Entering the grounds of NDAC, we unloaded the cars, got our fills and spent some time setting up our gear.

Despite the cold we kitted up and jumped in for the first dive, Jo and I descending on the Wessex helicopter to meet the others after there deeper dive. David and Chris survived an hour long dive, both braving drysuit leaks. Tea and hot chocolate all round to keep the icicles at bay as we waited for our cylinders to be filled.

Mission 1 complete!!

After emptying half of Chepstow from his leg, David sent his drysuit in for an emergency repair, counting him out of dive 2. Chris also chose this time to dry out his kit. Darren, Jo and myself headed in for our second dive of the day. In my opinion,…. Great vis!

As the winter sun sunk behind the hills and the ice crystals began to form, we prepared our kit for the night dive. Jumping into an 8 degree lake in the dark didn’t seem like a very good idea at the time, and being my first night dive, I have to admit it was a little disorientating. With everyone comparing how bright their torches were, I soon got the hang of it and just followed the light.

After packing away the dive kit and thawing out, it was time to move into the wigwams.. Basically a garden shed with a toasty heater and comfy beds. Brilliant!!! All this cold water diving definitely builds up an appetite. So we headed into Chepstow for an awesome curry and a well earned pint or two at David’s local. Well,, that was just what the doctor ordered!

On Sunday morning we defrosted the cars, drove down to Vobster and were joined by our sixth Santa – Carl (friend of Jo). We kitted up, donned our Santa suites and tried to memorise each others fins… It’s tricky to find your buddies underwater when everyone has turned up in the same outfit as you!

After the dive we were greeted with a mince pie, cup of tea and the news that we had broken the previous record of 158. 161 – Scuba Santa’s in the water at one time!!! And the fantastic news that Vobster raised almost £10 000 for the RNLI.

Jo, Carl, David and myself jumped in for a second dive, descending through the tunnel, around the crushing works and back, only to notice that most of the other Santa’s had packed their sleighs and headed North!

As the weekend drew to an end and the light began to fade, David, Darren & myself took one final giant stride for RNLI. Ten minutes into the dive, Darren had some equipment failure and we aborted the dive, calling it a day.

All in all, it was a brilliant weekend and would like to thank David for organising it, and all our sponsors for helping to raise £120 for the RNLI .

Ho ho hope to see you there next year.

Shaun

As divers we all like to explore new dive locations so when it was suggested that we run a trip to the Black Sea in Bulgaria the places were snatched up.  The itinerary fuelled our excitement with promises of a jet aircraft, a Russian submarine, German landing crafts, torpedo boats, a cargo ship, steamship, and a Russian military ship.

The detailed briefing notes were distributed shortly before departure and we refused to let the realisation that we were diving from RIBs dampen our spirits.

Despite a slight delay to our flight to Budapest resulting in us running to catch our connecting flight to Bulgaria, we were still all very excited (particularly Bret Champion who experienced a rather thorough frisk going through security!)

On arrival in our resort – Golden Sands – excitement was still running high: the sun was shining, the hotel was good, and we were 2 minutes walk from the jetty and even closer to the Pirates Beach Bar!  It had all the ingredients for an exceptionally good diving experience – or so we thought…

Sunday – RIB resurrection day:

The warning signs were there when we arrived on the harbour-front on day 1 to be greeted by our dive guide, Scott, who we discovered was running his dive centre from the back of a white van!

Despite this and the usual first day faffing, we kept smiling and set off in 2 RIBs: 5 in a small yellow 1, and 8 in a larger orange 1, which was affectionately named the Muppet RIB for no other reason than it amused Bret!  But those on the Muppet RIB had the last laugh later as you’ll see…

Our check dive – a German torpedo boat – was a little disappointing with surprisingly poor visibility and colder than expected water temperature.  However, we did see hundreds of mussels both on the wreck and on the silty seabed.

Visibility on our 2^nd dive – a cargo ship – also disappointed but again there was no shortage of mussels to look at.

Safely back on the boats, warming up in the glorious sunshine, the poor vis was soon forgotten when the yellow RIB failed to start. Tow rope in place, we commenced a slow journey back…until the tow-rope broke!

