First boat dive of the year – started with breakfast at the Boat House and ended with chips at Fred’s, followed by chocolate supplied by the Kennedys who had found an even larger bar than usual!
Chilly morning, but keen to get that first boat dive of the season done, and in Gemma’s case her first dive in the sea. Parking is now round the back of the boat park by the river which means further to trolley kit and watch where you park or your kit gets wet as water runs off when the engines are washed through.
Arrived at Mulberries to find one boat already there so tied on behind. They soon went (!) nothing to do with us, they had dived earlier! Usual first dive emergency adjustments of kit and weight (rather a lot of rocks brought up in jacket pockets by Julian, Jenny and Alex!). Jenny ended up diving with Julian so that Andrew could then use her octopus as his was leaking. Once he got in the water he discovered that his drysuit was also leaking so had to abort his dive early – nothing to do with the spikes on the Mulberry.
Gemma, despite looking a big green about the gills on the boat, had a good dive with Bryan – and knows what to expect next time. Good vis, some lovely dead man’s fingers, but not quite as much life as usual. The sea was quite rolling by the time we finished our dive and no-one was keen to do a second dive so we returned to harbour, where Tracey and Amy got in the queue for the chips.
Good to get out to sea again – hopefully the first of many this season. (JH)
