Pembroke Trip report

[HelenP]

Hi all,

Just got back from 3 days great diving in pembroke so thought i'd let you all know about it (it's my first ever attempt at a trip report so please be gentle!)

Firstly a big thanks to Bruce and Jen of West Wales Diving School for a fab 3 days diving and all the much needed cups of tea at the beginning and end of each day!

Did 6 guided dives over 3 days from a rib.

Pre dive 1 managed to cut finger whilst showing off new dive knife! Very embarassing now know from experience that it's very sharp

Dive 1: Max 17.1, Bottom time 33min. Viz about 2m. Explore of Huw's reef, things saw included a dogfish, a mass gathering of common starfish (must have been about 100 of them all in one place, gutted didn't have camera), common sea urchin, spidercrabs, and spiny starfish. Had a practice at deploying DSMB, seemed to go up ok though when got to surface noticed it was fairly limp! Note to self put more air in next time!!

Dive 2: Max 14.0m, bottom time 34min. Viz 1-2m. Dive around the Leysian wreck which was apparently a 4000 tonne cattle ship that sunk in 1917. Visibility pretty grotty and bottom very silty so viz got even worse if it got kicked up. Had an explore round wreck which is fairly spread out, though you can make out what bits of it would have been , saw some fish but not sure what they were!! Highlight of day was a seal that was playing virtually on the beach as we came in, it hung around for about 15minutes.

Dive 3: Max 16.9m, bottom time 21min, viz 1m at best! V-Reef. Log book entry reads 'very dark, poor visibility'!! it felt like somebody had turned out the lights! Saw quite a big Ballan Wrasse, a little scorpion fish and lots of different types of sponges. Dive aborted slightly early as torch battery not looking too good!!

Dive 4: Max 12.1m, bottom time 32 min, viz a whole 3m! Ynys castell. Explored the gully and then went into the blow hole (open topped cave) and ascended. Loads of life on the wall of the gully, lots of cup coral, bloody henry starfish (red and purple ones), nudibranch, compass jellyfish, again lots of sponges.

Dive 5: Max 14.8m, bottom time 36 mins, viz 2m. Ynys Deullyn (west side). water was very choppy this morning. Visibility not too bad overall but quite bad in the odd section. Lots of life though including crayfish, fan coral, lobsters (unfortunately they were in a pot!), crayfish and the highlight of the dive the seal swam past us a couple of times , though unfortunately my buddy didnt see it! Got back to boat and they said they had seen quite a large sun fish swimming around but it didnt want to make a reappearance for us!

Dive 6: Max 18.6m, bottom time 32 minutes, viz 2-3m. Ynys Deullyn (east side). Swam around the corner then went with the current for a really good drift dive, felt like the turtle on finding nemo! Took my camera but was hard stopping to take photos when the drift is quite strong, but heres one of a sponge crab that we saw...



Anyway thats all from me, had a great few days as you can probably tell. A big thumbs up to the diving in Pembroke

Helen

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report, sounds like a very good 3 days diving

[louigi]

Did my first sea dives with Bruce rough weather from what I remember but that's another story glad you enjoyed the experiance and I just know you will go back for another go. It is one of the best places and relitivley un spoilt. hope the vis is better next time.

[SCUBA Chick]

Nice report Helen and thanks for sharing with us....

Cracking viz you had there then

Happy & safe diving

Kathy