Luck was on our side however and we succeeded in getting the yellow RIB started again. Within 5 minutes we all wished we hadn’t: the wind was up and the cox of the Muppet RIB – Geoff – wanted to make up some time (but clearly didn’t want to make any friends) and throttled forward through the waves making it an extremely uncomfortable ride.  Polite requests for him to slow down were met with less than friendly responses so we hung on, gritted our teeth, and after 20 minutes, breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived back on dry land.

Monday – one RIB day:

Refusing to allow the chaos and disappointments of day 1 dampen our spirits, we arrived on the jetty early all looking forward to diving the recently sunk jet aircraft.  On the basis that the yellow RIB wasn’t even in the water, it was pretty clear it wasn’t operational; diving in shifts from the Muppet RIB was the only option.

Group 1 went out and the first 2 buddy pairs descended the shot line only to surface again very quickly: they’d reached the wreck but couldn’t see it!

Changing plans and divers, the next dive site was an unknown wreck (probably a German patrol boat), which was an enjoyable little bimble, again with plenty of mussels to seen.

The last shift of the day was a local, shallow dive, again fairly uneventful other than Jackie Maskell losing her mask over the side of the boat; flooding her computer by failing to seal it properly after changing the battery; and losing her buddy in 3 meters of water – perhaps we now had a reason to call it the Muppet RIB!

We finished the day by celebrating Cynthia Doughty’s 65^th birthday with champagne (or Bulgarian sparkling wine), and dinner out where Gill and Kev ordered that traditional Bulgarian dish, spare ribs (could have done with some of those earlier in the day)!

Tuesday – yellow submarine RIB day:

Good news: the yellow RIB was working again and we were taking mechanic, Martin, with us as back-up!

The not so good news: chaos and indecision!

The plan was to dive a Russian submarine and stay out all day meaning we had to carry 2^nd cylinders.  Following disagreements between Scott (from the dive centre) and Geoff (cox of the Muppet RIB) about space and weight on the RIBs, we loaded our kit, a spare cylinder each and set off slowly…very slowly.

It was evident very quickly that taking spare cylinders with us wasn’t a good idea: the nose of the yellow RIB was so low in the water it was named the yellow submarine!

Back to the harbour to unload the spare cylinders and eventually we set off again, this time at a reasonable speed.

It was worth it.  The sub was great and a first for some of us.  Visibility wasn’t bad either (or perhaps we’d all just lowered our expectations by then!)  Lots of mussels too!

The 2^nd dive of the day was an upside-down tank landing craft.  A pleasant little dive with an abundance of mussels!

All-in-all a great day: 2 good dives and both RIBs working for the duration – a great way for Graham Harvey (non-club member) to celebrate his 50^th birthday.

Wednesday – two RIB day:

Both RIBs working again today – hurrah!

We returned to the jet aircraft again but visibility hadn’t improved sufficiently so we abandoned that and dived the Carole, a German cargo ship, and a 2^nd German landing craft, this time the right way up.

Both good dives with a reasonable amount of life.  Oh, and plenty of mussels!

Thursday – dead RIBs day:

The diving (and RIB reliability) had improved as the week progressed so we were all looking forward to a good day’s diving further around the coast.  We drove for an hour and met the 2 RIBs in a small fishing cove.

You can imagine our disbelief when the steering cable snapped on the Muppet RIB just after we set off!  Determined to reach the dive site, we took turns at manually steering.

Eventually we arrived at the site, kitted up, and the first buddy pairs descended… and quickly ascended – the water temperature went from 23˚ on the surface to 10˚ at about 4 meters!

Congratulations go to buddy pairs Len Hards and John Fowles, and Kevan Tulip and Gill Wilson who were the only divers who managed a recordable dive time of 36 minutes and 15 minutes respectively.

Having slowly manually steered the Muppet RIB back to the cove, 4 hardy (or daft) divers (Ros Hepple, Len Hards, Jim Molyneux and Kev Tulip) went back out again in the yellow RIB for a final dive of the holiday in 10˚ water.

