Cork Sub Aqua Club

The village of Allihes was the location for the Cork SAC August week long diving holiday. The coastal village is overlooked by eroded hills and a worked out copper mine (top right). The houses are brightly painted. Strangely for a village with three pubs and and only one shop, there is also a disused methodist chapel that was used by the miners from 1812 to 1884 (bottom left). Abstinence has not been an enduring success here, least of all for the members of Cork SAC.
Read the rest of this entry →

Ballinskelligs weekend June 2007. Clare drives the ‘garda’ boat with ‘Su’ in front and ‘ddy’ behind. (replacing the boat’s name with a crossword clue because I don’t want that kind of internet traffic) . One of the Declans looks a little concerned, the other enjoys his lollipop.
A wet and windy Saturday saw no diving, some went for a swim, others for a walk, and it was difficult to know who got wetter. Sunday was much better, and Monday glorious. But the sea had been churned up a bit, and was still too choppy for the Skelligs.
Read the rest of this entry →

The Aud lies at about 31 meters depth near the Cork Buoy at the entrance to Cork Harbour. She was a covert 1916 world war one German sponsored gun-running enterprise to the Irish Volunteers but she was discovered by the British navy. She was scuttled by her crew when she was being escorted to Cork. The remains of the wreck are very much scattered, and the boiler is pretty much the only intact part. A very entertaining dive, the bullets are everywhere, and look like gravel on the sea bed. Keep an eye out for congers and ling, but the anglers seem to know this place well so we didn’t see many fish.

It was a relatively early 8:30 AM start from Oysterhaven to make the one hour time window after low tide that is the best time to dive this wreck. The sea was flat calm on the way there but the forecast force 3-4 southwest winds had made it a little more choppy on the way back. The earliest down had less disturbed silt to deal with but even Laura and Eileen, the last two to dive, described the visilbility as fairly good. I would say 10 meters at the beginning but it was more disturbed near the boiler.
Thanks to Claire for coxing and for the chocolate and coconut chunks. Thanks to the O’Connell family for the loan of their boat.

Aud Bullets

Declan C diving the Aud

More Aud Bullets

Originally uploaded by riordan_david.

Paul and Donal hard at work at the serious business of extended range training.

Entering the water from a pier fully kitted with a twin set and stage bottle is not easy and may require the assistance of a buddy.

Donal lends his boot.

Practice makes perfect, so the next time that Donal comes across a serious pier blockage, he knows exactly what to do.

The Marina Cahersiveen

Members of Cork Sub Aqua Club, Daunt SAC, Blackwater SAC, UCC SAC, Limerick SAC, Aughinish SAC, and one bloke from Irish SAC, were guests of the Inbhear Sceine SAC for the regional weekend at Cahersiveen Co Kerry May 2007. The sun shone on Saturday. Most boats headed the short distance to the Basalt Cliffs, where there is spectacular ground, with deep anenome covered gullies to be found, and any depth you want down to 40 meters. A fearless male Cuckoo Wrasse guarding his territory pursued us for the early portion of the dive (perhaps seeing his reflection in my mask). A lucky few diving with Nigel Kelleher were treated to the sight of some basking sharks late in the afternoon.

Read the rest of this entry →

Allie Smerwick

This was a weekend to contrast the scene above the waves with that below. Grey skies and occasional rain were the scene above the waves for the May weekend trip to Dingle. Due to the southwesterly winds we were diving out of Smerwick Harbour to the north of Dingle. The visibility below the waves was quite good, especially on Saturday, fifteen meters or so.

ThreeSisters.jpg

There was a surge on Sunday however to make the swim throughs and gullies a little more exciting. There were plenty of wrasse and other fish, blennies in particular, a large school of mackrel on the Sunday, lobsters, crayfish, and smaller critteers too.
The pubs of Dingle were lively but not too crowded. On Monday a few of the non-hungover folk went for a shore dive at Brandon Creek.

Group photo

It was a foggy day, so we had planned on doing just half the distance for safety reasons, but then the fog lifted and most people did the full swim. About a nautical mile. There was a barbeque to finish.

Read the rest of this entry →

Don leads Jonathan to shallow end

I hope everybody enjoyed the pool training. Beginners, crossovers, existing club divers, and extended range divers all used the pool sessions to practice their skills and to try out new equipment before the start of the dive season. Thanks to everyone who helped out and loaned equipment.
Thanks to Donal O’Connell for the photos.
Read the rest of this entry →

candidates.jpg

Originally uploaded by riordan_david.

The leading diver weekend is the culmination of almost eight months training for the candidates. It the only exam I have ever done where the examiners outnumbered the candidates by almost two to one.

The photo shows CSAC candidates: Dave Riordan, Dave Connaghton and Niamh Thompson, along with candidates from Roscommon (Dolphin SAC), UCC SAC, Daunt SAC, Waterford Harbour SAC, and Drogheda SAC.
All the candidates in Baltimore passed.
(thanks to Eric Cambell and Graham Ferguson for the photos)
Read the rest of this entry →

A more sombre trip west for the club on Friday, Saturday and Sunday last. To assist in the search for the remains of Jonathan Herlihy drowned off Owenahincha beach earlier that week.
Read the rest of this entry →