We travelled over to Anglesey on Friday afternoon with a forecast of south westerly winds, which meant that our preferred dive sites would not be possible.  On arrival at the Holyhead Sea Cadets, the sun was shining and we strolled across the road and took a look at Newry Beach, next to the Maritime Museum.  As this is very sheltered with a lovely sandy beach and easy access and car parking, we decided that this would be the best dive location given the weather conditions. After a good meal of fish & chips, we checked out possible launch sites and got permission to launch from the Sailing Club.  We also discovered that the Holyhead Festival was on which meant that car parking would be difficult!

On Saturday morning, we got ourselves sorted early.  Paul arrived with the boat and he and Loz took it down to the Sailing Club to launch.  The rest of us went down to the beach with our gear to set up for a shore dive at high water.  We had fun exploring the Mackenzie pier wall and around the inner harbour; buddy pairs diving with SMBs so they could be watched by Clive on shore and Janet on the harbour wall.  When Cheshire Cat arrived at the beach, Paul suggested boat rides during our surface interval for those who wanted to experience this.  This was very much enjoyed by our new divers and non-diving partners.  For our second dives, Paul and Loz dropped a shot-line, dive pairs took a bearing and then navigated in-shore.  Although the diving was shallow, we had a great time practicing our skills and, for the new divers, experiencing sea dives and rhib diving for the first time.

Sue took Rob in for a snorkel to complete his practical lesson for his Snorkel Diver qualification and Jo took Paula in for a shore dive, an “experience dive” required for her Advanced Ocean Diver qualification.

When all the diving was complete, we returned to the bunkhouse and started to prepare for the BBQ while Paul & Loz had to drive through the congested streets of Holyhead to get back to us with the rhib & trailer, facing foul language and aggression from passers-by as the streets were grid-locked with badly parked cars!! 

The BBQ was a lovely time for club members and partners to socialise and get to know one another.  Many thanks to Ken for doing the cooking on the BBQ, to Paul for the fabulous caramelised onions and to Janet for all that washing up and general cleaning!!