What they got was a short ride around the corner, a completely dead engine, frustrated and sunburnt!  Fortunately, they got it working again long enough to be able to return to shore 1½ hours later.

At the end of the day we headed back to the resort with the option of visiting a mussel farm en route.  It probably comes as no surprise that we declined the offer, feeling we’d probably seen enough mussels to last us a lifetime.

With the diving over for the week, we enjoyed a few drinks to celebrate John Fowles’ birthday.  Who would believe we would be celebrating 3 birthdays in 1 week?  But then who would believe the saga of the 2 RIBs?!

Friday – no need for RIB day:

This was the usual chill-out day by the pool and on the beach with no worries about RIB reliability.  Ah, bliss!

Summary:

Despite the unreliable RIBs, disappointing visibility and water temperature, and a disorganised dive centre, this was a holiday to be remembered.  It was different, challenging, and above all, it was great fun.

I’m sure none of us will be rushing back to Bulgaria for the diving but if you don’t try it you’ll never know.  I guess there’s a reason people go back to the Red Sea year after year!

Thanks not only go to Ros Hepple for organising the trip but to all of you who made it what it was.

A tale of two RIBs

As divers we all like to explore new dive locations so when it was suggested that we run a trip to the Black Sea in Bulgaria the places were snatched up.  The itinerary fuelled our excitement with promises of a jet aircraft, a Russian submarine, German landing crafts, torpedo boats, a cargo ship, steamship, and a Russian military ship.

The detailed briefing notes were distributed shortly before departure and we refused to let the realisation that we were diving from RIBs dampen our spirits.

Despite a slight delay to our flight to Budapest resulting in us running to catch our connecting flight to Bulgaria, we were still all very excited (particularly Bret Champion who experienced a rather thorough frisk going through security!)

On arrival in our resort – Golden Sands – excitement was still running high: the sun was shining, the hotel was good, and we were 2 minutes walk from the jetty and even closer to the Pirates Beach Bar!  It had all the ingredients for an exceptionally good diving experience – or so we thought…

Sunday – RIB resurrection day:

The warning signs were there when we arrived on the harbour-front on day 1 to be greeted by our dive guide, Scott, who we discovered was running his dive centre from the back of a white van!

Despite this and the usual first day faffing, we kept smiling and set off in 2 RIBs: 5 in a small yellow 1, and 8 in a larger orange 1, which was affectionately named the Muppet RIB for no other reason than it amused Bret!  But those on the Muppet RIB had the last laugh later as you’ll see…

Our check dive – a German torpedo boat – was a little disappointing with surprisingly poor visibility and colder than expected water temperature.  However, we did see hundreds of mussels both on the wreck and on the silty seabed.

Visibility on our 2^nd dive – a cargo ship – also disappointed but again there was no shortage of mussels to look at.

Safely back on the boats, warming up in the glorious sunshine, the poor vis was soon forgotten when the yellow RIB failed to start. Tow rope in place, we commenced a slow journey back…until the tow-rope broke!

Luck was on our side however and we succeeded in getting the yellow RIB started again. Within 5 minutes we all wished we hadn’t: the wind was up and the cox of the Muppet RIB – Geoff – wanted to make up some time (but clearly didn’t want to make any friends) and throttled forward through the waves making it an extremely uncomfortable ride.  Polite requests for him to slow down were met with less than friendly responses so we hung on, gritted our teeth, and after 20 minutes, breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived back on dry land.

Monday – one RIB day:

Refusing to allow the chaos and disappointments of day 1 dampen our spirits, we arrived on the jetty early all looking forward to diving the recently sunk jet aircraft.  On the basis that the yellow RIB wasn’t even in the water, it was pretty clear it wasn’t operational; diving in shifts from the Muppet RIB was the only option.

Group 1 went out and the first 2 buddy pairs descended the shot line only to surface again very quickly: they’d reached the wreck but couldn’t see it!

Changing plans and divers, the next dive site was an unknown wreck (probably a German patrol boat), which was an enjoyable little bimble, again with plenty of mussels to seen.

