Milford Haven/ Skomer – LSSAU dive weekend of 13 to 15 July 2012

Good planning or just good luck, Roger, Jim, Matt’s Davies and Drage, Ian, Sam, Rich, Tim, Dave and Geoff found glorious sunshine, not a lot of wind and gentle seas, not to mention a well stocked bar at the Haven yacht club where we met on the Friday night, having put Vixen to bed in their secure compound.

Launching off Gelliswick slip on Saturday morning, our boat handler, Roger, navigated to the east of the Mew Stone, on the south, and leeward, face of Skomer. Rich and Tim were first in, quickly followed by Jim and Geoff, all having a cracking 45 minute dive, with lots to see in the 8m vis, edible and spider crabs, lobster, dog fish, sea cucumbers, starfish, urchins, squirts to name but a few. The life was teeming, maximum depth being around 15m.

A short journey through Jack Sound took us to the mainland north east of Skomer and into Martins Haven where the first wave of divers were dropped off and the second, Matt Davies, Ian and Sam, along with boat crew member Dave, were picked up. Matt Drage stayed on shore, not feeling like diving. They had driven from Gelliswick and had a short shallow shore dive to check weights etc prior to Vixen’s arrival.  

They returned to dive the same site, albeit closer to the Mew Stone, but by then, the tide had turned and was starting to move. They had more of a drift dive which took them round to the seaward side of the Mew Stone. 

Returning to Martins Haven, we had lunch, took the air cylinders to Haven Diving in Milford Haven for filling and filled one of the boat petrol containers.

Ian and Matt Drage returned to the Haven Sea Scouts hut in Gelliswick to sort out tea and prepare the trailer for Vixen recovery whilst the rest took the short hop across to the North Wall of Skomer for a gentle drift dive, staying in the same pairs and dropping in at five minute intervals. An interesting 45 minute dive but not as much life as had been seen on the south side of the island. That said, we saw dolphins when on the surface, seals on the surface and a seal only feet away when concluding our dive. 

The return journey was with the wind and tide, making for a fairly quick and comfortable return and, following a radio message to provide advance warning of arrival, a very swift recovery from the slip. 

Tea was followed by a short visit to the yacht club, everyone being tired by this time. 

Tide times not being that convenient to allow a second dive and return to home at a sensible hour, there was only one dive on the Sunday. Launching at 9.15am we dropped our shot onto the Dakotian at 9.45am, with the same sequence of diving as the previous day, divers down at 10.05am. An enjoyable 45 minute dive ensued on the former liberty ship with lots to see, albeit visibility was only between 2-3m. 

Divers were swapped over on the pontoon at Dale just after 11am, with Matt Drage and Ian going in first to be followed by Matt Davies and Sam. They returned to Gelliswick for a swift recovery around 12.30pm following which Vixen was washed down in fresh water prior to us having lunch. Equipment was packed, cars loaded, hut cleaned and tidied and keys handed over and we left site around 2.45pm, arriving back in Leicester some 4 1/2 hours later. 

The cost worked out to £75 per head, travel fuel being the largest component, followed by food, boat fuel, scout hut and air. Having two waves of divers from one boat with a dedicated boat handler, made a significant difference to cost.  Two boats would have increased costs by c£30 per head. 

In summary, a very enjoyable weekend, made so by the help and involvement of all who went plus without doubt, the weather, with some very interesting diving. Haven Sea Scouts, Yacht club and diving all made us very welcome and were very helpful. Would we go back, yes.

LSSAU visit Portland 28 & 29 April

 

The first trip to the coast of the year and the weather was not kind to us – but didn’t stop us from having some fun - diving and boat handling.

 

The Team: Kyle, Sam, Nathan, Simon (aka Pils) and Marg.

 

Has ever we received a warm welcome at the Chickerell Scout hut.  The hut is having central heating installed so it will be even better in the future.  Slight down side - the local Fish & Chip shops seem to have taken to closing about 10pm on Friday nights, so we had to resort to the Chinese take away for our after journey supper on Friday evening.

 

Vixen was made welcome at Clarks Boat Yard in Castletown, where she spent 2 nights, getting her on to the grass by the Scout Hut is no longer a practical option.

 

After getting a permit to dive in the Harbour from the Sailing Academy we launched from Casteltown slip – which is free.  Portland Harbour was reasonably calm and close into the inside of the Harbour wall the sea was completely flat.  We dived the Countess of Erne.  The visibility as expected was about 1 – 2M there was a lot of sand in suspension, there had been storm force winds during the week.  The buddy pairs were Sam & Pils, Marg & Nathan.  All followed the outside of the wreck; there were plenty of sea squirts, some spider crabs, pink sea fan, sea slugs, and various sponges.  Kyle was boat handler (as well as towing Vixen down – thank you Kyle).  We were the only divers in and around Portland Harbour!

 

After the dive the wind (North Easterly) was picking up so we decided that after lunch boat handling was the best thing to do.  Saturday afternoon was spent going through the skills of the BSAC Boat handling course with Nathan & Sam; we got wet and laughed a lot.  For the confined area skills we went into the Sailing Academy Marina, and after admiring many of the boats moored there skills were achieved in difficult conditions as the wind was increasing the whole time.  Two boat handling lectures were completed Saturday evening

 

Over lunch chatting to Scimitar Divers we were told about their efforts to raise a yacht that had sunk on her moorings in the Harbour during a storm the previous Wednesday night – several other boats were damaged.  By the end of the Saturday the yacht was off the bottom and had been towed to the Harbour wall by Clarks Boat yard, ready to be craned up and pumped out on Monday.  However there was a North East gale on Saturday night and much of Sunday, and we suspect the partially submerged yacht will have been damaged further.

 

Gales were forecast for Sunday so when we took Vixen off the water Saturday evening we got her ready for the journey home.  Scimitar Diving generously allowed us to use their kit washing facilities to wash Vixen and ourselves down, and Smudge filled our cylinders – with no charge – thank you Smudge & Sarah this was greatly appreciated.

 

Sunday was a gale with lashing down rain so as planned we went to Vobster for a dive on the way home.  We dived in the same pairs as Saturday.  Sam & Pils explored down to 22M, Nathan & Marg visited the 12M area and found the aircraft which was full of tiny perch.  The vis was at least 5M and the water temperature about 9C about a degree colder than the sea. The diving was good and we all said we would dive Vobster again.

 

The ‘washing’ of Vixen continued on the journey back to Fox Box as we drove through torrential rain all the way home.

 

A good start to the season but let’s hope the future trips have better weather.

 

Marg