A day to shake off the festive seasons lethargy. By today the trip was down to two! Both of us had a really good two dives with vis at 10m, and water temp a balmy 6c.. Pike, Perch etc were spotted, and one of us even proved you can throw up thro' a reg'.

Powerboating Cardiff Inner Harbour & River Taff.

Took two RIB's out and practiced boat skills on the inner harbour and also took a trip up to the Millennium Stadium.

Mid week visit to Stoney Cove.

After a 4.5 hour journey due to road works (only 4hrs on the way back!!), we arrived at Stoney on a beautiful crisp and sunny day. Being a wednesday it wasn't too crowded and we could park alongside the water. We carried out two dives with a max' depth of 22m in viz of 8m and a temp of 6deg. visiting the Nautilus, helicopter, landrover, hydrobox, nose cone and of course the Stanegarth. This was a great day out, but we wonder if perhaps this is also our last visit to Stoney as the new National Diving Centre opens next week and we also have Vobster Quay open near Frome. Both of which require considerably less traveling for us.

March 1

St Davids Day dive at the National Diving Centre.

This is now our closest diving centre, taking only 35 mins to get there. The general facilities are good and according to the proposed plans , will get even better over the next few years. The site staff are friendly and enthusiastic, working hard to look after visiting divers. Given time this should be a good place to dive when the underwater attractions are in place and the fish life ignores our bubbles. (A rebreather diver did see a Pike). We all enjoyed our visit and hope the centre will live up to expectations.

March 3

Shore diving St Brides - West Wales.

Our first sea dive of 2003, Water temp was a mild 10c and vis around 7m. We dived around both sides of the bay seeing plenty of marine life. The surge made exploring the gullies on the right an exciting experience.

Lou completed her fourth sea dive and open water tests. Well done.

Lyme Regis - on board 'Blue Turtle' Wrecks & reefs max depth 30m.

Due to the bad weather, forecast for the weekend, the trip has had to be cancelled.

Assistant Instructor Course - Cardiff.

Candidates from South Wales Clubs - Caerphilly/Aberdare/Llantrisant & Dan-y-Mor spent a tough but successful weekend completing the course. Well done to Jan, Howell, Haydn, Greg, John, Phil, Richard & Dave. Thanks to our instructors Neil, Martin and Gareth.

Diving at Stackpole Quay - West Wales.

Another pleasant day, and in we went. Vis' was not to good at 3m, but the water temp was fine at 12c. Plenty of spider crabs, sand eels and wrasse to be seen and of course the blennies which are always here.

Sunday we took a trip up the River Cleddau, which was suprisingly choppy but we still enjoyed the scenery.

Diving at Milford Haven - West Wales.

Planned for diving the E 39 site and Loch Sheil, with a little boat handling practice thrown in! Using one of our fenders as a man overboard boys were doing well at retrieval when suddenly phut! All attempts at restarting failed and a friendly RIB towed us back to Dale. (if you find a fender it's ours). Being fantastic weather the attraction of the Griffin Inn proved to much, and after a few drinks and a picnic on the boat, a loose spark plug was found and the engine was fine. Obviously by now diving was out of the question but we went off and explored the haven visiting the sites we had intended to dive and explored Stack Fort for a while. At the end of the day everyone had a great time and all want to come back for more!

Sunday: Not so calm waters this time, had to wear our dry suits on the way out - quite bumpy; morning wreck dive 'Persier', 30m - vis good - Sue and Lou saw the biggest Conger eel in the world ever. They also had a bit of fun coming back up - While doing their deco stop on the shot line, an inflatable ignored our A flag and ran across it getting the line tangled around it's propellor - we waited and waited for them to free it (this included starting the engine and trying to drive off, even when they knew divers were below them!) but after a while they decided just to cut it! Sue and Lou eventually surfaced to hear the skipper passing pleasantries with the inflatables crew - not!!
In the afternoon 3 of us did a 12m dive in some kelp beds - definitely saw a bright purple starfish!! - saw some grey ones too - v good vis - at least 10m; stroked a friendly dogfish.

By the way, the guys on the inflatable were divers, if anyone knows them ask them to contribute £50 to the lifeboat fund, We think they may need them sometime soon!

Diving St Brides - Pembrokeshire

A group of us met up for one dive today. All were here either with family or just taking a break in Pembrokeshire. The sun shone and vis' was at least 7m. Plenty of marine life to keep us interested.

Diving - Pembrokeshire

Saturday. Dived Stackpole Quay, Vis good at 7m loads of life including the odd lobster. to be seen. We also took a boat out across the Haven from Gelliswick to Dale, had lunch then round to Watwick bay for a swim and a spot of sunbathing.

Sunday Diving Martins Haven, Weather took a dive today and didn't clear up until mid afternoon. Although the wind remained onshore force 5/6 which made for an interesting entry. Once out from the churned up area the vis went up to 7/8m and the dive was excellent. Enjoyed a nice relaxed swim with a max depth of 16m. Getting out proved to be a great spectator sport for the people on the beach. Who were treated to Steve's dying fly impression while trying to get his gear off in the surf zone, while we all waited in praying or foetal positions for him to get back to help us stand up! Any attempt to stand on our own was instantly smashed by the next wave. We love Martins Haven.

Groups of our club divers went to Gozo & Kos this month.

Diving wrecks, reefs, walls and even a volcano blow hole. We will supply more detail when we can get hold of a log book and the photo's.

Saturday. Spent the morning on boat maintenance, unfortunately we needed a new starter motor so the RIB is out of action for a while. Weather started to blow up but we headed for Martins Haven on the off chance that we could dive in this sheltered cove. Three foot waves and winds of force 5 put and end to that!

Sunday. Weather brightened considerabley. Decided to dive the 'Blue Lagoon' at Abereiddy. Not for the feint hearted as the climb/walk to get to the lagoon is a killer. This place is lovely and when you see it you just want to dive. The vis' can get very bad due too the amount of silt here, but generally stayed at about 4m. We all enjoyed the two dives, seeing a tube worm colony, wrasse, blennies, spider crabs, lobster, shrimps and a conger eel.

Lyme Regis - on board 'Blue Turtle'

Saturday. Dived the M2 in the morning followed by the good old Baygittano in the afternoon.

Club training at The National Diving Centre - Chepstow..

Spent the entire day here, enjoyed the craic with the Centres crew and with the sun shining all day and two nice dives investigating the underwater 'attractions' and spotting pike & perch we all had a good time. Don't ask about DSMB's if you're around Steve & Lou!

A small group of us made our way here today, and enjoyed a very pleasant day out. Weather turned out well and the vis' was generally 7/8 metres. We started with a short dive to introduce Ray to the art of dry suit diving (sorry Ray) After much spinning/rolling and the like he got the hang of it. We went on to complete two dives during the day, both of which were comfortable and fun.

So that's it for another year. We will start a new logbook page for 2004 soon.

Many thanks to the club members who have supported us and although we have had a quiet year on the training side congratulations to the following for their qualifications:

Louise Deeley - Open Water Diver/Club Diver

Steve Eccles - Open Water Diver/Club Diver

Ray Pasch - Elementary Diver/Open Water Diver

Dave Pring - Assistant Instructor

and finally Sam and Meg who are well on their way to Elementary Diver Level