The last shift of the day was a local, shallow dive, again fairly uneventful other than Jackie Maskell losing her mask over the side of the boat; flooding her computer by failing to seal it properly after changing the battery; and losing her buddy in 3 meters of water – perhaps we now had a reason to call it the Muppet RIB!

We finished the day by celebrating Cynthia Doughty’s 65^th birthday with champagne (or Bulgarian sparkling wine), and dinner out where Gill and Kev ordered that traditional Bulgarian dish, spare ribs (could have done with some of those earlier in the day)!

Tuesday – yellow submarine RIB day:

Good news: the yellow RIB was working again and we were taking mechanic, Martin, with us as back-up!

The not so good news: chaos and indecision!

The plan was to dive a Russian submarine and stay out all day meaning we had to carry 2^nd cylinders.  Following disagreements between Scott (from the dive centre) and Geoff (cox of the Muppet RIB) about space and weight on the RIBs, we loaded our kit, a spare cylinder each and set off slowly…very slowly.

It was evident very quickly that taking spare cylinders with us wasn’t a good idea: the nose of the yellow RIB was so low in the water it was named the yellow submarine!

Back to the harbour to unload the spare cylinders and eventually we set off again, this time at a reasonable speed.

It was worth it.  The sub was great and a first for some of us.  Visibility wasn’t bad either (or perhaps we’d all just lowered our expectations by then!)  Lots of mussels too!

The 2^nd dive of the day was an upside-down tank landing craft.  A pleasant little dive with an abundance of mussels!

All-in-all a great day: 2 good dives and both RIBs working for the duration – a great way for Graham Harvey (non-club member) to celebrate his 50^th birthday.

Wednesday – two RIB day:

Both RIBs working again today – hurrah!

We returned to the jet aircraft again but visibility hadn’t improved sufficiently so we abandoned that and dived the Carole, a German cargo ship, and a 2^nd German landing craft, this time the right way up.

Both good dives with a reasonable amount of life.  Oh, and plenty of mussels!

Thursday – dead RIBs day:

The diving (and RIB reliability) had improved as the week progressed so we were all looking forward to a good day’s diving further around the coast.  We drove for an hour and met the 2 RIBs in a small fishing cove.

You can imagine our disbelief when the steering cable snapped on the Muppet RIB just after we set off!  Determined to reach the dive site, we took turns at manually steering.

Eventually we arrived at the site, kitted up, and the first buddy pairs descended… and quickly ascended – the water temperature went from 23˚ on the surface to 10˚ at about 4 meters!

Congratulations go to buddy pairs Len Hards and John Fowles, and Kevan Tulip and Gill Wilson who were the only divers who managed a recordable dive time of 36 minutes and 15 minutes respectively.

Having slowly manually steered the Muppet RIB back to the cove, 4 hardy (or daft) divers (Ros Hepple, Len Hards, Jim Molyneux and Kev Tulip) went back out again in the yellow RIB for a final dive of the holiday in 10˚ water.

What they got was a short ride around the corner, a completely dead engine, frustrated and sunburnt!  Fortunately, they got it working again long enough to be able to return to shore 1½ hours later.

At the end of the day we headed back to the resort with the option of visiting a mussel farm en route.  It probably comes as no surprise that we declined the offer, feeling we’d probably seen enough mussels to last us a lifetime.

With the diving over for the week, we enjoyed a few drinks to celebrate John Fowles’ birthday.  Who would believe we would be celebrating 3 birthdays in 1 week?  But then who would believe the saga of the 2 RIBs?!

Friday – no need for RIB day:

This was the usual chill-out day by the pool and on the beach with no worries about RIB reliability.  Ah, bliss!

Summary:

Despite the unreliable RIBs, disappointing visibility and water temperature, and a disorganised dive centre, this was a holiday to be remembered.  It was different, challenging, and above all, it was great fun.

I’m sure none of us will be rushing back to Bulgaria for the diving but if you don’t try it you’ll never know.  I guess there’s a reason people go back to the Red Sea year after year!

Thanks not only go to Ros Hepple for organising the trip but to all of you who made it what it was.

