A small group spent the day here, the sun shone and vis' was a least 10m. With a water temp' of 5c the two dives completed were to say the least refreshing! There were literally thousands of fish around us but no Pike today.
February 23
Blue Turtle (hardboat) max depth 35m. 6 places.
March 3
Training at Cosmeston Lake - Penarth.
The sun shone on a lovely spring morning and it was time for two of our novices to discover the joys of open water diving. (with mask off of course!). With no vis' (I swam into a rock full face). this was going to be awkward, but the boys came out all smiles.
Well done Nick and Fred.
For those who don't believe there is any life in the lake, Mike brought up a fresh water mussel as big as your hand. After examining it we put it back in .
March 8
An evening out at the Anchor - Taffs Well.
12 of us descended on the Anchor to sample an evening of Mongolian cuisine - delicious! The format is eat all you want, so Martin set out to try for the record but settled for 6 bowls. A little short of the 16 bowl record. Thanks to Sue for organising the evening.
March 17
Blue Turtle (hardboat) max depth 35m. 6 places.
March 31
West Wales - Vis' totally blown out, so we took the opportunity to practice boat handling skills around the Haven. Great fun in the choppy waters.
April 27
Chesil Beach - Shore diving The Royal Adelaide and American Landing Craft.
Well it had to happen. After two glorious weeks of weather, today it all turned around. At 5:00am the buoy data indicated an OK for the dives, the journey down was in lovely sunshine, but by the time we arrived at Chesil the wave height at the beach was over 1m so getting out would have been almost impossible. We settled for some sight seeing and a decent pub lunch at Beer, then home in time for tea.
May 5
Shore diving St Brides Bay, Pembrokeshire.
The sun shone and we have never seen so many divers here as today. Vis was 3/4m which made for very pleasant diving. Louise made her first open water dive today and thoroughly enjoyed herself. A day enjoyed by all.
May 18/19
Plymouth
A party of 10 went off for a weekends diving which took in the James Eagan Layne, two reef dives and HMS Elk vis was generally 4/5 metres. Lots of life on each dive. Everyone had a great time.
West Wales
A small party also went off to West Wales diving at Martins Haven. These were not so lucky with rain, winds up to force 6 and vis at best 1.5 metres.
June 22
Weymouth (hardboat) max depth 45m. 6 places.
8 of us took the club boat 'Morfach' out into the Haven and dived the Dakotian. With vis' of about 6m this turned out to be an excellent dive. Not a lot of life around, a few spider crabs, pollack and the other usual suspects, but with the odd peak under the wreckage still plenty to see.
Sunday saw us diving at Martins Haven. With the tide well in we had an easy entry. The group comprising of Mike, Louise, Steve, Richard and Derek enjoyed excellent vis' of 6m+ and plenty of life, crabs, lobsters, sea slugs were just a few of the marine species on show.. Our novices are gaining valuable experience and their buoyancy control is better with every dive.
It should be noted that diving on the left hand side of the bay is now not allowed. Due to the dangers of meeting the Dale Princess.
Hard boat diving at Weymouth, we tried out a new skipper who shall for now remain anonymous. The guy couldn't find the wreck, dropped a shot in that hung 2m above the seabed. This little episode over he then offered a dive on the aerial, which was declined in favour of a refund. We then found out he didn't know where this was either!!
'cest la vie'
July 13
Plymouth (RIB) max depth 35m. 6 places.
July 21
Six of us went off to West Wales for a days shore diving at St Brides Bay & Stackpole Quay, A cloudless sky, flat calm sea and 10m vis' made this the best days diving of the year, thousands of fish, spider crabs like dinner plates, beautiful jellyfish gently drifting by all set off by the spectacular colours of the plant life. The wall to the left of Stackpole Quay was a joy. (Why are Blennies always so cute?).
July 27
Off to West Wales. Weather lovely and 8m+ vis'. Loads of life to be seen at St Brides, where the fish seem to be tamer by the week.
August 26
West Wales. 8m vis' again, and another beautifull day.
August 31 & September 1
Off to Lyme Regis, diving from 'Blue Turtle'. Dived the wrecks of the St Dunstan and Baygitano. With vis' at 10m, warm water (for here!) and so many fish they got in the way this was one of the top days of the year.
We also met the new receiver of wreck on the quayside, who is a very pleasant person and was happy to chat to skippers and divers who were there. We hope she enjoys her new role.
September 21/22
As we say in our about us section, we support divers from all agencies. Our youngest member Hannah Pring went off this weekend to complete a PADI Rescue Diver course. We have helped with her pool training for this (almost drowning her once or twice) and as expected she was a star!
Well done Hannah.
September 28
Weymouth (hardboat) max depth 45m
November 3
No diving this weekend as the weather has been lousy! Three of us went to West Wales to retrieve 'Morfach' our club RIB. There has been an engine fault which has now been repaired and we went to give her a sea trial. Conditions were a little choppy so we went up the river Cleddau to give her a test. Had a great run up but on the way back, while we were out in the Haven, we ran into a large squall. Think of a 'Perfect Storm' scene from the movie and that's how it felt, very, very dark, horizontal hail and huge waves. A scary 10mins.
December
Time flies, and another year is over. We have enjoyed our years diving, and thanks to all involved in organising our diving and social events. Hopefully next year will be even better. Check out the Log book for 2003.