Pentrych - with Hellfins and a KISS or two….
That’s not the reason obviously, but we have had several dives where for some reason or another one of us has had to back out and the other two can carry on so it works. Until yesterday, when I lost both Al and Frase from the trip we had planned – one to home diary and the other to illness – leaving me with no-one to dive with as of 10:30 pm the night before. Luckily Zak (EBT)stepped into the breach and promised me a master-class in lobster catching 
The others on the boat were Janos and Tom from DIRX plus 6 members of Hellfins – Janos’ BSAC club. For some it was their first sea dive of the year.
Zak and I were planning a slightly longer time than the others – so jumped in first to the Pentrych.
Straight down in a reasonably interesting current, and at 15 metres the lights went out. The plankton has clearly got sexy…. and the viz has gone from the 15 metres Al and I had on the M2 the day before, down to one metre ish. I have to say that I felt sorry for those on the boat who have not been out this year yet – it would not have been a very fun dive compared to the fantastic viz we have had over the last few weeks.
We came to the bottom in about 26 metres and I cleared my mask which had been flooding badly on the way down the shot. I looked up - no more that 30 seconds later – to see Zak with a lobster in his hand!!!
Bloody hell – he doesn’t hang around. (I think his poor buoyancy in the rebreather meant he stunned it by landing on it at the bottom of the shot)
He swam around for a few minutes lobster in hand, until he noticed that it had berries so let it go. This was to be the story of both dives – found a few – but none were takable.
One particularly large lobster had found the perfect hole. I chased it back so that Zak who had gone round the back could catch it. It reversed, did a three point turn and cam out at him claws first. I think that is when he decided that one could wait for another day.
The wreck was too broken up to be recognisable in this viz – although I did manage to spot the boilers (no congers though)
We squirreled around for about an hour. The wrasse were, colourful, very large here and very, very stupid. Several jumped as they swam in to us – others just stayed put.
Slack never really happened on this dive, pull and glide was needed at first, pull and pull was used when I rounded one end of the wreck and could feel my mask slip on my face due to the current. I hung on as Zak went past me – then I saw him turn and heard him swear through the loop at the force of the water. It was time to go.
We break the surface and picked up that all was not well. Two club members had had a fast ascent and one was symptomatic – so the chopper was on its way. They seemed in fine spirits though, and asked for pictures – so I of course obliged.
After birthday cake for Janos, second dive was a drift dive (drift – what’s the point in that then) which was another food hunt for us. There was nothing around though – a few very small lobster and crabs but nothing worth trying for. We found some small ledges which the skipper had described as caves which Zak shoved me in to (you want to do Cave 1 – here have a go…) I responded with a universal agency sign – to hear him laugh in the way that only a technical diving instructor can…..
We came across Janos and Tom in the water – so dumped the obligatory starfish on the top of Janos’ scrubber (Zak’s fingers itching to dump his wing) and, having had enough, thumbed the dive.
Good fun all in all.
Who needs viz?
