THE SEA BLOB
08 June 2010

Well, we have just come back from a very successful trip to West Wales and I thought I would share with you my impressions on the weekend. There were only 6 of us on that trip and it is really a pity as the place around the Skomer island is wonderful. The scenery is as good above as below the water.

So, to be precise there were Jim Moroney, President of London No1; Keith, Chairman; Jim Bruce, DO; Alex Marshall, Training Officer; myself (Alex Soubeyrand), Equipment Officer; –we could not have that trip more official- But thanks god! Kate also came along. Kate is a new member of our branch and was very keen to join us after a diving break from lovely Scotland. It was her first trip with our bunch and she lighted up the weekend (with a yellow dry suit brighter than Alex M.’s.) of what would have otherwise been an old men (sorry lads!) getaway.

Jim Bruce and I shared a car and the trip West on Friday was the usual how-can-it-be-so-bad completely jammed traffic. It took us from Camden Town about 1:30 to reach the motorway. After that the road was alright and we made it to Foxdale campsite at 01:20 AM, or just in time for a duets in snore minor interpreted by Alto Keith and Baritone Jim. At around three o’clock in the morning I got waken up by the unmistakable noise of heavy rain and wind batting against my poor cheap tent and while I wedged myself as deep as possible in my sleeping bag, it reminded me of three years ago when I found myself in exactly the same spot and had to spend the entire weekend in the tent because of bad weather. But thankfully it stopped at 11:00 and after some carbonic Kelly kettle boiled tea we headed towards Saint-Dales. The bay was a bit choppy and we gave up the idea of diving from the boat for the day. Instead we returned to Marlows and continued to Martin’s Heaven for a shore dive. Sunday and Monday’s weather’s was very good and Percy was in water in no time and we swapped woolly hats and coats for caps and sun cream. I will talke about the dives in a minute but for now, I would like to express how pretty is the coast around there and how “zimzounging” on Percy in-between the tiny islands is a real treat. Being a natural reserved we had no problem in spotting seals and puffins, which entertained us plenty between waves.

The scenery underwater was quite similar from dive to dive with rocks and sand bits and the life was also plentiful (Keith actually did had a nightmare one night because of all those big crabs waving at us as we glide from one to an other and not being able to bag any- it is a no take zone you see…): scallops, all sort of crabs, spider crabs so big we could have fed the French for days, sea ursine, octopus the list is endless really. Strangely enough, we did not see that many fish. Now for the big surprise: on the first dive in Martin’s heaven, I noticed something very shiny on an outcrop below. As I got closer I realised it was silver fishing hooks I had spotted and just as I was about to swim away, I saw it: The most tiniest thing ever. I had heard about it and seen a few in books and on line but I never had the chance to see one for real and suddenly there were two right in front of my eyes: Nudibranches! So beautiful, so colorfull (Alex Marshall’s wardrobes seems very pale compare to it) so amazing. And then they were every where. As I said I had never seen one before and on that weekends, well I actually stopped counting after a while. White ones with yellow hair, purple ones, white and orange, blue turquoise, ... It was just fantastic. more pictures to come


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