How I Survived Ireland
Posted By Lewis Gavin on 1 June 1998
It was the end of the summer and a good friend of mine suggested a group of us taking a late trip to southern ireland. He had seen the holiday advertised at a very favourable price, which included a week's diving, accommodation and the car ferry across from england to ireland. Of course, as it was october, we didn't expect the weather to be very predictable - or even favourable for that matter - but we were mostly students and hey, at that price...
We set off from Leicester. After a pleasant ferry trip from Holyhead we made our way south. Arriving at our destination, we met the organisers in the local pub, and we were just in time for last orders before being shown to our accommodation, which was excellent. After breakfast the next morning we joined the organisers at the harbour. We were introduced to the skipper and loaded our kit on board.
On our first few days we didn't experience the typical scenic dives we had expected, but the visibility was okay at about 8m, and we found crayfish in the 20m region, but then we ventured out to the skelligs, a group of islands about 16 miles away, with an underwater pinnacle. The diving was superb. dropping over the side of the hard boat we found the pinnacle we'd been told about. From its start at 6m, we went down to its base at 47m, enjoying 15-20m of visibility and an abundance of marine life. Back on the surface all was well - everyone was smiling, and there were plenty of stories to be swapped, if only we knew what the next day had in store.
Due to our excellent dive on the skelligs, with outstanding visibility for october, we decided to revisit the site the following day. The conditions had deteriorated slightly overnight, but all was well - until the hard boat's engine wouldn't start, that is! One of our group was a mechanic, and diagnosed a faulty starter motor. Luckily much to our relief, we were transferred to a 7.5m rib boasting a v6 outboard motor. However we were horrified to discover on the trip out that the teenage skipper not only couldn't swim, but had little experience handling a rib.
Once at the site, it was obvious that the skipper didn't really know where the pinnacle was. He said that if we failed to find it, not to worry as the first shelf was at 20m and the second at 40m before it veered down to 75m. I was confident from my previous experience of the site and buddied up with my two friends, Chris and Ruth. Chris and I were both experienced advanced divers (I was 22 at the time and had started diving at 13) and Ruth was a dive leader: we all had years of experience and we were used to diving together as a trio. The skipper seemed to be in control and keen for us to dive, and as there were other boats already at the site, we felt confident that there was sufficient surface cover.
- Bookmark with :
- what are these?
