19:07 in Club Dives, Cork, Dive Sites, Diving, Ireland, Marine Life, SCUBA, Uncategorized by riordandave
It is getting to the time of year again when the dusk is soon enough for a night dive to be at a reasonable hour (neither midnight nor the middle of the afternoon). With the boat conveniently moored at brightly lit and easily navigable Crosshaven, we headed out on Friday evening to dive the Daunt Rock. The trick is to kit up while there is still some twilight and have darkness fall just after you leave the surface. We timed it perfectly. Joost had the good idea of attaching a light stick to a surface marker boy that he towed on the dive. Gerry, who was coxing was able to follow it fairly well after darkness fell. With a neap tide there was little current and a half moon to help us navigate back to Crosshaven. The fish life is fairly tame on a night dive, some of the fish are actually asleep. Others such as Congers that would normally be holed up during daylight are out and about at night. Also Ling which I was able to photograph despite some challenging lighting conditions. We saw several small congers (or maybe the same one several times !). There is some metal on the Daunt rock, evidence of the fact that it was once the cause of some shipwrecks. The rock is buoyed, with a red lateral mark (I would have expected an isolated danger mark). You have probably seen the buoy many times from nearby Roberts’ Cove.
Tags: Cork, Daunt Rock, Ireland, Night diving, SCUBA
20:45 in Club Holidays, Cork, Diving, Ireland, Marine Life, SCUBA by riordandave
The first Saturday was the only day that no diving was possible due to weather. Sunday and Monday followed the pattern of a brief respite from overnight winds in the morning and early afternoon before it blew up again later. But two dives (albeit with lumpy boat trips) were possible both days. From Tuesday we were able to travel further afield round to the south side of Dursey Island.
Drift dives proved to be unexpectedly popular. I have seen four planned drift dives ever with Cork SAC (intentional ones as opposed to mis-timed slack water) and two of those were last week. It is something we should do a bit more often because they are a blast. We calculated that on the second drift dive on Friday, one buddy pair must have traveled almost two miles in 45 minutes. Unlike in Renvyle, when the first night dive was a highlight, this year the traditional night dive was nothing to write home about, so I won’t blog about it either. By Thursday things had calmed down enough for a dive at Crow head (where the octopus posed for the camera). By Friday my favourite dive site: the Cow was dive-able and that was a fabulous dive. Saturday we went back to the dive sites nearer Garnish Pier to allow the boats to be pulled earlier. The best diving was Thursday and Friday.
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Tags: Cork, Crow Head, Diving, Diving Scuba, Dursey Island, Garnish Pier, Ireland, Octopus, Recreational diving, SCUBA, Underwater diving
18:03 in Cork, Diving, Members, Training by riordandave
James Branich, Michiel De Rooij, and Stephen Barry along with Candidates from Blackwater SAC and NMCI SAC at their Club Diver tests. All the Candidates passed, Congratulations ! Stephane Portrait, and Finbarr Murphy from Blackwater were Mon 2 testers, along with Declan O’Grady Lucie Kirby and Don MCCarthy form Cork, Fiona Duggan participated as a Mon 1. Olin O’Farrell Dave Riordan and Gerry Horan helped out.
The NMCI candidates John Ryan and Will Jagoe are the first ever to complete the certification from that club which as only been in existence for a few years.
Tags: Club, CMAS, Diving, SCUBA, Tests
