Pembrokeshire trip

(August 2003)

by Lisa Bedard

This year, my main week’s diving was the trip organised by Dave Bridges to Pembrokeshire, West Wales. Once again, my Mum decided to come along as a non-diving participant (she’s been on more dive trips now than some diving members of the club!) and we drove down together, starting at a sensible time (some people left at 6 in the morning - have they never heard of sleep??) The drive took us about 7 hours altogether, but we did choose to avoid motorway completely, and had a very scenic journey through the Brecon Beacons. We got there at about 5 p.m. to be pleasantly surprised by our accommodation – Dave had booked “bunk houses” but the centre was a little full up and Mother, Greeba and I were housed in a big room in “the bungalow” with very comfortable beds and excellent facilities.

We dived out of Milford Haven. The first day’s diving was from an old Pilot boat, which was so big that there were seats in the wheel house that reminded me of being on a ferry or aircraft! The morning’s dive was “nothing to write home about” but the afternoon’s dive on the Hen and Chicks was a special treat! I was buddied up with Dave and it was his 400^th dive, so we were hoping for a good one. We had been told that if we were lucky we would see Trigger Fish. We were. We started out down at only 8 metres from where we headed out along the gullies. I had my camera and took a few pictures of Pollack, Wrasse and Spider crabs. There were also loads of anemones: Plumose, Snakelocks and heaps of Jewel anemones glowing pink, green and purple. It was Kevin who found the Trigger fish. They were nestled together: a group of about seven fish, in a crevice in the rock. They faced us, jostling each other to back out of the way when we got too close. I guess it’s a different experience seeing Trigger-fish in British waters, as you don’t get the clarity of colour, but my impression was vaguely greeny-purply-ish. After photographing them for a while, we decided to have a group photo of Dave, Kevin & Greeba to celebrate Dave’s 400^th dive and then carried on. Dave tried to celebrate the dive with a couple of Lobsters in the bag, but I foiled his attempts by shining my torch on them so that they retreated back into their holes! We went back to see the Trigger fish one more time before heading up. Our dive was 63 minutes in total – well, on your 400^th you might as well at least stay the hour!

For the rest of the week we dived on a slightly smaller boat with a lot less room in the cabin (which is one of the reasons why we have photos of Bob and Greeba snoozing away together on top of the pile of dry bags!). However, we had ordered some pretty fantastic weather, so for the most part, we were quite happy being outside. The vis was generally pretty average, but the marine life was profuse and I experienced a few firsts – my first sighting of Strawberry worms, the first time I had ever noticed Gooseberry Sea Squirts (and there were a lot of them about) and my very first Candy Striped flatworm, drawn very kindly into my logbook by buddy Bryce. I think, though, for all of us (excluding Paul who had gone home by then – bad decision Paul!) the highlight of the week was on the Wednesday when we went out to The Smalls. The Smalls is basically a tiny reef which breaks the surface and is topped by a lighthouse. It is 18 miles off the end of Saint Ann’s head and it took us about 2 hours to get out there, but it was well worth it and we would have all voted to go back again given the chance. Unfortunately, this was one of the only days of the summer when the weather and tides had come together to make it right for diving. My buddy for the day was Kevin Hopton, and when we descended below the surface the first thing we noticed was how much better the vis was. We reached the reef and headed off, spotting a small Lobster and quite an abundance of the usual marine life. However, as I’ve noted in my log, it all paled into insignificance once the seals appeared! Kevin found them first – nesting (if seals do “nest”) on a ledge at the end of a gully. They just sat there and looked at us as we edged closer and closer. There were plain grey ones and some gorgeous silver ones with dark spots (young, so we were told later). They let us get quite close and we attempted to get pictures of ourselves with them, but unfortunately my camera wasn’t quite up to the challenge and most are just dark shapes on the resulting prints. Dave told us that he and his buddies actually stroked the fins of the seals they met, but Kevin and I contented ourselves with watching. We spent a lot of time just hanging around with the seals, following seals and photographing seals. One of the younger seals sat and chatted to me (barked?) for a bit. Others did acrobatics around us in the water. We finally ascended after 50 minutes, when we’d all but run out of air. It was one of those dives when you just have to shout for the thrill of it when you finally surface, and can’t help grinning at each other on the surface as you wait to be picked up by the boat. One of those dives that remind you why you keep doing it!

Unfortunately, the weather started to turn and we had to head back in for the second dive of the day. Some of the others who weren’t quite as mesmerised by the seals brought up a good haul of Crabs and Lobsters from their dives on The Smalls, so that evening we had a barbecue, giving Kevin Wileman the opportunity to show his proficiency at splitting Lobsters in half and impaling Crabs before cooking them to perfection. And when the rain started we headed into the kitchen of the bungalow, where we sat round the big table and ate strawberries with lots and lots of cream!

We saw seals again on the last dive of the trip, although just a couple this time, but it was a fantastic way to round off an excellent week. Thanks Dave.

Lisa