Anglesey 2nd Rib dive trip

Every body arrived early at Menai slipway, kitted up and loaded the boat prior to launch. The sun was out and winds non-existent.

Mark took position behind the wheel, Anton backed the boat in as usual, Kate was in charge of holding the boat on the slip to prevent the engine hitting the bottom. Alan appeared just as Anton returned from parking up the trailer. Mark completed his pre-departure checks and we set off to dive site one.

North of Menai bridge Mark stopped and reported that the tide steam seemed still as the boat stayed stationary. The three divers kitted up and completed our buddy checks while Mark moved the boat into the deeper part of the channel. In the water Alan and Kate decided to start their descent while Anton swam to join them. The water was crystal clear so Anton easily located and joined them.

The three of them descended down to the sea bed at a depth of around 15m to find the current running like a steam train! Anton immediately put up a DSMB which Mark spotted 100m heading down stream to Britannia Bridge. The ride on the bottom was great fun and we all managed to keep sight of each other. As they approached the second bridge Anton's DSMB got caught up and he had to cut the line. Alan deployed his DSMB and they continued on until the dive time was reached. They ascended to find Mark demonstrating his newly honed boat skills by manoeuvring in and out of the rocks in the current while recovering his divers. Back on the RIB they were able to collect the cut away DSMB as Mark had kept an eye on both buoys.

The trip down to Beaumaris was like a scene out of Waterworld with around 30 jet skis charging around the RIB. Mark nearly had to rescue one rider who fell off and took a long time to surface, eventually the rest of his team turned up to assisted him.

Dive site 2 was to be the Seahow with little info to go on Mark positioned the RIB over the mark we had been given to find that the water was around 30m deep. A quick sweep of the area showed little signs of anything worth diving on so a collective decision was made to move to the back up site of Puffin Island.

Lunch was finished and Mark positioned the RIB to drop the divers in on the top end of the island in around 13m of water. Alan was to lead this dive buddied up with Kate and Anton was to follow them. The plan was to head towards the Island to reach 6-8m and then head for the seals. Alan needs to practice his navigation skills as he set off in the wrong direction but a little correction on the direction of travel by Anton got everyone into the shallower waters. The divers did not make it to the seals by the time they had reached their pre-determined DSMB up time. This time Kate was to deploy her DSMB but to her shock she found her crack bottle had come loose and needed to be refitted to the bag - not the easiest tasks to do mid-water!. The divers all ascended and Mark picked them up.

On the trip back to Menai slip the water in the straits was getting close to low water and sand banks were appearing all over the place. Mark had to make several course adjustments to keep from running aground. Back at the slip Anton backed the trailer in and the boat was recovered and everyone helped pack up ready for departure in record time.

We covered about 19 nautical miles.