Castaways Sub-Aqua Club
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Castaways Sub-Aqua Club |
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A Branch (Branch No 2071) of The British Sub-Aqua Club |
The newsletter of Castaways Sub-Aqua Club
No: 2 - Summer 1996
Voice from the POT
(Editors comments)
Well here we are part way through another glorious summer, and still waiting for the OK to resume diving.
Many thanks to the contributors who made this edition of the newsletter possible. Please send your contributions to SLAY who will be only to happy to include them.
Will all trip organisers please remember to send detailed accounts to the DO and treasurer, as well as completed dive detail sheets to the DO. If you need sheets to fill-in, please contact the DO.
Will anybody who has a training need please contact the DO, who will then attempt to organise suitable training weekends.
The AGM went by without any problems. The current committee were re-elected, and additional post was created. The new posts are Social Secretary - Claire Warren.
A proposal of a central resource for training material was made and William volunteered to administer this.
A good evening was had by all attendees, and we hope to see even more present next year.
No prizes this quarter for guessing who the following quotes are attributable to, but here they are any way :
"You can’t send them (the daffodils) by boat, they may get seasick!"
"The water is still wet and the beer is good!"
Norfolk Aug. bank holiday (Full)
Oban Sept. (Full )
Charlie organising a minibus from London (Hopefully)
Weymouth
March 1996
(or How to freeze your b**** off !)
When Suzanne first suggested going diving at the end of March, it seemed like a good idea (partly because it was January, March was a long time off and the memories of the Red Sea trip in December were still vivid in our minds). However, as March approached with no sign of spring and the ambient temperature still being very low (the report of the coldest water temperature off Brighton for some 30 years did not help) the enthusiasm drastically waned. Succumbing to a cold the week before the trip tempted us to give the trip a miss however, Suzanne’s encouragement that it wouldn’t be too bad, persuaded us to give it a go.
The start of another diving season was heralded in the usual way, getting out of bed before the sun in order to drive down to Weymouth. Suzanne must have been on good terms with the Sun god, as it was very sunny.
We all met at the dive shop, Old Harbour Divers at 9 o'clock to start preparing the kit from it's winter storage. - By 11am we were on the our way with a trainee cox in charge of the RIB We headed for the dredger outside of the harbour wall at Portland, but there was a slight swell and two other boatloads of divers about to jump in and stir up the brown stuff. So back inside the harbour we went to do the Countess of Erme.
We dived in 3 groups, Suzanne and Jake, Neal and Claire, and Slay to act as referee between John and I. Although there was another boat at the wreck the viz was very good for the Countess of Erme (apart from when divers from this other boat decided to trawl along the bottom).There was not much life around although a crab and lobster ( I think) were spotted by the other group, but there were loads of dead mens fingers and sponges on the wreck. The water was very cold (the computer later reported 6°C) so after about 20 minutes we decided to head for the surface.
Considering how cold & hungry we were, its amazing how poor the fish & chips from the harbour front just up from OHDS seemed. Heading back out after lunch, the tides were in our favour so the, Hood was the chosen dive site. I decided to miss this dive as I was already freezing, but the rest had a good dive, although once again they reported that there wasn’t much life around. Following dekitting we headed for our rooms for the night to have a hot shower and slowly defrost by sitting very close to the radiators. The evening was spent in the usual post-dive manner - in a pub eating and imbibing a few "divers lemonades". Luckily Suzanne didn’t find the scrumpy this time, as no-one would've been pleased with a blocked sink!
Sunday started out the same as Saturday, bright and sunny but with a serious ground frost. This made me think twice about going in as I did not look forward to putting on a frozen wetsuit. Turned out it was just cold. We headed around Portland Bill to do a gentle drift dive at the Aeriels. The viz was a bit better than on the Countess, and the water felt a bit warmer (must have been the ASDA bags on my feet as the computer said it was the same!). We came across a Iumpsucker (stuck on a rock) and after a couple of minutes of prodding and looking closely decided that it was alive. We tried unsuccessfully to capture a crab for tea, but Claire and Neal had more luck coming up with a crab and numerous mussels. In the afternoon only the brave four (as they put it) decided to do another dive.
At the end of the weekend, we all agreed that it was a successful Castaways weekend, with us all prepared for the diving season. For all of you other Castaway members who decided it was too cold you were right but you missed out on a good weekend's diving and the chance to develop a suntan. And next year if Suzanne suggests a trip at the same time, I’ll probably go - but only if I've got a dry suit!
Jane Redford (with nit-picking from John)
Anglesey
18th-27th May 1996
The idea of a week away in Anglesea is not your first idea of a dive trip, so we decided to do it.
Not a lot was known about the sites in the area, but the usual theory of:- sticking out island + unpredictable weather = plentiful supply of dive sites, was put into action.
