Having spent quite a few of the last years going backwards and forwards across to the West Coast visiting family (both mine and Dee’s) I finally decided that we were going to go diving this year. As Dee had recently passed her Sports Diver (many thanks Ian & Gary) she needed to get more experience of diving in the sea and get some more depth progression.
As ScubaDiveWest (SDW) is only just down the road from our families, they were our chosen “dive school” to ferry us to the dive sites. After arriving on the Wednesday we decided to pop across to them and book our 3 days diving (2 dives per day). On arrival we met the brother (Colin) of Dee’s friend from school, Natasha, so having a friendly face that Dee could also relate to helped me. After chewing the fat for a while and filling out the generic “you do this at your own risk” waiver forms we headed back to the pub for some light brunch (finally wandered/staggered out 5 hours later).
The days rolled past and soon enough Tuesday 25th July rolled up and we found ourselves packing our kit into Dee’s Mums Escort for the ½ hour drive to SDW. We really should have known that Cillian (pronounced Killian) said be here for 10am he is talking about West Coast Of Ireland “Time” which means we turn up at 10am and he’s still eating his breakfast (please note that WCOI Time is approx 1 hour behind BST). We got kitted up and lugged our kit down the slip ready to be loaded onto the rib. It was only after struggling with the kit that we found the barrow in the filling station!!!!
We dropped down the shot onto a reef at 8m and followed it round swimming through the forest of kelp then over the side down to the bottom at 24m. This was Dee’s deepest dive to date and the look of a “rabbit in the headlights” strewn across her face, though with time this faded as she started to investigate every nook and cranny for wildlife. 
Dee (c/w Pink Dry Suit & Yellow Buddy BCD!!!!!!)
One thing that surprised me was that there wasn’t the huge amount of wildlife that I would have expected, though what there was in the way of Pollock was big and that due to the plankton bloom the visibility was poor. After playing with some edible crabs for a while we turned round and headed back to the shot. After the obligatory 3 minute safety stop at 6m we de-kitted and hauled ourselves back on the rib to be greeted by a nice cup of hot chocolate. After a 15min hop across the bay we were back at the slip. The nice thing was that we had only to take our cylinders off the boat to get refilled.
Dive Time - 24mins
Max Depth - 24m
The second dive of the day was Doonee Beacon, which is one of the markers set up by the Royal Navy as transit points for shipping entering the Killary (British Isles only Fjord). This dive we similar to the first with us dropping down the shot on a plateau at 8m then following it round keeping the wall to our left dropping in depth to 23m. All around were these huge white starfish though Dee got the major league arse ache when I placed one on her head. I was trying to find a Dogfish to show Dee as she hadn’t seen one before – but alas there was no joy there. After hosing down the kit we hung it up in the compressor house rather than lug it back home.
Dive Time 31mins
Max Depth – 24m
Colin decide to join us for the diving on this day, he would act as our guide though to be quite honest it made Dee a bit nervous as technically we were diving in a three, though as I pointed out to Dee that we are diving as a buddy pair and Colin is diving solo! The dive went well with Colin forging ahead pointing out flora and fauna, though personally this has no standing on SDW, I was after 3 dives getting a bit sick of kelp. Don’t get me wrong I do like bimble dives but at heart I am a “Wreck Ferret”. Again I was on the look out for a “Doggy” but alas none were to be found.
Dive Time – 39mins
Max Depth – 27m
Once again Colin joined us for another Kelp dive though we did see more fish with some particularly big Pollack cruising past.
Dive Time – 28mins
Max Depth – 23m
At last a wreck, something that I though would be a Mecca for all kinds of fish. As we dropped down the shot we passed through a shoal of small Pollack and Bib at about 6m, the little buggers were darting in and out of us like mad. I had said to Dee that on this dive we should turn our torches on as it’s likely to be a bit murky down there. After what seemed to be an eternity (had problems clearing my ears) we came onto the deck, after a couple of minutes of Dee getting comfortable we went over the side to do a circuit of the hull and possible find some Congers (none to be found).
It was quite noticeable throughout this dive that Dee wasn’t enjoying it that much though I did signal to her that we can bin it if she wanted, she declined and wanted to go on. Though it was quite a nice little wreck the lack of fish life (loads of big edible crabs) was a little disturbing. It always amazes me how nature can take over an object if given time; the upper structure of the wreck was covered completely in jewel anenomies in various colours of yellow and orange.
After 22 minutes I signalled to Dee that we were going up and having found the shot we started to ascend. We came to the 6m stop and were once again met by the small Pollack and Bib, it was whilst carrying out our safety stop we found out why they were hanging around. As divers went up and down the shot marine shrimps were being disturbed and the Bib and Pollack were rushing in and snaffling them – a rather enjoyable way to end a dive.
Dive Time - 27mins
Max Depth – 26.5m
This was our favourite dive of the trip as it was only a short hop round to the Killary. I had asked Cillian for some Congers and Doggies. We were told that as soon as we went down the shot, look directly into the wall and you will see Congers and if you open a tin of sardines they will come out to play with that Cillian put a tin of John West in my Wing pocket. I am not a great advocator of feeding wildlife as this leads to “accidents” happening though was assured that these particular Congers are rarely fed and tend to be diver finger friendly.
We kitted up and after brief buddy check we were on the bottom of the shot with a 5ft conger staring right at me. No sooner had I settled kneeling on the bottom than it came out of it’s hole and settled between my legs, it was almost like a dog coming out for a stroke, for the brief minute that it stayed put it made my whole diving trip something to remember. The look on Dee’s face was absolutely magic though I couldn’t tempt her to stroke it as well it is something that she will never forget and still talks about now to any of our friends.
As previously stated I wouldn’t normally feed congers I almost felt obliged to and thus opened my tin and with that it was the green light for every conger to stick its head out along with lobsters as big as my forearm. They were every where and it amazed me that you would see congers in such close proximity to other congers, only a matter of a foot away. Alas our time was short as I could have stayed down quite happily watching these magnificent creatures.
Dive Time 42mins
Max Depth – 19.8m
Colin The Conger
The whole idea of the diving was really to advance Dee in her diving and for this I could be more pleased with the help that SDW gave me. The viz wasn’t the best, max 5m, but I personally think that was due to the time of the year and the fact of it being one of the hottest summers in a long time, we can’t grumble too much.
As this was my first diving experience in Ireland I have no benchmarks as to grade SDW, all that I can say is that both Dee and myself got the warmest of welcomes and I shall be back for more next summer when we get married and hopefully take club members across to go “offshore” to the various Islands.
Apres Dive Irish Styleee
Sláinte
Stevie & Dee