CSAC Versus The North Wales Weather!
How come the weather forecast always goes on a rollercoaster ride of twists and turns before your big weekends diving!?
It was all a bit doom and gloom on the Wednesday prior, forecast had changed two or three times already, and we weren’t sure whether it would be Saturday or Sunday we’d be able to get out. It finally got a bit more consistent and we knew we’d definitely be out Saturday at the very least.
Unfortunately, due to drop outs, we only had 6 people coming out. That was enough for one boat, not the two I originally wanted in order for us to head the seven miles or so offshore to the Segontium. Slightly gutted, the back up plan was to carry out some dives for Chris Holden at The Skerries, a group of rocks three miles or so due North of Holyhead. Launching from Holyhead marina slightly later than expected, we motored across to the Skerries at 30knots in flat calm conditions, and were ready to go in within a few minutes of arriving.
First dive was on a wreck called the St Columbo, well it was for some! Two of the girls went in at the gulley where the wreckage starts and claim to have had a stunning dive on the wreck, following it down to a depth of twenty metres or so. Myself and Paul dropped in and seemed to be in a hole surrounded by kelp! We found our way out and dropped down in glorious 15m visibility – I was convinced for a minute we were back in the Farne Islands! Alas we didn’t see the wreck, but had a fantastic dive drifting along and around the gullies, drop offs and boulders. Lots and lots of life about, wrasse, lobsters, edible and spiny spider crabs, huge shoals of pollack whizzing along above us. One of the best UK ‘scenic’ dives I’ve ever had. We lasted about 50 minutes before it started getting a little chilly, so we tucked in out of the current and surfaced to the waiting boat.
Second dive was on another little wreck, which was totally sheltered from the current. Again, the viz was stunning and we just meandered around the site, which is covered with the cargo of roofing slates, lazily looking at all the bugs and beasties. More lobsters, squat lobsters, shrimps, blennies, wrasse, gobies, tube worms (never seen these in North Wales before!). We even came across the anchor and winch. We finished the dive floating through the kelp forests with the wrasse and pollack, also coming across a wandering lobster on the way. We surfaced after about 40 minutes, not fifteen metres or so from a seal bobbing in the water.
Saturday was without doubt one of the best days I’ve had diving off Anglesey for three years. Visibility has been stunning the past six weeks or so, and will hopefully continue for another month yet! We got back to Holyhead around 6pm, which meant we were really late getting home, I didn’t hit the sofa with my tea till 9.30pm, very tired but very happy! The weekend wasn’t over yet though. We’d checked the forecast at the marina and with a three to four forecast, and a ‘slight’ sea state, we were going back out Sunday to return to the ‘not’ The Lady Windsor, a wreck three miles off the coast of North Anglesey.