Friday night saw lots of late arrivals and a few civilised drinks at Mount Batten, then an early night before the next days’ diving. Saturday dawned, typical Bank Holiday (lousy) weather and a quick breakfast was followed by the loading of two boats, an operation that was as speedy as it was organised. The first dive was preceded by the mentally bracing sight of watching one of the club’s most experienced divers rope in two fellow divers to rigorously shake and shimmy him into his drysuit, a feat of truly epic proportions. We spotted a cuttlefish on the first dive, and were treated to the sight of it changing colour several times. Tom went treasure hunting and rewarded the skipper with an authentic rusty spoon from the seabed. After lunch the second dive was to be in the basin – we dropped in at around 30m where the visibility was fairly good and almost immediately came across a ray sitting on the sand. Sadly, this was the last dive in which my drysuit wanted to be involved, and after enjoying the refreshment offered by about 3 gallons of seawater swirling around inside, I retired it for the weekend, looking forward to the next two days in a semi-dry suit.

Saturday night was the BBQ, which was predictably rained off. Sunday morning saw the popular decision to dive the James Egan Layne followed by the (slightly less popular) Fort. The JEL is a beautiful wreck, sitting in 24m with an abundance of marine life. The Fort is a non-beautiful brick wall, with the odd starfish. In my semi-drysuit my overwhelming impression of both dives was that they were cold, very cold! We warmed up on Sunday night by trooping off to a local Indian restaurant across the water in Plymouth, which had apparently mysteriously moved from its previous location and thus pushed the navigational skills of K&E’s chief barman to the limit. Service was fairly friendly and incredibly slow, and resulted in a frantic sprint through Plymouth’s party district to catch the last watertaxi home.

Monday’s dives were to be the Scylla and then a scallop hunt. The Scylla is a breathtaking wreck, deliberately sunk in 2004 as a giant diver’s toy. Swimming along the sea life encrusted gangways, peaking through windows into the body of the craft and seeing how the sea has turned this mundane boat into a thing of beauty gave me a timely reminder of all I love about diving and why I got involved in the sport in the first place. It’s truly a privilege to be able to visit this site, and this dive rendered all the ripped neckseals, dropped weights, snapped mask straps, leaking drysuits, forays into the shipping lane and lost breakfasts irrelevant.

The scallop dive was slightly less impressive. Suffice to say K&E won’t be setting up a stall at Billingsgate any time soon. Then it was off home again, a successful trip and one I’ll definitely hope to repeat, next time in a drysuit. Thanks to Brian Deluce for organising the weekend!

By Leanne Collinson

The Nyon lies to the east of our normal diving area out of Newhaven and as such, slack was 30 minutes later than normal. This gave us plenty of time to locate and shot the wreck in the best spot. Descending the line the visibility looked great until we reached a depth of about 2m when it became clear the plankton bloom was upon us and so torches were turned on and minds were prepared for the dark 2m visibility dive that lay ahead. The noise of passing container vessels was also quite noticeable.

The wreck lies north to south, contrary to some published information and the deck was found on the western side. Those who dived the eastern side found the hull, and lots of it! The shot was in 43m of water but the line trailed nicely over the top of the wreck at 35m. The poor visibility concentrated the mind but still the cargo, engine and deck furniture could all be identified. Lorries and lots of glass cargo was seen. Significant quantities of brass pipe work and a couple of brass portholes were also found around the engine room area.

All in all, a dark but interesting dive that adds another notch to the clubs ever growing list of wreck positions that we now have. Thanks to Gren for coxing for the day.

I looked on the RIB schedule at the clubhouse. The Doctor (John), Mariusz and I, that’s all! One cox and no dive manager. Dean was probably still stuck in a Malaysian airport somewhere, Dave had ‘family business’ to attend to and Chris Hunka was just busy! Then Kevin mentioned that he was an advanced diver and we already knew he could cox. Suddenly we were back on.

