Don’t know what has happened this year but I don’t have any weekend dive trips organised. If you have any spare places available for dives in the 30-35m range then give me a shout. Looking for dives within about 5hours of the Cheshire area, so south coast is doable although probably no further west than Weymouth area. Boat needs to have a lift - coz I am lazy, just joking got knackered knees.
I was back at Capernwray today diving with Andy and Paul, the last couple of days had been very windy and I wasn’t sure what the weather was going to be like. It was quite mild at home with little wind when I let so I was hopeful that the weather was going to be fine, during the drive up there were two showers which didn’t seem to last for long. I arrived and joined the short queue of cars waiting for the gates to open, once parked I headed up to the shop to wait for Andy who arrived shortly after me. We headed for the cafe to wait to see who else might turn up, we were joined by Paul who was waiting for someone else, Neil also arrived but was diving with Dave and Moz. Paul left to find his buddy only to come back a short time later as he had phoned and the guy he thought he was meeting, wasn’t going to show, so he would join us.
Andy and Paul were parked by the shop and I was near the service portacabin, so I left them and went to kit up. I waited by the car for what seemed like ages for them to arrive and then we were off to the water for our dive. We did a buddy check and then started the dive, once again we followed the road to the right past one of the horses which neither Paul or I spotted but Andy said was there, and then came to the wall which we decended towards a couple of car wrecks and a couple of the boats, we turned and came across the container which we all entered and exited. During the dive I was trying to reach my valves but I was still having problems with, which wasn’t a good sign, as I do need to be able to master this skill. We exited the water after about 40mins with a max depth of about 17m, dekitted and headed for the cafe and hot chocolate.
After a nice surface interval and a chat about diving we headed back out for our second dive, while I was waiting for them to come back down the wind picked up and it started to hail stone, it didn’t last long just long enough to feel like not getting back in the water. Off we went and followed about the same route, during the dive I had another go with the valves and found I could reach so I spent the dive constantly going back to the valves both left and right and centre isolator, the left is easier than the right but I found them consistantly each time I tried so this was a positive for the dive.
Towards the end of the dive I became a little buoyant probably due to adding a little too much air to my suit. Andy was heading down one of the shallower platforms and I followed him but as I got to the end I felt myself ascending, while I was trying to dump air from the suit I got hold of a shotline which was attached to one end of the platform to prevent myself from reaching the surface, I composed myself and settled back down on the plateform. Andy went through a valve drill and asked me if I wanted to do one, I declined as I was embarressed by my bout of faffing, which I regretted because up until then I had felt positive and was actually hoping Andy was going to stop and do one of the drills so I could have a go. Next time I won’t bottle it.
The last couple of months haven’t been good, the year ended with a sort of personal anniversary I never thought I would have to experience. I seem to be spiralling into an all time low with no light at the end of the tunnel but today was a good day, I went diving doesn’t sound much does it but it was like taking one of the best drugs you can get.
Andy posted for a buddy and I responded, so we met up at Capernwray this morning. I was first in the queue so that was a little embarressing, a minute or so later a queue of cars had assembled. While I waiting for the gates to open I used the time to put my kit together so I would be ready or at least almost ready for when Andy arrived. I had a hot chocolate and met Andy in the shop. I headed off to the car to kit up and Andy came down to meet me. Andy demonstrated his pre-dive checks and asked me to do the same. Not too bad so far, down we went and headed off along the road towards the horses, we passed these and continued past the Cessna and a boat don’t ask me which one I don’t know, towards the end of the dive Andy gave me a couple of signals I wasn’t familiar with and proceeded to do a S drill, I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do but I got the message eventually after he was without a reg for longer than I should have left him. Sorry Andy. Out of the water and we headed for a surface interval hot chocolate.
We spent the interval chatting about diving and then headed back down for another dive, we did another check and then took a similar route to the first dive except we came across the “cave”, a couple of old cars and another smaller boat. On my previous couple of dives I was spooked by headed over the drop-off but today was fine, maybe it was just another day but maybe I was prepared for something to go wrong, it didn’t and we continued with the dive. On the far side of the quarry are another couple of platforms where we did a couple of finning exercises and I tried to reach my valves, I am still having problems with this but I am sure it will come in time. We then finned around to the entry/slip way in very shallow water to keep near the bottom. My diving is feeling better but I am not there yet, as to the other issue I hope to go diving again soon.
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