Talk about bad luck with the weather. The Saturday when most of us set off had to be about the foulest August day in living memory. For those who took the catamaran to Rosslare on the Saturday, the storm made for a terrifying experience. For those following on the Sunday cat, a long wait for the conventional ferry (rough enough) following the cancellation, and arrival in Kerry at 1.00am Monday.
Home for the week was the Harbour House Hotel. Situated on the end of Maharee, a long sand spit sticking out into the Atlantic, with a fantastic panorama of the Dingle Peninsula mountains and a dog, Pip, that you could not help liking.
Large Irish breakfasts, a bar that got well used – especially because of the weather – and good food. The quay for the boats is about 200m further on at a small jetty, surrounded by huge wooden crated for transporting spider crabs. A group of islands, the Maharee Islands, sits just offshore
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| The divers L-R Ian O, Trevor, Les (at front), Dave B, Tirath, Ian McE, Ronnie FitzGibbon, Margarita, Keith From Ireland |
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| View east from the hotel From Ireland |
First day, Monday, it was decided it was too rough to get in or out of the hardboat, so into a RIB. Its stability compared to Scooby and Tigger was fantastic, but at 9m we'd have big towing problems. Rapidly out to a site just off the Maharees, but when we looked at the swell we wimped out (except Keith who said he was willing to dive). A return to shore, misplaced optimism that there would be a second dive and a day of rain. The non-divers had made their escapes by car, so there was not much for it except to drink in the bar and for Trevor to try out dry suit diving in the training pool.
The naked mystery man made his first appearance. A man of about 65, he would walk in and out by the quay's second, narrow slipway and stand not quite waist deep in the water and swing both his arms round as though he was limbering up for a stretch of fast bowling.
Ronnie, who runs the dive centre, thought he was from ESAC.
Day two, much better weather and the swell had dropped somewhat, but still left us with a very limited choice. Back out to the same place with the hardboat. Before the dive we saw a seal. Two dives in fairly shallow water were possible, but it was like being in a washing machine as the swell pulled you around. A lot of kelp, one swim through. Still Darren and Padraig who were cox and crew made sure we had hot drinks and biscuits to recover.
Tuesday night it blew up a treat. Wednesday had gusts of up to 45knots. No chance of going out, with yachts being forced on to shore.
Good for surfing, though. We all made for the bright lights of Castlegregory, the main local village and watched Irish folk music. None of us quite got why one of the musicians was dressed up as a green Santa Claus.
Thursday it calmed down and though the day before had been stormy there was no big swell, so we were able to dive twice and with more interesting sites,. However most of us contrived to miss the hole in the rock and swimthrough that got one dive called the Letterbox – I suppose we should have called that dive “Missed Delivery”.
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| Sunset from the front of the hotel From Ireland |
The village pub had its Elvis night with the Emerald Elvis and a hen party, whose members were very amply proportioned, skimpily dressed and completely bladdered.
Friday was calm again and the sea much smoother and at long last we had a decent choice of sites. The boat crossed Brandon Bay and we got two dives in near Sauce Creek, at the foot of Mount Brandon, Ireland's 9th highest mountain. It's a dramatic bay that looks like it is only visited by sheep overland, so steep are the grassy slopes.
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| Start of the last and best dive From Ireland |
Two really excellent dives in good visibility. One following the current along the rocks just outside the bay, with a a final swim out away from the shore so the boat could pick up. Around the 20m mark, with enormous boulders and a profusion of fish, lobsters and jewel anemones. The second dive was even better. Dropped just inside the bay into a boulder field that was confusing to navigate and full of fish. A swim through of over 12m between two huge boulders and then around the rocks at about 20m, with ledges full of lobsters, crab and prawn. At long last what we'd come for.
Meanwhile there had been excitement on the boat as the people left on board had spotted a Sunfish. No photo's mind you, but we believed them.
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| Returning from Sauce Bay From Ireland |
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| The vista of the Dingle Peninsula From Ireland |
Just after we got back to shore, it began to rain and blow again.
Talk about good luck with the weather.
With thanks to all for the great photo's