We turned up on Sunday and the weather was warm and sunny. The seas were calm. Actually that is a bit of an understatement, there was not even a ripple! The plan; to dive the City of Brisbane followed by the Seaford Ledges. We picked sites close to the shore to make up for our collective lack of recent RIB/Dive Management/Diving experience. There were some rufty tufty divers in the marina car-park. They asked me what our plan was. When I told them, they just said, “Oh dear, what a shame!”

The boat was launched by the nice people at Simpson marina and soon we were jetting off at full speed to the CoB. Once there we put a shot on the wreck… Well the rope was a bit too short so we had to do that twice. But once done properly, we had a good line down to the wreck.

The dive itself was good. The plankton was beginning to show, however, we still managed a good few meters. Kevin and The Doctor dived first. Then it was Mariusz, Iain and my turn. We dropped in, I put a spare DSMB on the shot to help with recovery… Put a bit too much air in it and sent it to the surface. Perhaps I should have done some maths on that activity! Then we had a nice bimble around the wreck. Saw a couple of flatties, that sort of thing.

We came up after the obligatory safety stop and sped off to Seaford Ledges once back in the boat. Kevin and The Doctor went in first again. The rest of us decided to bin the second dive while they were under. I had the pleasure of picking them up in the RIB, something I have not had an opportunity to do before. I also took the boat back to Newhaven, making sure to let the coastguard and Newhaven Harbourmaster know that we were back safely on the VHF radio.

Then we recovered the boat back to the yard and gave it a hose down. All done… I jumped in the car and was back to Surbiton and the family by 3pm!

So it was a good day out, without the support of the usual RIB crowd. We all got to test out some of the skills we had learnt previously, but had not used in some time. Despite the easy conditions, it cemented the fact that RIB diving from Newhaven is not the preserve of the ‘few’ that go every week. I hope that more of our club Dive Leaders and Coxes will take a look at the board and fill in their names where they can assist with a trip. It truly is a team effort where no single person is left to carry the full burden of organising!

Anyone else interested in this fun and very practical course, the BSAC South East Region is organising a course on the 14th and 15th April, you can book onto the course here. For further details contact Dave Tresidder

Saturday dawned bright and sunny, ideal to get down to the serious business of diving. The Glad Tidings boats were loaded with kit and divers and in no time at all we arrived at Longstone Island, the site of our first dive. The arrival of the boat elicited much excitement from the numerous seals sunning themselves on the rocks, several of whom slipped into the water to investigate. With so many seals around divers quickly finished their kitting up and buddy checks to get into the water. The best diving here is fairly shallow, perhaps 15-20m at most, as the inquisitive seals tend to stay in the shallower waters. With visibility at over 10m we were able to see lots of seals; one even came and nibbled at the end of my fins- the ultimate Farnes experience chalked up on Dive 1! A hugely enjoyable dive and I decided there and then, while still underwater, to put my name down for Farnes 2011.

We then had a long lunch break/surface interval, where the typical British Bank holiday weather kicked in and chased the sun away. The second dive was The Cut, beginning with a swim-through a gap in the rocks, through the sea kelp which was very atmospheric. The visibility again was excellent, and although we saw fewer seals this time (who forgot to invite them?) we did see several very large lobsters and hundreds of crabs. There is a wreck here, although not much remains of it apart from some rusted pieces of metal. This dive was also shallow, only 6m or so at some points, which is always a challenge for buoyancy control – especially combined with the vagaries of local currents! Again a great dive, although it was a little choppy upon surfacing, but Glad Tidings picked us up promptly!

With approximately half the K&E divers on the boat and the rest still in the water, the club then had to deal with a real emergency – a non-K&E diver from another boat was in distress in the water close by, and club members moved quickly to assist. I’m happy to say that the diver was quickly removed from the water and given medical treatment, incuding CPR and oxygen, under the supervision of a local doctor who had been diving from our boat. The casualty was then airlifted to hospital by the emergency helicopter (guided by the ever-excellent RNLI boats that arrived to support the rescue within minutes of reporting it). A very sobering reminder of the potential hazards of sport diving, but also a confirmation that all the hours spent by divers and instructors on theory lessons and open water practice drills is worthwhile, and can in fact be the difference between life and death. Some O2 and First Aid courses / refresher sessions are being planned for those who want to ensure their skills are up to date.

