of differences. Most of the animals in this picture are two species of sea cucumber, the pink one and the brown one. All of them have their feeding tentacles out and are making the most of the plankton bloom. For most of the time I was there the viz was appalling, often 1-2m, but that is summer, when the algae are making the most of 24 hour daylight. There is also a sea spider, a pycnogonid, on the dead man's fingers. This is one of the groups that are very common in the Antarctic and species are larger here than anywhere else. In the shallows there are more mobile fauna, including this nudibranch and the fine clear filaments are the feeding tentacles of a polychaete worm, a group that is also very common around Britain.

The seals in the Antarctic attract some summer visitors and it seems that every year we see more and more orca. We would often see them 3 or 4 times a day, which really stops the diving.







However, when you see pictures like this, when they are feeding on seals, then it is quite easy to see why we prefer to stay out of the water!