Well, due to the Foggys thread regarding the lack of diving talk on the boards I thought I’d have a go at writing a little trip report so here goes.
With the prospect of good weather and low winds we decided to get the rib in the water for a couple of days diving. I don’t usually do rib diving if I’m using twins but with only 4 of us on an 8 meter rib there was ample space for kitting up.
After slipping the boat at the sailing academy the skipper and I set off to Castletown to pick up the other divers. The weekend started badly with a bollocking from the harbor patrol for speeding in the 6 knot zone!
With the other divers on board and fried food eaten we set off for the first dive of the weekend, the M2. Ben has recently done his fundies and was entertaining us with stories of how great Claire was, how much his diving had improved and how he was looking forward to upgrading his ‘rec’ pass for a ‘tech’ one. The rest of us discussed how long we’d need to hold his head underwater before his body stopped twitching.
We arrived on site early to give us plenty of time to get the shot in but before we had a chance we were joined by Scimitar and Cutlass who offered to let us use their shot. With the knowledge that this was going to be a diver soup dive we kitted up and waited or turn for the shot.
The sea was soon full of bobbing divers as people either couldn’t get down or got down and promptly binned the dive and came back up. Funny to watch but I was starting to feel a touch ‘tom and dick’ from all the bobbing about in the boat so was glad to get in the water and head down the shot line anxious to see if the vis was as good as the weather.
It Wasn’t.
Black dark and Very silty we had about a meter a best. But set off from the shot in the hopes of finding some clear water.
After a minute or so I realized I was no longer with my buddy so went back to the shot to collect him.
So again we set off with both of us following my torch light as Ben had discovered that 2 mini q40s weren’t really up to the job on this dive (very DIR mate
).
The M2 is a great place to be and as usual was teeming with life. I was thoroughly enjoying the dive until we separated slightly to go round another group of divers and once again Ben was nowhere to be seen. After a quick search for him proved unsuccessful (get a proper torch you Muppet) I decided that 30 minutes was long enough down there so bagged up and did my stops. We eventually surfaced no more than 40 seconds and 2 meters apart!!
The second dive was a scolly run in equally bad vis but was fairly uneventful.
With the diving done it was off to the smugglers Inn for food beer and to decide who had got the best sunburn (I won that one).
There was some enjoyable diving on the Sunday as well but I’m too exhausted from typing to tell you about it!