Sadly, that was the end of the diving for the trip as gale force winds hit Seahouses and made it impossible for the boats to go out on Sunday and Monday. Several brave souls enjoyed a bracing hill top walk, while others enjoyed the more sedate pleasures of the on-site pool and spa. So, all in all a good trip – some top rated diving, great encounters with the Farnes seals, the satisfaction of having been in the right place at the right time to offer genuine and much needed assistance to a fellow diver, a little sunshine and time to socialise with other club members. Hopefully next year it’ll be a lot less windy and less eventful too.

By Leanne Collinson

Also, with Seaking in it’s seasonal home on site, RIB diving with the club has become so much easier. No meeting at the clubhouse before and after the day. If you haven’t been diving on the RIB this year yet, I recommend you give it a go!

Thanks to Dean for organizing the weekend. Only marred (from my point of view) by being heckled by “we know bloody well everything” fishermen as I tried to maneuver the boat a couple of feet and ended up across the harbor

After several setbacks: people dropping out, Jim Molyneux breaking his ankle, and it snowing in Ibiza the day before we arrived, we finally got the very early Easyjet flight from Gatwick. We were met by a very chirpy talkative character named Jeff Richardson from the Seahorse diving centre, who transferred us to a small resort (Las des Torrents) where our excellent self catering accommodation was located. We settled in very quickly and went to a large supermarket to stock up with food and refreshments for the week and then found the best local bar for the cup final! The holiday started well with Chelsea completing the double, England winning the 20\20 cricket world cup, and the sun coming out very hot immediately we landed. After all that excitement and with an early diving start on the Sunday morning we were fairly early to bed that evening.

The next morning we met at the dive centre on the local beach and were transported to San Antonio by van to meet the dive boat (Lil Pegasus) to start kitting up, watched by the passing wearied eyed clubbers making their way home from the clubs the night before. The usual 1st day kit faffing ensued: forgotten masks, dry suit hoses left at home, and 1st stage adaptors not thought of, mainly done by the same nameless person. Jim came along for the boat ride and with only 3 club members diving – myself, Kevan and Nick Tulip – and a local PADI diver called Charlie we set off in bright sunshine for 2 good 1st day dives. Nick immediately became the butt of most jokes being the new boy, especially from the skipper Jeff, with things like “can he dress himself”, “boy and lad”, “sit down you’re blocking the sun out” and inquiries as to whether he had “pulled” the previous evening. But he took it well and gave as good as he got with his diving and air consumption improving all week.

The diving also got better as the week went on, with the Don Pedro and the Margueritas caves the highlights of the week, closely followed by a sheltered wreck called The Noseque, which was so good we dived it twice. Jim managed one day’s diving (on one leg) on the 4th day although he needed a tow by Nick on the second dive in a slight current and a full butler service (fins, weight belt and BC removal) before climbing the ladder back onto the boat for both dives.

The visibility and sea life was good all week and consisted of Barracuda, Cuttlefish, Morays and Congers, various types of Wrasse and millions of Jellyfish. The water was a balmy 18°c so no gloves or hoods were needed if you didn’t want them but we all wore dry suits. We dived most dives without a guide and still managed to find our way back to the dive boat. We didn’t manage the proposed 2 night dives because of the temptations of San Antonio nightlife and its various types of bars, especially Sgt Peppers (don’t ask about a broken hearted Jennifer). We were joined one evening by the Monmouth Rugby club on tour and their forfeit games and almost ended up having a late night bungee jump.

There were 2 non-diving members of our group (Mary Hards and Audrey Molyneux) – our catering managers – who must have covered most of the Island on the local buses during the week. Many thanks to them for doing the shopping. We all had a great time and will go back there again soon. We were very well looked after by Jeff and Therese from the Seahorse diving centre and I thoroughly recommend them for a good week’s diving. They are located on the beach with two excellent restaurants either side of them, in a very nice little sandy bay and have a very fast hard boat that gets you out to most dive sites within half a hour.

Good holiday!