Trip Report : Easter 2009

A windy weekend in Anglesey by Rachael Cavanagh
Rachael
Cavanagh.

Culled from the original 10 club members signed up, due to a spate of injuries and illnesses, the intrepid final six set out for Trearrdur Bay on Friday morning with Nessie in tow.

On arrival we were pleased to see that despite booking the accommodation separately we had been put into bungalows next to each other, which helped to make the social aspect of the trip a big success. Although I’m not sure our neighbours would necessarily agree!

Despite it being the first time the dive organizer (me) had towed the rib we managed to park up and secure her with minimal damage to one small shrub – and some worried glances out of their bungalow windows from other guests whose cars were already parked nearby. I did notice that we pretty much had that area of the parking lot to ourselves after the first day…

The diving was cancelled due to force 6 southerly winds even though the weather was brilliant sunshine. We looked out into the bay and saw the waves crashing onto the rocks and wondered if we would actually be able to get in the water at all that weekend.

So, with no diving that first day we unpacked the beers and had a sun drenched early doors in the ‘garden’ followed by a great night at the Trearrdur Bay Hotel.

Saturday morning dawned, sunny and warm but the pesky southerlies continued to plague us. After launching Nessie that morning we reenacted the Perfect Storm for an hour or so before deciding that discretion ought to be the better part of valour and returned her to the car park. Despite the wind and the fearsome overhangs Phil Robinson’s cap was, fortunately, the only victim of an overboard incident. Sadly it sank without trace, much to his disgust. After a leisurely lunch on the headland we packed the cars with kit and headed off to the other side of the island, where there was shelter from the wind, to get a shore dive in near Bull Bay.

After ten minutes ferreting round in one metre viz Debbie Robinson and I called it day. The water was freezing and despite the dive write up we had consulted proclaiming there to be a wealth of marine life, crabs and kelp were as exciting as it got. Although, to be fair, the sounds of boats/jet skis whizzing overhead in 6 metres was more exciting than we wanted it to be. DSMBs were definitely the order of the day.

Andy and Liz McCarthy, the other budy pair who came in at the same time as us, showed far greater tenacity and toughed it out for a full twenty minutes before emerging disgruntled and hypothermic. Guy Parker and Phil, who had sensibly elected to provide shore cover for the first wave of divers, accepted our ‘advice’ not to bother.

After a very sociable Saturday night we all managed to be packed up and ready to go the following day and were joined by Marc Stanton, who was holidaying in the same bungalows with his family and was brave/stupid enough to join us for the final two days diving. This was something of a miracle given that we had a mass power outage on the site on Saturday evening. Just as Andy was starting to prepare his signature dish of Spaghetti Bolognese for our delectation. Phil went to check what was happening and ended up embroiled in a potential major incident when it was discovered that the supply box near reception was actually ON FIRE. No harm done as we were ‘forced’ to go back to the pub for the remainder of the evening.

Andy proved the hero of the hour once again on Sunday when I refused to reverse the boat down the jetty for fear of plunging the boat and the car (Guy’s pride and joy – meaning I would as wise to go down with it were that to happen) into the sea. As I looked on enviously from the passenger seat he expertly maneuvered the boat into the water. I was grateful for his tact and patient instruction on reversing of trailers throughout the weekend although there were a couple of occasions were I could see he was trying not to laugh.

Once launched we (I) decided that we would visit the Hermione, which my dive guide indicated could be dived at most states of the tide, being a reasonably sheltered spot. As we dropped Liz and Debbie in we could not have anticipated that a so called sedate wreck dive would turn out to be a no viz, high speed drift. We managed to track them fairly well and when Guy and Marc jumped in those of us in the boat spotting were pretty sure we knew what to expect. That was until the lifeboat came alongside about half and hour later and asked us if we had lost two divers. We were helpfully pointed in the right direction about half a mile away from our present position. I think it was safe to say that Guy and Marc were pleased to see us, if a little hoarse.

Our afternoon dive was, as it turned out, the dive of the weekend and we had a great and easy dive in reasonably good viz checking out The Chasms. Plenty of life with lobsters, velvet swimming crabs, tompot blennies, some cool looking sponges and what I later discovered, thanks to Debbie, were ribbons of nudibranc eggs curled up in the shape of a flower head.

Sunday night was predictably high spirited and we finally got to taste Andy’s cooking. Highly recommended and many thanks go to him from us all for a terrific meal.

Monday morning and we decided to be adventurous. The weather was fabulous, the wind changed its mind and went to force 2 south westerly and we were in business. So off we headed, boat in tow, to Beaumaris to launch for a trip to Puffin Island. The hope was that Andy would see some seals and I would see some Puffins. I am pleased to report that we both got our wish. We chucked the first divers over, Guy and Phil as we knew this would be a fast drift given we had arrived at the site whilst the flood tide was still strong and they had been looking forward to another drift. They certainly got it, surfacing after 25 minutes giggling like idiots. Andy and Marc were next in and sensibly, after Andy had spent the first five minutes playing a human pin ball, decided that no viz drift diving with pinnacles was not a good plan and we picked them up after 10 minutes. Debbie and I, both being dedicated critter hunters, decided that a no viz drift was a bit pointless and after a minor stand off with some prat that does the Puffin Island boat tours and has no regard for diver safety we headed back to Beaumaris. Debbie performed brilliantly as our cox and managed to avoid the horrible sandbanks in the Menai Straight. I have to say, rather her than me!

The boat was recovered and we packed up as I reflected on how grateful I was not to have needed to file an incident report on the first dive that I have organized for the club. Thanks to all those taking part, they made it a fantastically fun weekend and although the diving didn’t always stack up this was more than compensated for by the people who were present. Thanks guys, I promise I’ll stick to non plankton blooming months in future…..