Rochdale Divers

September and finally we get some calm weather, calm for nearly 2 weeks beforehand, forecast calm for the weekend, neap tides, what more could we ask for?

Well after Paul had done a bit of arm twisting we finally had four divers and Helen as a boat-handler.

We met at the boathouse at 6 in the morning and after two minor diversions by Paul, (his new Sat Nav isn’t all it’s cracked up to be), we finally arrived at Porth Colmon down on the Lleyn in North Wales.

Never been here when it has been as busy, couple of fishing boats, two other dive boats from a local club and all the extra cars that that brings, however there was parking space for all…just!

Got the boat and kit ready, Paul reversed down the slip and we hand-balled the trailer the last 20 yards to the sea. It was at that point that we remembered why the club had christened this place Pong Bay many years ago. Tides push a lot of rotting seaweed into the bay and gives the place a rather awful aroma.

Into the boat and off we go to the first dive site. Lots of people ask me where my favourite dive site is and I have always said that it is the reef offshore between Porth Ysgaden and Porth Colmon. So that is where we headed, usually we do this as a drift dive but we entered on slack water, expecting the current to pick up while we were under.

Steve Dennison and myself went down first, 20m to the seabed, 10Metre viz and loads of natural light. We were on a rocky bit of reef with a lot of large Ballan and Brown wrasse charging about, plenty of starfish on the top of the reef, large orange 7 armed Luidia starfish on the go and the occasional dogfish. We saw large edible crabs, tiny delicate spider crabs and some jocking great big spiny spider crabs. After about 10 minutes we found an enormous boulder with loads of very big Bib tucked underneath it, milling around were a shoal of Pouting and a few colourful Cuckoo wrasse. We saw two octopus, the first one ducked straight into a crevice, the second stayed out to play for a few minutes, before swimming off in a cloud of ink. We saw several large dragonets which were incredibly docile.

All too soon the computers were showing that we were out of time, nice slow ascent up the SMB line and there was Helen to meet us. Paul Smith and Terry Cuttlefish also had a good dive except Terry’s drysuit was apparently made by Tetleys and has a similar number of holes to one of their teabags.

Back to shore for lunch and a walk for Helen and myself and a chill out for the others.

The second dive was to be at Maen Mellt (Thunder Rock). On spring tides there is only about 20-25 minutes of slack and the current can pick up very quickly after that. On neaps there is about 40 minutes of slack, fortunately we were on neaps and we dived in the “lee” of the rock. This small island rises about 10-15m above sea level.

Terry had decided that one underwater experience with Tetley was enough and decided to keep Helen company on the boat. That left Paul Smith (with his camera), Steve Dennison and myself diving as a 3, as visibility was 10M plus and there was no current, this was not an issue. We dropped in off the boat on the northern tip of the rock, straight down a kelp covered cliff to 20M, the kelp dying out at about 10-12M.

There were loads of fish including some of the biggest ballan wrasse I have ever seen, easily 1M long. Saw a number of conger eels on the dive, a few bits of wreckage, loads of cuckoo wrasse, bib, pouting, and a few dogfish. Lobsters including some big ones were lurking under the big boulders which scatter the bottom,

We made our way round the base of the cliff to the west and followed the line of the reef as it slowly curved west away from the island. On the vertical slopes there were lots of jewel anemones of all colours, unfortunately most were closed up. Slightly lower down were hard Devonshire cup corals, tucked away in all the nooks and crannies were squat lobsters and best of all, a baby Crawfish, about 5-6” long and about an inch across, I have seen the occasional big Cray around here but not a small one, there is hope for them yet!!

As we got to the western end of the reef, we could feel the current wanting to tug us away to the south, we retreated a bit and looped slowly around the way we had come, keeping further out away from the reef. We hit the main reef and re-traced our steps to the start point. Found an enormous conger just before we started our ascent, it had shoulders that Gordon would have been proud of and a gut to match!! I thought Paul was actually trying to feed his camera to it.

Steve was tugging at my fin and signalling up, he was down to 60 bar, so we told Paul and stopped him from becoming the club’s first one armed diver. Actually I doubt that the Conger would have stopped at his arm.

Slow ascent up the wall and there was Helen and Terry waiting for us. Back to the beach, a squelch through the seaweed juice and we very quickly had the boat back on its trailer and ready to roll.

The end of a fantastic day’s diving. The best I have had in the UK for at least 3 years.

I still consider the reef offshore here to be my favourite dive. The sheer variety of conditions, habitats and life that you encounter are fantastic.

Thanks to everyone, especially Helen who had to listen to me raving about it, when she couldn’t dive herself.

Mick Hyde

Porth Colmon

Llangwnadl, Pwllheli, Gwynedd LL53, UK