We started arriving at different times on the Friday night to our base for the weekend Anglesey Outdoor Centre. The centre was in for a busy weekend with Chester Club and their three boats staying for the weekend. The ECSAC team went into the Paddlers bar for a few social drinks and to discuss the plan for the diving. The plan was quickly amended from the Missouri as Chester club were putting 36 divers onto this wreck on the Saturday.
We awoke to flat calm and sunny conditions as per the forecast. Launched both boats from Trearddur and we headed off for the Kimya. This is approximately a 10 mile run to the dive site and we made quick time with the sea conditions. We put a shot line on the wreck and dived in waves leaving a cox on the boat. The wreck sits upright on a sandy sea bed with very little current.
Ed – when the team say they put a shot on the wreck……
it seems they actually stood on it and threw it in…! 🙂
Viz 3 to 6m with lots of life, A huge shoal of pollack, lots of Spider crabs and lobsters from small juveniles to some very large old timers. Lots of squidgy stuff too.
This is definitely a dive for all. We didn’t find any treasure so the hunt goes on.
We returned to Trearddur for comfort breaks, spot o
f lunch and a cylinder change.
Dive two was to be the Hermine close to Trearddur bay in an attempt to get the diving timeline back on track and a timely end to the day.
As we approached the dive site we found Chester club had dropped two boat full of divers in the water. I think they must of hacked my pc for the original plan ;0).
So we opted for the ECSAC back up dive. The Chasms.
We dropped divers in close to the cliff face and again good viz 3 to 6m with a slight current, so turned into a gentle drift dive. Again loads of spider crabs and more dog fish than you could shake a stick at. We also discovered Dave Moss has a talent for charming Dog fish onto the palm of his gloved hand. We don’t have a photo but Nick B observed mossy in action. Once all divers were recovered we headed back to Treardurr for recovery of the boats.
An ev
ening of socialising followed and a discussion about diving the following day.
Sunday brought equally good weather conditions.
With a later than planned end to day one we had to go for air fills Sunday morning, which had a slight impact on the start time for Sunday and we agreed to do just the one dive. We launched the boats and set off for the Euphrates which none of us had dived for quite sometime. The pile of chain is still in place as you might expect but to be honest not a great deal more. We all recall much more wreckage from when we last dived the site. All we can conclude is that the winter storms have taken its toll on the wreckage which is likely to be lost for good. A nice dive to conclude the trip taking in the surrounding topography with good viz again. Lots of wrasse, edible crab, lobster, velvet swimming crabs, common prawns and cup corals.
Boats recovered and secured for the trip back to HQ. A great weekends diving with visibility we all remember from many years ago around the North Wales coast.
All dive sites courtesy of Chris Holden and his underwater guide to North Wales.
Anyone interested in knowing more about the dive sites can now down load Chris’s updated E books from the google play books. http://www.calgopublications.co.uk/
Thank you to everyone who supported GWC Rib trips. Catch you on the next outing in two weeks time in Whitby.
Steve Welton
Some photos of the Anglesey Trip – click on the pic for the full sized version.
