Cork Sub Aqua Club

Cork Sub Aqua Club contains a few members who mainly dive on Wednesdays through the summer. They are joined by larger numbers of Sunday or Saturday regulars too, but some members hardly every dive Wednesdays, or haven’t for years. The Wednesday dives usually finish shortly before dusk, and tend to always leave from Oysterhaven. At various times, if tides and weather permit, there can be slightly earlier dives on Friday afternoon and these can venture further, to the Lings or the Aud perhaps. The Wednesday dives don’t really aim for the wow factor, they are simply a nice break from the midweek routine. They are rarely very challenging in terms of depth or distance traveled, so they attract a more relaxed crowd. Usually a smaller crowd too, adding to the easygoing atmosphere on a less crowded boat. The relatively laid-back atmosphere suits people whose jobs allow them to make it to the site by 6:30, (or 6PM a bit earlier or later in the year). It also suits divers who are busy transporting their kids to activities on the weekend, and wouldn’t otherwise get an opportunity to escape for a bit of underwater peace and quiet. If a boat is already on the mooring, or if it is mid-summer, or if there is a dry coxn then the dives can venture further afield, sometimes around the old-head, but normally they stick to a seven or eight kilometer radius from the slip. The Wednesday dives rarely involve depths of more than twenty meters.
The visibility underwater is usually reasonable, even if the weather isn’t always. If the weather is good then things are a bit more crowded, but there is still a chance to enjoy the late summer evening with a mid-week dive, and maybe a nice sunset on the way back. In September the dives can almost be like night dives. There is always the prospect of seeing something especially good: a sunfish breaching, big shoal of mackerel, congers, a porpoise or dolphins, or maybe even a leather backed turtle. Pipefish tend to be a speciality of the area. The spectacular sometimes happens in an ordinary setting, we are quite used to seeing it, so we sometimes don’t notice. Even if the weather is a bit rotten, as it has tended to be in July and early August 2008, what else would you be doing on a wet Wednesday night ? Sitting at home watching Coronation Street ?