Move along nothing to see

The Dozen’s up

Today I had a another couple of dives in Stoney, I was diving with a couple of guys I hadn’t met before but I had exchanged a couple of emails with Phil and he seemed like a nice guy, some insider information confirmed that. I woke after a restless night, I never seem to sleep well before I go diving so when the alarm went off at 3am getting up wasn’t a problem, the last of the dive kit packed in the car and off by 3.45am - what the neighbours must think I don’t know.

I had a good journey despite the weather over the Pennines being foggy in places and snow still lying on the moors.  I arrived at Stoney thinking I would be queuing in the car park only to find I was about the 5th car there, Phil arrived just as I did and I said a quick hello before getting back in the car for a rest.  Don’t know if I dozed off but there was a knock on the car window and one of the Stoney staff was after money, it was about 6.30am - god I hate Stoney.  Just before 7 we were released through the gates and parked up, Andy must not have been far behind us because we all ended up parking together.  I was just a little pi**ed to find even the cars arriving at about 7.30am were in the main car park.

Phil and Andy knew each other so just my hello’s to be done and we started kit fettling, Phil - what a man he had brought a big flask of tea which was lovely since the tea bar at Stoney doesn’t open until god only knows when, say what you like about Capernwray they open all areas when you arrive.  We set off for our first dive about 8.30, we entered off the quayside and descended to the 6m shelf then headed off along the road to the right, I haven’t done this route before and was a nice way of gaining access to the 20m areas without heading over the cliff.  Passed the anchor chain to the Staingarth and up and around the boat, off the Staingarth to other areas passed the Wessex and back up the slope to the shallower parts.  Nice dive but hands were getting cold towards the end, dive was 44mins to a max depth of 22.4m.

During the surfact interval we had a bacon cob which frankly wasn’t up to much so I don’t think I’ll bother again, after an interval of just over 2 hours we headed off for the second dive, the route was more or less the same as the first one which seemed nice and relaxed, during both dives I had been reaching for my valves and more or less consistently reaching them each time, last week I had problems on the first dive but this week it was much better although the first time I try isn’t quite right, so more practice and once I get them the first time and every time ( a little saying we had a work) I will be happier but I am now confident I could get to them if I had to - which is a good feeling.  The second dive was a little shorter at 35mins to 22.2m.  Phil had split his cuff seal when he was kitting up and had to use his spare, which apparently leaked a little so he was very cold and should have said something earlier.

Back out of the water we dekitted and headed off to the bar, how those boys could drink cold lemonade and coke I have no idea - I had a hot chocolate, which was nice.  We said our goodbyes and I was home in time to watch the rugby about 12 hours after leaving home. 

February 11th, 2007 Posted by Fiona | Diving | one comment