13 May, 10

As a new diver the thought of a trip away was exciting if not scary at the same time. Not passed my ocean diver level as yet but keen to get stuck in. Us newbie’s Beth, Debbie and myself all managed to join the rest of the guys late Friday night at Mount Batten Centre, n get our heads down for an early start on the Saturday morning. Did I sleep much that night… oh not much!!

Saturday morning and we are getting on the boats, the reality of our new interest in diving hits me hard. The boats pull away from shore, through the break water n we are off. It was fantastic to be out there. We got to the site of the Scylla and a couple of the experienced divers got in but soon came right back out as unfortunately the visibility was pretty poor. At this time my gut decided that it didn’t like to be out at sea just gently rocking, and soon I was fighting my breakfast down. After what seemed like hours, awwww, we headed back to sure. As soon as my foot hits land I’m starving and can eat a horse!! Tony, you’re a legend for your sickness tablet, not a problem after that. Poor Beth though had the fun of this the next day. I sympathize hun.

That afternoon we headed back out to a quiet spot, but again the visibility was poor so mission aborted and we returned back to base. At this point I’ll be honest, I was relieved, as a new diver its all so different and I was feeling pretty nervous about getting in. By the Saturday evening I was starting to feel more than ready to give it my all!

Sunday morning we are off again bright and breezy - this time on our way to Eddystone Lighthouse. Again a couple of the guys got in and didn’t come out for a reasonable time indicating that the visibility was much better. Then it’s my turn.

My only experience of open water is Dosthill Quarry in temperatures of 4°C. As we got our kit together and on and did our buddy checks I was ready. I got in the water when told, and down we went me and my two buddy’s Gwen and Keith. The temperature of the sea water was 8°C which was positively toasty in comparison. If I’m honest when I was on the surface n looking down I couldn’t seen much and wondered if I would see anything at all. But as we went down the shot like, as if by magic it cleared. This was absolutely brilliant compared to good ol’ quarry diving. The colours were bright, and it was so light down there at 20 meters. We saw a spider crab, which for an amateur such as me was very exciting. The colour of the water even, and all the life down there was great! I then understood why my instructors had made us endure the New Year temperatures, as this was totally worth it. As always the air runs low and play time is over and up we come. I have to say getting back into the boat has to be the least lady like thing in diving. No cameras allowed. After the dive, listening to the experienced divers reflect, they were saying things like ‘there wasn’t much to see’. This I can understand if you have dived for a while. I have come to the conclusion the diving is awesome! As someone with no experience, that dive couldn’t have been any better. My experiences are going to get better and better and I can’t wait to get stuck in.

As we came out others went in and after everyone had their fill we started to make our way back to shore. But poor Gwen and Keith, their boat went on strike and didn’t want to play anymore. Some of us managed to make it back quickly, but a good half of the group were out at sea for at least 2-3 hours getting back by the working boat towing Keith and Gwen’s. When they all got back they were all froze and ready for a hot shower. Well Done guys.

Thank you to both Gwen and Keith for taking me in for my first time. I loved it! Thank you also to everyone who took part. I’ve got the diving bug now. Bring on my next spider crab.

Becky Betteridge

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 13th, 2010 at 8:39 pm and is filed under Club Trip Reports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.