Abersoch: Wind, Waves, and Drama

This weekend just past was spent diving! So instead of Marine Creature of the Month, you are getting all the details! 

We stayed at Tyn Ros again, with aim to dive Abersoch and Porth Ysgaden. The rough plan was for two dives on Saturday and one on Sunday. There was a wreck dive, low tide dive, and drift dive on the cards. However, they were all subject to weather conditions. Suffice to say, things did not go exactly to plan. But that's life for you.

There are loads of these sorts of pictures at Tyn Ros.

On the Saturday, we headed down to Abersoch to gear up and get in the water. There was a bit of a breeze, but due to positioning along the coastline the sea was in better conditions at Abersoch than at Porth Ysgaden. The word "lumpy" was used to describe the other side. We got into the water a little later than planned. After the boats had been launched, it became apparent that we'd need to leave it an hour or so to get the best out of the water. So we stayed ashore and bandied around the idea of a night dive later on. Keen to try every aspect of diving I can, I was more than happy to have a go!

A couple cups of tea later, and the water conditions were ideal. So we all hopped down to the boats. There were about ten of us in total and we had two boats. I was with the Dive Manager on the club boat; he was going to be my buddy. It was a short trip to the dive site by one of the islands just off the coast, but a fun one. The waves were still quite choppy and the boat jumped right over them. I ended up with a few facefuls of sea.

But guess what. Guess what. I. Did. Not. Feel. Sick.

Hurray for sea sickness pills!

Everyone on our boat was diving, so we went in waves. I was on the second wave. Being on the boat was plenty interesting. There was a family of seals nearby, just popping in and out of the water. One of them followed the divers, at a distance. You'd just see him occasionally bob out of the water then disappear under the waves once more. Positioned as we were behind the island, we were in a nice little micro-shelter. All around us were choppy waves but we were resting on calm, sunny waters. I even got sun burnt. Yes. I am that pale.

Being on the boat, we had to keep an eye out for the diving groups. There were three lots to keep an eye out for. Divers can send up an inflated buoy for boats to follow, or we on the boat have to spot the bubbles. Dive gear creates a distinctive circle of bubbles which I got pretty good at spotting, I like to think. When they all surfaced it was finally my turn to dive!

The dive site was a shallow one, we didn't go much deeper than 6m (19.6ft), but the area was sheltered by the island so visibility was great. This also meant we weren't going to be swept off by the tide, too much. The downside to diving in shallow water is that achieving neutral buoyancy is difficult. Now, I struggle with this enough as it is - so I was yo-yoing up and down. Any particularly big rock to go over made my air expand and I'd go off like a rocket. But on the flip side, when I would finally sink I was sinking too much and getting too close to the seabed! This might have been because I was using new weights and still don't know how much I really need. I just always assume I need a lot of weight, considering how I weirdly don't sink.

Yo-yoing aside, I enjoyed the dive. It was hard, there was a stronger current than my last sea dive and finning against it took a lot of effort. As "no duh" as it sounds, diving in the sea is very different to diving in the pool! Different, but more interesting. Not only does the current complicate things and make me concentrate more on that than how Vader-ish my breathing is, there is life! So much life. There were a whole array of seaweeds and algaes about, it was almost like being in an underwater meadow. There were plenty of fish too. We saw a dogfish having a nap, all curled up like a puppy; and a few sea stars in a variety of colours. The highlight for me was seeing nudibranchs! There must have been at least twenty or so about towards the end of the dive.

I think this is what we saw, if not very similar. Photo from ferrebeekeeper

We ended the dive around the 25 minute mark, the current was getting very strong and outside the shelter of the island it was getting a little soupy, visibility wise. Still, I very much enjoyed my dive. My buddy took some video too!

Once aboard, we headed back to the shore. This is where more things stopped going according to plan...

We had some trouble getting the boats out. The tide was coming in rather fast and the vehicle designated to pull the boats and trailers out got a little stuck... and then so did the trailers... for a good couple hours...

The club really rallied together to try and get the Land Rover out. We were pushing, pulling, revving - sadly to no avail. By some miracle the smaller, club boat was pulled out by one of our other cars. Unfortunately, the other trailer and the Land Rover were far too stuck and sunk in to be pulled out by one vehicle. It was quite the spectacle and we drew something of a crowd. Thankfully, some kind strangers helped us pull the Land Rover out of the sea, the power of two vehicles being enough to free it from the undertow. As it returned to shore, there were even some cheers up and down the beach. A local with a tractor helped us to free the remaining trailer and boat.

The Land Rover windscreen deep.

Between the Dive Officer and kind strangers, it was freed!

(On a side note, look at how glorious that sky was! No photo editing there, it was genuinely that blue and bright. It was colder than it looked, though.)

After that little misadventure, everybody was too tired and too hungry to contemplate a night dive. It was a shame, in hindsight; at the time my tummy was rumbling loud because I'd eaten lightly for breakfast and nothing else. It was pretty unanimous that we head back to camp and eat. There will always be another chance to have a go at night diving.

It was great to compare dives and tricks of the trade to make diving easier with the group over dinner. Even though I have earned my Ocean Diver qualification, I am still learning so much. Whether I am being given direct advice or just listening to stories about other trips, there is so much I still don't know. It was also great to just hang out with members of the club. Some of the divers from this trip were on the last one to Tyn Ros we took, so it was nice to get to know everyone a little better.

Sunday was due to be a drift dive around Big Rock, the place we'd visited previously. Unfortunately, there is a but... But the dive was cancelled. The keys to the boat trailer vanished. This meant we couldn't transport the boat down to the coast. We all scoured the field where the boat was kept, the boat, the cars, the pockets, the dive gear, the caravan... but they were nowhere to be seen. It was a bit of a mystery! There was no stone left unturned, but they still did not re-appear. There would be no dive that day.

Although it was a little disappointing it may have been a blessing, really. I was honestly still exhausted from the previous day, despite being first to bed! It also meant we could have a proper clear up and clean of the campsite, and a more leisurely drive home. The partner and I stopped at Caernarfon for a seaside walk and picnic, which was a nice little addition to the weekend.

So what have I learned?

• Even the misadventures make the trip.
• Diving tip: when in shallow water use the shoulder air dump on my BCD, because I will undoubtedly be a weird angle. This way I may actually dump enough air to stop me taking off without sinking me to the seabed.
• Sea sickness tablets are the best.