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Anglesey photo gallery
After the AGM Ronnie and I
had a discussion about the trip to Menai on Anglesey on June 16th and
17th and decided to reorganise slightly how the trip was planned. This
is to take into account the many suggestions that were made about the
various club trips at the AGM.
Up until now this has been
planned as a weekend trip with stopovers on Friday and Saturday night.
This has been due to the fact that these dives replaced our Pwllheli
trips. Pwllheli is a good 3 hour drive on a Friday night so it worked
well as a weekend trip. Menai can be driven in just 2 hours particularly
early on a Sunday morning so we are changing the emphasis to be a day
dive.
So we now have a June 17th
day dive from Menai just the other side of the bridge on Anglesey, 117
miles from Fulwood. That should be a 2 hour drive on a Sunday morning -
we can find out about possible delays nearer the time. In the past we
have met at the pier at Menai at 9 o'clock.
We have booked out the
hardboat Endeavour skippered by Scott Waterman which is a good,
comfortable fast boat WITH A TAIL LIFT! That means you dont have to lug
yourself up vertical steps out of the water or take off your kit before
being dragged into a Rib - you get to stand on a platform and be lifted
out of the water - usually to someone whistling the Thunderbird's theme
tune (you can whistle it yourself if you want)!
Because we have booked the
whole boat - 12 places - we get complete choice of what depth we go to
and what sort of dive it is. If between us we are happy with 20m or so -
the same depth as Capernwray then he'll find us appropriate dives, if we
are happy to go a bit deeper and the skipper knows something
particularly interesting then we can discuss it there and then. Ronnie
and the skipper between them have the expertise to ensure we get good
safe dives.
We have so far been lucky at Menai with
billiard table water on several trips but we know that if the weather
gets up a bit there are some excellent sheltered dives in the Menai
strait either with or without a current. Again, the decision can be made
on the day between us.
The cost for the day's diving from Endeavour is
£45. In addition to 240 miles of fuel and some food money that
should make the trip a little more affordable!
We have been assured at the AGM that previous
experience of sea diving and boat diving will be taken into account when
club members want to go on trips and that having been on a shop Oban
trip is not a prerequisite. If you have been on a club or shop boat trip
before then no problem. If you have dived in a drysuit in the sea before
and have dived from a boat before then chat to Colin at the shop or Dave
Small our club diving officers about the suitability of this trip for
you. The emphasis on these day trips from Endeavour will be relaxed easy
diving that is within everyones comfort zone!
We will need the £45 for the diving to
be in the shop by Saturday 12th May to enable us to ensure we have
enough divers to fill the boat in time for the trip in June.
Please get behind this trip and you can help
make it diving at the level you want.
NOT PWLLHELI
June 2006
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
Yes, it was another Ronnie Chowns expedition to
North Wales. Deprived of both Pwllheli and the Leeds and Liverpool
Canal, we set off for Anglesey on Friday evening, with the sun setting
behind Great Orme on a mirror-like sea. Conditions stayed the same for
our two days diving!
Expecting peace and quiet in
a hotel miles from anywhere, we arrived to find a major darts tournament
in progress, with about 260 strange welshmen, and some very big women.
Fortunately, they could see we were not people to mess with, and we
survived the night unscathed.
Saturday saw us as the first
paying passengers on Quest’s fast new RIB, for two dives off Puffin
Island. The first saw some big lobsters, fortunate not to be molested by
Ronnie, who was leaving his scavenging (or “hunting”, as he calls it)
until Sunday. We saw no seals under water, so followed the dive by
snorkelling with about 12 seals. The second dive was a drift in Puffin
Sound, which provided a gentle but exciting washing machine.
Sunday started with a dive on
the wreck of the Conway, in Menai Strait almost under the Menai Bridge.
None of us found the wreck, but another gentle drift was had by all,
this time with Ronnie bringing out a miniature version of the lobsters
seen on Saturday.
The final dive was superb:
the wreck of the Mona, sitting in a sand-scour at 20-25m, with good
enough visibility to see the whole thing and absolutely covered in life.
The area is a flatfish nursery area, and there were loads of small
flatties, as well as gurnards. Allegedly, there are big conger.
All the dives had really
impressive soft corals and anemones, as well as the usual crabs,
lobsters and dogfish.
Anglesey is easy to get to.
The RIB offers flexibility of numbers. Together this makes it possible
to get permutations from a full weekend’s diving to just a days diving.
The diving is good, and we found a hotel close to the jetty. So the
final verdict is that this trip is likely to be repeated. Thanks to
Ronnie and co-organiser Dave Pallant.
Steve Gibbs, 5 June.
