Here it is, our rainy day “Doing It …” report for May, and oh boy was it a rainy day this time, at Vivian. Yes you heard it right, Vivian, not Trefor Pier as planned.

Unfortunately due to the heavens and tides working against us we had to push back; re-locate and pretty much bugger around with this months planned “Doing It …” club dive to Trefor Pier twice, and eventually move inland to Vivian.

With our original 2^nd Sunday of the Month “Doing It …” club dive being pushed back by a week, we were now underway. So 7 days and 2 ½ hours late we headed towards our intended location of Trefor Pier. It was an early start at around 4.30 am from Cannock, but as I drove down the coast road with Trefor pier insight, things looked spot on. The sun was out and the sea was flat calm, hooray perfect I thought.

Some 30 mins later I arrived on site and parked up, it was around 8am and the “Doing It …” gang were due to arrive around 9am. With an hour to kill it was time for a walk along the pier we would be diving on or around later. It was then that the horror of a brown muddy sea hit me (well splashed me !), this shouldn’t be I thought its sunny and the sea flat is as a pancake but no, it resembled a large muddy brown puddle.

It was just then that the first of the “Doing It …” gang started to arrive with big smiles on their faces. Unfortunately I then had the task of telling them that all was not well. At 9am everyone had arrived and was aware of the situation, but in true Scuba + Outdoor fashion we thought on our feet (or rather fins) and came up with a great back up plan.

We would wait 1 hour, for the tide to come in and see if conditions improved, and then failing that we would make the short journey back inland to Vivian Quarry for our diving day. So as the tide came in the smell of bacon cooking on the collective barbecues grew ever stronger, but 10 am arrived and the conditions were still deemed unsafe to dive. Oh well, that’s UK sea diving for you, sometimes good; sometimes great, and sometimes just a good place to eat your sarnie next to.

With an Rubber Ducky style Convoy ‘mass exit’ in single file from Trefor, we all made the short journey to Llanberis where Vivian Quarry is situated. With every one checked in and registered at the dive centre I delivered the site and dive brief, trooped through the slate arch-way that leads to the very picturesque dive site.

All Buddy Checks done and one giant stride later, and the “Doing It …” gang were in the crystal clear water. The quarry is quite small in size and can easily be
circumnavigated in one dive. On the first dive we visited the Gnome Garden, which is situated on top of an old blast house and a couple of old wrecks (wouldn't be a quarry dive with out a few wrecks). Some 60 minutes later and everyone was out on there surface interval enjoying the sunshine. The general chit chat was focused around how unlucky we had been with regards to not getting in the sea, but on the other had how lucky we were to have a great little quarry just down the road to get wet.

Talking of getting wet surface interval over and it was time for another dive, so with cylinders full we checked in with our surface cover and we were ready to go.

On the second dive most of the group swam around the edge of the quarry walls exploring sheer slate walls and with sun now over head this made for some spectacular viewing. There were however a few stranger sights around the middle part of the quarry, including a Hoover, Microwave, Skull and a full sized Shop Manikin – complete with Blonde Wig and Ladies Underwear. Now that sounds like all the right ingredients for a great party !!!

With that, our day was done, two dives completed all be it not in salt water but two dives non the less. The most important thing of course was that everyone had a good time all the same, and hey next month we’ve remembered to order some good weather !