Yet another amazing staff day out !!!
Ok, there were paying customers as well, but as no one needed guiding we got to do a truly brilliant dive on An Tearacht - an island off the western side of the Blaskets.
The waters around the island are as close to a marine reserve as you get in Ireland. In other words they are an official reserve but as the park ranger doesn't have a boat it sort of prevents him from being able to monitor any fishing activities around the island.
But, as I said, what a dive. 15 metres plus visibility, boulders, ridges and overhangs. We went to 40 metres and as the man says - the sea life abounded. We even managed to find a crayfish - hadn't seen one in weeks! Should be mentioned that others spotted up to eight crays on their dives, so maybe our eyesight is failing in our old age.
As we had had such a deep dive we decided to have a long surface interval and visited the island itself. What a cool place (see the photos that Conor has kindly provided). There must be a thousand steps up to the lighthouse (alright maybe only nine hundred odd, but it nearly matches the Grouse Grind). The views from the lighthouse were just out of this world. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
The second dive was off Insihvickillane (Charlie Haughey's island - not a direct translation from the Irish) and was just as much fun - yet another crayfish (Lisa took some lovely pictures). After a day's diving like that what better to do the next day but 7 DSD's - well we have to atone for our sins somehow ;o)
Kazzie, Jo and Alex are due here next week, I can only imagine the mayhem that will follow them ... needless to say I'll try to publish the less lurid of the tales!
The waters around the island are as close to a marine reserve as you get in Ireland. In other words they are an official reserve but as the park ranger doesn't have a boat it sort of prevents him from being able to monitor any fishing activities around the island.
But, as I said, what a dive. 15 metres plus visibility, boulders, ridges and overhangs. We went to 40 metres and as the man says - the sea life abounded. We even managed to find a crayfish - hadn't seen one in weeks! Should be mentioned that others spotted up to eight crays on their dives, so maybe our eyesight is failing in our old age.
As we had had such a deep dive we decided to have a long surface interval and visited the island itself. What a cool place (see the photos that Conor has kindly provided). There must be a thousand steps up to the lighthouse (alright maybe only nine hundred odd, but it nearly matches the Grouse Grind). The views from the lighthouse were just out of this world. Truly a once in a lifetime experience.
The second dive was off Insihvickillane (Charlie Haughey's island - not a direct translation from the Irish) and was just as much fun - yet another crayfish (Lisa took some lovely pictures). After a day's diving like that what better to do the next day but 7 DSD's - well we have to atone for our sins somehow ;o)
Kazzie, Jo and Alex are due here next week, I can only imagine the mayhem that will follow them ... needless to say I'll try to publish the less lurid of the tales!
posted by PaddyPADI at
4:43 pm
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