Milford Haven 21st 22nd August 2004
This was the second year that I had arranged a UKRS trip to
dive in Pembrokeshire. We were booked with Dive
into Pembrokeshire, and booked aboard Llanstadwell, a converted 60 foot
pilot boat built in 1971. The boat has lots of space and has recently been
fitted with a lift.
I had booked the accommodation at The Lord Kitchener in
Milford Haven, very reasonable at £18.50 per night. Apart from myself the
others on the trip were, Louise Cronin, Darren Cronin, Natasha Bowey, Rob Potton,
Brod Mason, Andy Lee, David Long, Paul Roddison & Kieran “Dev” Barry
(all will be revealed).
The Friday evening we had a beer at the Kitchener as people
were arriving at various times, (except Kieran who only got home at 2:30 am,
then left at 3:30 to travel from Slough to meet us at the boat on the Saturday
morning.) When we met on the Saturday morning Andy, Dave & Paul, 3
upstanding members of the Yorks Police force, were intent on committing murder
as Brod’s snoring had kept them awake for most of the night.
We had planned to go out to the Smalls on Saturday morning. This is 18 miles out from Saint Anne’s Head so conditions have to be good. Unfortunately they were not good enough so we diverted across to Skomer for Plan B.
Saturday
Dive 1: Lucy, Max
Depth 36.9 metres, Run time 54 minutes
The Lucy was a 450 ton Dutch ship. She was
171 feet long, and at the time of her sinking in 1967 was carrying a cargo of
calcium carbide. When mixed with sea water this makes acetylene gas, which in
turn makes for a very explosive ship, so needless to say everyone left the
ship very quickly.
I was diving with “Dev” Barry on this one and we went
down the permanent shot which is on the bows. From there we dropped to the main
deck at 36 metres and made our way along the port side, about halfway along we
were joined by a seal as we made our way along the companionway. I have dived
this wreck many times and this is the first time that I have seen a seal at that
depth. There was also a small conger in one of the holes as we made our way to
the stern, then around the intact superstructure and back to the bows via the
starboard side. We had not run up much deco by this point so I indicated that we
should go back to the stern as I wanted to do a bit more exploring. There are a
few nice swim throughs and some very inviting passageways. After a while in this
area “Dev” made his way back to the main shot while I decided to try the new
shot that had been attached. A much better option in my opinion as it was less
crowded.
Dive 2: High Point,
Max Depth 19.5 metres, Run time 53 minutes
This is a reef just to the East of Martin’s Haven. A
pleasant little mooch around drifting back towards the bay. There were lots of
lobsters & scallops, unfortunately as this is within the Skomer Marine
Reserve you are not allowed to take anything. In addition to this there are lots
of anemones, sea cucumbers, cotton spinners, and of course the usual assortment
of wrasse.
That evening we ate at the Lord Nelson, and several went
for a curry. Later we met up at the Kitchener and had a few beers where we were
entertained by the most politically incorrect woman in Pembrokeshire.
At one point she was heard to say to the owner “Hey doesn’t he look like that guy Dev off Coronation Street,” the reply was, “who does?” She then pointed to Kieran and said “that one, the Paki c#nt.”
Here is a pic of "Dev" sleeping it off
On Sunday morning the wind had definitely picked up and it didn’t look as if we were going to get any good dives. That said Andy, Paul and David decided to head back to Yorkshire, and Natasha and Rob also decided to head home to Bristol, which left just 5 of us on the boat.
It was quite a “lumpy” journey once we were outside the Haven, Dave took the boat wide of St Anne’s Head to get the best of the poor conditions but we still got a battering. This left Darren looking rather ill and “Dev” practicing his projectile vomiting over the side of the boat. However once we were through Jack Sound the conditions improved dramatically, so on we went.
Sunday
Dive 3: Stack Rocks,
Max Depth 26.5 metres, Run time 56 minutes
I dropped into about 10 metres then made my way deeper
following a series of gullies. There was an incredible amount of marine life,
lots of lobsters, many different type of anemones, possible more than I have
seen at any other site, dead mens fingers, ross coral, lots of wrasse and
pollack, and at one point a saw a large head, at first I thought it was a conger
but then decided that it wasn’t. The colouring didn’t seem right and there
were spots on the head, rather like a dog fish, but the head was much larger. So
still none the wiser.
Dive 4: Low Point,
Max Depth 16.8 metres, Run time 53 minutes
For this last dive of the weekend the numbers were further reduced, “Dev” had decided to have a sleep instead, and Lou managed to tear her neck seal while kitting up.
Low point is a little further along the coast than the dive
that we did the previous day. I lost count of how many lobsters that I saw on
this dive, in addition to this I saw dogfish, and a huge jellyfish which I
narrowly avoided.
After the dive the ride home was quite eventful, we had a 5 metre swell in Jack Sound and also quite lumpy after this. “Dev” again lost any food that he had taken on since his last bout of “fish feeding”
A nice weekend’s diving with 1 wreck and 3 reef dives, quite unusual for UKRS trips, the viz wasn’t great, typically 4 metres, but nice “warm” water, 17 or 18 degrees.
