Abersoch - the dive! 12-13 June 2010

Last minute reprieve as Andrew kindly agreed to tow meant this weekend was on! Dave Humphreys and myself arrived at the Harbourmaster’s side of the marina in good time – only to find there had been a last minute change of plan and we were due to meet Blue Water Marina side. No problem, we were early and drove round. We were, as the crow flies, about 100m away from where we should have met, but a stretch of that pesky water stood in our way, and instead, it was a 1.5 mile car journey to meet up with the rest of the gang.

We quickly set about prep-ing the RIB and called for a tractor launch. After what seemed like an eternity, we were off towards St Tudwall’s. This journey was quite colourful as Hursty major negotiated the wind and waves. Good job we were wearing drysuits otherwise we would have been soaked through! First dive, I dived with Hursty minor (Zoe) at a lovely spot called Pistyll Cim. It was a sandy bottom flanked by a rich kelp forest. Common spider crabs lived up to their name in that they were armies of them. They traipsed across the sands as if the owned the sea. Who knows, perhaps they did – I wasn’t going to argue with biceps like theirs! Zoe glimpsed a masked crab which has been on my tick list for some years now so I was rather excited at that. Also noted was a stickleback – only the second one I’ve ever seen, the other coincidently was at Abersoch. A shoal of bream seemed to follow us on our way, before we decided to take off with the current and have a little drift dive to finish on.

Paul dived with Hursty major and spied cat sharks, pipe fish, sand eels, snakelocks anemones. At a last minute change of plan, (seems to be a bit of a theme running here) Andrew and Dave Humphreys also went in here. Which left Dave G and John A who trekked over to St Tudwell’s when we all surfaced. As we battled the crossing, hoping we would be in the lee of wind, dolphins were spotted. At St Tud’s seals sunned themselves on the rocks, a couple dived in, whetting the appetite for the last pair. Lobster, conger and edibles were seen.

It was late by the time we got back to base. Couldn’t decide what to do first – I was hungry, dying for a wee and I wanted to get out of my drysuit! After some lunch (by which time it was approaching 4pm) most of the crew didn’t want to dive again, as it was a lovely day, despite the wind, wanted to spend time with family on the beach. However, both Hursty major and myself were up for another dive. Hursty had fancied diving Gimblet Rock, the entrance to the harbour. We quickly relocated ourselves to the other side of the Marina and donned kit. Avoiding the fishermen we submerged ourselves into a lovely little dive. Sandy bottom again with mermaid tresses waving gently in the current. Pipefish once more were spied, along with scallops (too small for the pot, pls Hursty), dragonet, common spider crabs. As we turned back we found a superb low lying reef in about 1.8m of water. Flat fish, mussel beds, shoaling fish were all seen, amongst the varied seaweeds. I was also impressed that for a site which was so close to the shore, there was very little litter. It was remarkably clean. Sadly we had to surface – my lift wanted to get back for the footie!

Sunday morning the crew again dived Gimblet Rock but this time from the RIB. The dives recorded were seriously approaching safety stop depths! I believe 5.7m was recorded!

A lovely weekend was had by all. The weather was kind to us and the wind just about allowed us to dive and get wet. Many thanks to the collective Hurstys for organising and for Andrew for towing and paperwork

Wendy Northway