24 July 2010 – PorthYsgaden – Travelling at the speed of light!

Got up early Saturday morning to glorious sunshine in Winsford – just perfect for diving Ysgaden. When it’s sunny it’s a glorious place. When it rains it’s miserable. As we drove over the hills in thick mist, I had to put the lights on – this doesn’t bode well I thought. To coin a phrase, when it rains at Ysgaden, it’s miserable,!

Still the RIB was prep’d and off we went. The sea was rolling and rain pelting down. The sooner we get there, the better I thought. The cox’n dropped us directly on the reef and we enjoyed delights of lobster strolling along on the sea bed, octopus, potato crisp bryozoans and oodles of cat shark! The vis was superb – at least 6-7m, water warm at about 15 degrees C and just a mild and gentle drift, no greater than 1 knot. 55 minutes later we got back into the boat

Lunch time I ventured down to the beach to take up the beach art challenge, but it was too wet and miserable so I went back to the car for a snooze.

After a brief kip, the rain hadn’t subsided so there was only one thing for it – to go out diving again! Once more, the cox’n dropped us square upon the reef and the usual suspects greeted us. By this arvo, the tide had picked up and there was no stopping! More cat sharks, common spider crabs, tiny macropodia crabs and an explosion of sea hares! Steve even spotted a bull huss – fantastic!

All too soon, the day was over and the sun finally came out. A wonderful day’s diving and hey, what’s a bit of rain when you can have the delights of the Llyn peninsula’s finest reef!

Wendy