After breakfast the party was introduced to Pat Sweeney and his son David, who will be acting as our dive guides/Coxes for the week. A quick drive to the harbour revealed the fact that most people had turned into Faff Monsters overnight. To cries of 'Have you seen my thinsulate booties/dive timer/flag?' and 'How the @*$% does this go together again!' the party slowly prepared for the dive. The days diving is to be done using the RHIB ‘Shearwater’ with Pat as cox and the Dory ‘Bass Hunter’ coxed by David. The buddies were Sean/Anthony in the dory, with Mark/Sarahlouise and William/Jo in the RHIB.
The group was joined by two divers from N. Ireland, Julia and Graham, both marine biologists. Although not staying at the hostel Julia and Graham joined nearly every trip for the week. Graham dived with his camera, and Julia dived with a plastic bag for collecting samples of kelp, the bag was placed in a plastic bucket once back on the boat.
The first dive was off Abbey Island, the sea was calm and the sun was shining. This dive was a nice gentle introduction to the Irish underwater scenery with vis at 9-10m. Some of the many creatures encountered included ballen and cuckoo wrasse, dogfish, lobsters, crabs, loads of starfish, urchins etc. The relaxed conditions allowed everyone to reacquaint themselves with equipment, skills etc. Sean mystified his buddy by repeatedly turning on his back and crossing his arms throughout the dive, it transpired that he had a sticky dry suit dump valve. (Avg depth: 24m, Avg time: 25min)
Anthony had a tow and land to complete for his Sport Diver cross-over training, so it was decided to do this before lunch. Sean gracefully agreed to be the body while William demonstrated / assessed the drill. This proved to be a great crowd attracting exercise, by the time Anthony had landed the body a large number of children had appeared and were watching the only way small, irritating children can. Given the entertainment provided by this exercise, the divers were bitterly disappointed when they weren’t given a round of applause at the end.
Back at the hostel over lunch everybody was excitedly talking about their dive and anticipating the next. Sean gave a very impressive demonstration of how to dismantle a dump valve, unfortunately his reassembling was less than perfect. How many times can you get all the screws done up before realising that you have forgotten to replace the spring?
For the afternoons dive off Lamb’s Head, the sky had become overcast and the sea was choppy. The vis was slightly reduced to 5-6m but the dive was just as impressive. Once again plenty of wildlife. Sean and Anthony found a very shifty lobster. As they approached, it was making short work of a crab, tearing off legs without a care in the world. After a while it became aware of the two divers watching this display of predatory vandalism, and decided to hide the evidence. This was the most guilty/shifty looking lobster encountered by the divers. Whilst trying not to attract any more attention, it slowly shuffled what remained of the crab under its body. The divers could have sworn that it was mouthing the words, 'Who me? I don’t know what you’re on about. I haven’t seen any crabs round here for days. And anyway why would I want to hide a crab from you? Honest, would I lie? Nope definitely no crabs round here!'. (Avg depth: 20m, Avg time: 30min)
After a bountiful dinner prepared by Jo and William, the pull of the Guinness broke the will power of all. The Skellig Aquatics hostel is conveniently located next door to the local pub, 'The Blind Piper'.