As we came over the border into Wales the weather changed from pouring rain and gales to sunshine and showers, not brilliant but better than what we had just left behind. We had been informed by Claire that the cottage we were staying in "looked nice" in the brochure, we were not expecting just how nice it actually was. The facilities included a sauna, solarium, golf, tennis etc. The question of whether we really needed to go diving did cross the lips of those of us who were more doubtful.
After deciding that the Sunday would be spent on land and relaxing, we went diving. A potter in the shallows of Treaddur Bay. The best viz of the week and wigglies to go with it. This was followed by the start of the weekly routine. Dive, Swim, Sauna, Swim, Sauna, Shower, Food a la Claire and lots of home-brew!
The first days diving was organised the night before with the skipper in his pub (ideal combination) . The 10am meet was very civilised and followed a healthy fry up for breakfast. We quickly came to realise on entering the water for this dive what the water was to be like for the rest of the week. Celery soup. We had managed to hit the island for one of the few weeks in the year when they are under the influence of a plankton bloom. Not being put off six divers managed twenty minutes of pitch black drift diving, only seeing the life when you hit it. The afternoon dive was on the wreck of the Royal Charter or so they told us, we had enough trouble identifying the seabed.
The second days diving was a little less soupy, relatively. Partly because we were below the layer of plankton, just, and partly because it was so dark you couldn't actually see the stuff. The morning dive was on a tug. Neal and Clare seemed to have a good time as a buddy pair as did Suzanne and Justin, once they had managed to loose Jake thanks to the Eddystone Lighthouse which Justin insisted on taking with him. The wreck was covered in plumose anaemonies, so we all found out when we got to the bottom, all that is except for Jake who had a nice potter at 35metres on a flat sandy bottom. The afternoon dive was in a bay just out of Amlwch. Two pairs had a dive in the muddy bottom or was it plankton, nobody was entirely sure.
The next day started with driving rain, high winds and a severe lack of enthusiasm from all the bedrooms. An expedition to Holyhead was decided instead. This lasted for a total of one hour before we found the pub followed by lunch. After lunch we went to South Stack Lighthouse. A good idea if there is no wind, an experience if there is. A few of the corners on the walk down were so windy it was sheer luck that we stayed on the cliff. At least we felt that we had walked off the beer enough the be able to drink some more.
Thursday was an early 8am meet and as Neal wanted to open his birthday pressies before we went, Claire had a very early morning! The diving was much better than earlier in the week. The viz was better and the wreck, The Durban had a lot more to offer. 6,000 tonnes of metal awaited us at the bottom of the shot, again covered in life including dog fish and velvet swimming crabs. The dive ended with a communal stop and shock as the buoy came to meet us at 8metres as the current picked up. The second dive of the day was again more interesting. This time we were on the wreck of Dakota, a transatlantic liner. A good current was running and the souvenirs brought up were caught whilst hanging on for dear life. The evening entertainment consisted of a competition to see who could eat the biggest steak. Birthday boy won with 20oz. and a dessert.
The final days diving started with a return to the Durban. Justin and Jake were diving with an instructor from the local school and had a good dive, despite having a battle with the distance line. Suzanne and Neal had a good dive, assisted by nitrogen narcosis. Only finding the wreck when Neal hit his pillar valve on a lump of metal at 33metres on the ascent from a sandy bottom at 43metres. The second dive of the day was on another wreck, the Cambank. A lobster was conveniently positioned at the bottom of the shot line followed by a crab which came to visit for dinner, but was shortly returned after surfacing and inspection due to it's soft shell. Neal and Jake had an interesting dive with an episode of errors, the final one being Jake losing his fin at the bottom of the shot, how nobody quite knows. No dive trip would be complete without the traditional curry, we managed to fit it in. Considering the amount of life in Holyhead during the day, people must have come out of the woodwork to fill the curryhouse the night that we were in it. The centre of life in Holyhead.
All in all, it was a good weeks diving, despite the plankton. If anyone suggested going back we would probably take them up on the offer, so long as it wasn't in May. If anyone wants to know the joys of diving in celery soup just ask Claire, Neal, Wendy, Justin, Jake or Suzanne after the last week we can give you a pretty accurate description.
Suzanne
Dear Bertie,
I have terrible problems while diving. I am a traditional whisky drinker, so
don’t appreciate any dilution with water. The problem is this, how can
I drink water free Whisky while decompressing ?
Yours
N
Dear N,
This is a more common problem than many people realise, having to be without
your whisky or even worse diluting it. There are proposals for new training
courses, Advanced Deep Drinking and Decompression Drinking. It is hoped that
these will be available in the near future, until then I would suggest decompressing
in a habitat
Keep getting wet
Bertie
"Not so much saving his life, as salvaging his kit!"
"We’re so far off the end of tables, it don’t matter anymore!"
"It’s all right, it’s different, we’re using computers !!!"
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