Julie's Boggle

Well I wasn’t looking forward to this, but it wasn’t that bad. For starters, we got from bed to car in just 20 minutes, and slipped out of London in a mere 17 minutes on roads that were practically deserted (not a surprise given it was before 08h00 on a Saturday).

Two hours later we got to Stoney Cove and discovered that the Easter weekend is the time to visit. Usually unless you arrive at first light, you have to take a spot in the grotty top carpark with a steep hill between you and the water that all gear has to traverse in both directions. This time we were waved into one of several free spots in the waterside carpark!

It wasn’t really warm, but there wasn’t a wind which makes a big difference (as Tom commented back here). Our instructor Frank was running a bit late so we only got in at 11h40 in the end.

The water was about 7°C but aside from an uncomfortable thrill down my neck as the first trickle made it into my wetsuit, it wasn’t painful – just hands and feet getting a bit numb. Below the surface the visibility wasn’t bad at all, and there were hundreds of baby roach darting around at 6m which added an interest factor.

As it was a training dive, we had to show Frank our dive leading abilities, practise using each other’s spare regulators to ascend from 6m, and (the ouch-factor) practise replacing our masks after complete removal. That caused a cold-headache for a minute or so but we were nearly done then anyway.

Once we were out, it was warm enough (about 18°C in the sun) that I didn’t even need my usual hot shower. The main imperative was getting the rapidly-cooling trapped water away from my feet and hands by stripping off boots and gloves, and then downing a cup of hot chocolate with a bacon roll. Mmm.

Frank was occupied with two other club divers for the afternoon, so that was us done for the day. We could have gone off on another dive together, but I was just as happy to wait around in the sun for the others to finish, and then make the leisurely trip back to London…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 17th, 2006 at 2:13 pm and is filed under Diving. 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.