Lamorna

No diving happened on Thursday owing to strengthening (force 3-4) winds. The sea state within Lamorna Cove itself was choppy and it appeared rough further out. The poor conditions however didn’t deter a threesome of divers (I don’t know who they were) from attempting a shore dive. I watched them struggle in and after 10-15 minutes of surface swimming, and repeated separations (frequently disappearing from view behind the waves) eventually dived, a few times, for a few minutes. It didn’t look very enjoyable to say the least; and keen as I am to dive – wouldn’t have wanted to be in their ‘flippers’.

Sennen Cove

A group from the club, ably managed by Debbie as part of her Advanced Diver assessment, went to Cornwall to dive out of Penzance and Lamorna Cove. Unfortunately the Bank Holiday weekend was a total washout. The rain lashed down and gale force winds rocked the caravan.

On the Monday, Adrian and I looked at a few sites mentioned in the Dive South Cornwall (Diver Guide) book. Porth Curno (below Minack Point) - with a steep sandy beach - looked like it might be good for snorkelling in fine weather along the rocks to the south. As for Mill Bay, you need a tractor or a horse to get to it, otherwise, via a long walk along the coast path (so another snorkelling spot there perhaps).

Thankfully, conditions improved during the week and we had three days of comfortable diving weather.

Royal Navy Submarine Museum

A nice weekend away and a trip to the Royal Navy Submarine Museum at Gosport. It was yukky weather (sort of ideal really as there was plenty inside) and we spent the day there. The museum was great. We had a guided tour of HMS Alliance, a look round Holland I, the X-craft, chariots, and lots of very interesting bits and pieces.

Above is HMS Alliance, completed in 1947 and designed for use in the Far East. Below - inside Holland I, the Royal Navy's first submarine, comissioned in 1901, she was decomissioned in 1913 and lost during the tow to the scrapyard.

Boat Handling Course

The instructors: Clint, Paul L, Nick L, and Grant

The students (pictured): Geoff H, Grace, Julie, Jake, Tony W, and Simon

We all met up at the club on Saturday morning for the theory part of the course, an introduction to the RIB and equipment, boat handling theory, passage plan organising, 'rules of the road' etc,.. a tour of the boat and to help prepare the boats and hitch them up.

Then to Teignmouth. The launch - as we'd anticipated - was interesting! At low (spring) tide, with the tide still on the ebb, Mir was nearly grounded; and Hubble needed help over the mud and shingle into deeper water. There was a gentle SW/westerly breeze. Beyond the point it was a bit choppy, but not too bad.

After navigating the harbour mouth and the sand bars, guided by our teachers we took turns at helming the RIBS, basic manoeuvring, and reading the waves and adjusting our speed accordingly. When we weren't 'driving'. I want to say we drank rum and sang merry shanties - but actually we picked up more interesting knowledge of boathandling, practised knots, and kept a lookout. Back in the estuary we practised manoeuvring in sheltered water, getting the boats up to the pontoons off the river beach and nudging the marker buoys. Retrieval (which we took turns at coordinating) was straightforward. A most wonderful surprise awaited us ashore - Anne had cooked up sausage sandwiches!! We finished washing down the boats and rendezvoused at the club.

On Sunday we met again at the club to get the boats out and returned to Polly Steps. Launch was far easier than the previous day, and we were off again, soon heading past Pole Sand to practise more boathandling skills like deploying anchors, picking up divers (we used a weighted float), man overboard drill and the Wilkinson turn.

Back at the shed we sorted out the boats and debriefed. The course was brilliant - very well run and taught, a fine introduction to boat handling. Now need to practise.

Porto Moniz

Not ideal for snorkelling, and I couldn't even go for a swim in the rock pools. The pools were barred off - which was a shame because they looked so inviting and jacuzzi-like. The north coast gets the worst of the weather, but it was unpleasantly wavy round most of the south coast too; the ocean swells wrapping round the island. I would just have to be patient.

Above, the northern coastline of the desolate Ponta São Lourenço, to the east of Madeira, on the day I did get to go snorkelling.

Holkham

Torn from Pembrokeshire I needed some sort of water-related fix, and got in the sea near Holkham, North Norfolk, at the end of the flats and the enormous beach, where there is a dune island [Gunhill] and a narrow stretch of water that gets cut off on the seaward side when the tide drops right down. Roger Deakin wrote about Holkham in his brilliant book 'Waterlog', and mentions that some of these channels are quite treacherous; but there are also warm lagoons that are very pleasant to swim in. The vis was really good for Norfolk [and better here than futher round the coast]. The tern colony here was a nice surprise - it's fenced off (good) to protect their ground level nests, and we enjoyed watching them fish and returning to the colony with food. I also saw a big pink bird and thought it was a giant duck or a flamingo, but it actually was some lady swimming along in a hat.

There was a steady trickle of people, making their way over to the island (often trying to short cut across unknowably deep tidal water with push-chairs small children and beach paraphanalia) as well as a few small boats and canoes and things.

Teignmouth

Bad weather in July (and a lot of June) meant I couldn't go in the sea. This picture, looking from Teignmouth sea front along the railway line to Sprey Point, was taken on one of those days; a very stormy Sunday morning. It was raining too. I think it was about this time that the topknot, a bouldery lump that always did look a bit precarious, fell off Shag Rock.

Shopping

A few days after my swim at Lulworth I went to the sport shop JJB in Exeter and bought a Speedo mask/fin/snorkel set (Speedo make swimming costumes and stuff like that). The mask was sturdy and had tempered glass, which I knew that was important. The snorkel had a sort of reservoir to collect water that might splash in the top; which I liked the idea of, thinking back to having tried a U-shaped one as a kid and hating it - I remember it was orange and had a horrible hard mouthpiece. My new snorkel had a purge valve too, whatever that was. The fins (full foot) looked liked they'd work ok. When I got some fins the right size sorted out, it was time for a trip to the beach and try it all out.