MKSAC Newsletter - June 2001

Friday May 25th; Weight: Two and a half tons (including the car and the RIB of course!) Calorie intake: too many to count…constant supply of chocolate on the seven hour journey. Burger and chips for dinner (I didn't go large but Owen did…Cameron would have done if I'd turned my back for a split second at the counter!) Alcohol units: none, not fair on the driver …but it would have passed the journey!

Arrived tired and weary in Dale, Pembrokeshire at 10.30pm wondering how we could have forgotten from our last visit how far Dale is from civilisation…well motorways anyway! This time we only got stuck behind three tractors, one house on wheels and the obligatory herd of sheep on entering Wales. It didn't help that the car was on dive-trip autopilot driving so we went via Weymouth! Michael and Chris greeted us outside the pub saying the Fort we were staying in was great, fantastic, fab…except that we didn't have time for a pint because were about to be locked out (11pm car curfew) and the boat wouldn't fit through the gateway into the Fort! I grabbed the last jelly baby and ripped its head off whilst Cameron put Plan B into action. Having found a home for the boat, we screeched into the Fort with seconds to spare, narrowly missing the 100 metre sea cliff drop-off…yes I'm being dramatic but you don't went to read about the mundane stuff do you?!

Saturday May 26th; Weight: 22lbs of lead, 12 litre cylinder (no "Little Pony" like Owen's) Calorie intake: too many to count. Burger and chips for lunch (I didn't go large but Owen did…Cameron would have done if I'd turned my back for a split second at the counter!) Alcohol units: hardly any due to bad dive planning and us not getting back to dry land till 8pm.

Awoke expecting a sea view from our bedroom (well, dormitory really) but no… it was a total whiteout. If we were skiing we might have been excited, as we were diving we launched the boat, tied it to the jetty and then supped cups of coffee in Planet Dale waiting for the sea mist to lift. When it did we headed West-ish to see if we could see Skomer, or even the much nearer Skokholm Island. Unfortunately we couldn't so we found a safe little rocky cove called Castlebeach Bay and had a nice scenic dive with lots of bonking spider crabs and every colour and shape of seaweed you could imagine. Back to Planet Dale for lunch in the sun. Completely stuffed full of burger and swilling with coffee we slowly got ready to dive again…but we did it too slowly because as we headed down to the RIB we saw it was well and truly high and dry, with the sea a good couple of metres away from it…we weren't going anywhere for a while! Time for an ice cream with a Flake and chocolate sauce! Eventually we motored out of the bay, to the East-ish towards Milford Haven, sea chart in hand, looking for the Behar shipwreck. There was a huge Buoy with BEHAR written in foot high letters so we thought we might be somewhere near to it. We probably were somewhere near to it, but the big blips on the echo-sounder were probably rocks! Having drifted across a sea bed that varied from boring sandy/rocky to sickly kelpy/swelly we vowed to get GPS co-ordinates for it next time!

Sunday May 27th; Weight: 22lbs of lead, 12 litre cylinder, eight and a half bricks Calorie intake: Burger and chips for lunch (I turned my back for a split second at the counter so Cameron went large!)…but an hour later mine re-emerged as fish food so doesn't count; Alcohol units: hardly any, I was busy making up for lost food

Awoke expecting a sea view from our bedroom but no, it was a total whiteout….again! This time the sea mist lifted quicker but we had to wait for air bottles to be filled, so plenty of time for coffee in Planet Dale.

Eventually we headed straight out, probably South-ish (I suppose I could get the sea chart out and have a look…), to an island called Thorn Island…basically a big lump of rock with a big building on it. We were looking for the Loch Shiel, a whisky boat and this time we had an idea of where is was but couldn't have hoped for a more accurate drop in…we landed straight on to the middle of the wreck. Lots of bits of ship wreck to scavenge amongst, some fish (ask Sonia their names) and loads of bricks with something written on them which Paul took an instant liking to and filled a goody bag with. He was a huge Michelin man on the ascent and is now the proud owner of a stinking pile of old bricks!

Back for lunch at Planet Dale keeping a keen eye on the RIB and hurriedly dragging it out to a mooring when the tide dropped too much.  Stuffed full of burger and swilling with coffee we slowly headed West-ish to see if we could see Skomer or Skokholm Island. Again it was too misty so we found another little rocky cove called Watwick Bay where we had seen a seal last year, but he didn't show up despite my frantic underwater attempts to attract him back with flirty seal mating calls and my special little upside down seal finning action! Nice scenic dive with loads more bonking crabs, some fish (ask Sonia) and lots of lobster pots roped together that caused havoc with the SMB lines (ask Chris!).

Monday May 28th; Weight: normal Calorie intake: loads…but we did have another long journey to get through; Alcohol units: a congratulatory beer on getting the boat and ten divers safely back to MK

Awoke expecting a sea view from our bedroom but guess what… a total whiteout! This time it was accompanied by rain showers and a Force 5 wind. Over breakfast having been referred to as the 'famous Milton Keynes Sub Aqua Club' by a lovely old lady staying at the Fort with the Bath Natural History Society, and having watched and discussed the antics of the strange people in the Intervarsity Club who were also staying at the Fort, we made a plan for the day. We all agreed that we had had four good local dives and if we couldn't get out to Skokholm where there were definitely seals to swim with we would head back home. A couple of cups of coffee later we hitched up the RIB, said good bye to the seagulls and headed home having had a fun, relaxing diving weekend. Planet Dale and Skokholm seals, we'll be back!!!

by  Colette