After six weeks away from the water for various reasons, it was nice to get away again to visit Stoney. I also had the added bonus of having my drysuit back from being repaired so I wasn't too fussed about diving in this freezing weather. Anyway..... despite not having the camera with me for this outing, here follows the chronological events of the weekend :
4am. - Wake up and try to scrape a huge amount of ice off the car
5am. - Eventually set off in a series of bunny-hops down the road
5.10am. - Pick up a frozen hitch-hiker who was trying to walk 10 miles home in freezing conditions with only a suit and tie for warmth. Gave him a lift to Wooton - U - Edge
6.20am. - Met Darren and Lou at Hopwood Park Services on the M42. Roy called to say he was running a bit late and would not be meeting up for breakfast.
6.40am - Watched Lou drive onto the M40 rather than the M42
7.15am - Arrived at Stoney and met up with Roy
7.35am - Eventually joined by Lou and Darren after their detour
The weather was cold and it was still too dark on arrival to do any diving. We just hung around for an hour and a half while we waited for daylight. Fortunately, we all had spaces in the lower car-park which saved having to lug all the kit long-distance. Eventually, the time arose to kit up. I donned the newly-repaired drysuit and decided to do a quick test on the slipway. The immediate response is too obscene for these pages as there was a further hole in the suit that had escaped Daves/Gates' 'Pressure-test' !!! The water just flooded in and it was damn cold as well !!! The choice now remained to stay out of the water or to rent a semi from the Stoney Cove shop...... I chose the latter.
Lou remained out of the water for Darren's first two OW dives. With my rented semi-dry, I accompanied him and Roy onto the 7m shelf. The water was not too bad (only 8C) and the visibility was in excess of 10m which is probably the best that I have seen. Because of the temperature, these two dives were done with as little surface-time in between as possible as we would have frozen. (Apart from Roy who was trying out his new Gates Pro VSN and bright yellow 'Puffer Jacket' undersuit). It still didn't stop us from shivering like sods when we came out.
Big surprise of the day was when Jen arrived. Having not seen her for 3 months, she had turned up to finish her final 2 OW dives that were postponed from June due to boat-failure. While Darren and I continued to regain valuable body-heat, Roy and Jen and Lou hit the water.
After Jen had completed the OW course, it was time for Lou and I to resume our wreck-speciality. Roy had given me the task of U/W navigating to the 'Stanegarth'. Having set sights on the buoy, it was a simple task..... not !! We missed it completely and ended up at the far wall of the quarry ! (More about this later!) After a wreck-less round-circuit, we had run low on air and had to call it a day !
Lou disappeared as she had a Christmas party to go to back in Bristol which left four of us to decided whether to stay in the area of call it a day and go home. After a couple of pints in the Stoney-Cove pub, Roy gave us a bit of bad news in that his sister had been in a car-crash and he was awaiting further news from the family/hospital. The evening went ahead, pending further news that would determine whether he stayed or went.
Darren had warned me that he would talk complete crap after a couple of pints..... he was not wrong and managed to continue for at least an hour in a pub we had stopped at so Roy could use the phone.
We were desperate to find somewhere to sleep before we went out foraging for food. Roy remembered this place called 'The Gables' just off the M69 on the A5. After pulling in and banging on the front-door, the landlady emerged and pointed out that she had stopped doing B&B a year ago !!! Anyway, Roy's charm and persuasion got us a bed for the night........ on for some food !!!
After blagging the neighbouring garage's cashpoint, Jen was able to buy a round which she duly did at the local (have you ever been here before?) Harvester. After a couple of beers and JD's and Cokes !!, we had a bit of food, a bit of waitress-harassment and then on to the local pub.
Roy was straight to the pool-table with Darren to join in the 'winner-stays-on' competition. We all had a go and found that closing-time crept up rather too quickly, forcing us back to the B&B. With a grudgingly-agreed 6am alarm-call, we all retired for the night.
4am - Roy's snoring vibrates the foundations !
6am - Darren, Jen and me are awake
6.25am - Roy eventually gets up
The fog was all over Stoney and we couldn't even see the water. Jen and me drank a couple of cups of coffee while we waited for Roy and Darren to finish his OW course. Unfortunately, Lou was unable to make it back to resume the wreck course due to an ear-problem so we moreorless had the day to do 'free-diving'. We were then joined by Pete from 'Feet First Scuba' who was waiting for his crew to show up. Eventually, the 'frog logo'd' van showed up and Pete got a set of gear to join Jen and me on a dive. Despite two sets of regs. that had frozen up on me, we got in the water at around 11:30. The plan was to surface-swim to the marker buoy above the 'Stangarth', descend and then swim back U/W after having bimbled around it. As this was Jen's first 'free' dive, it was nice to be able to get something right for a change and actually find the ship !!! Having toured around it for 15 mins, we hit on the Commer Van and the Viscount en route back to the quay. The visibility was very good. Here is the profile of Jen's first 'free' dive.....
On surfacing, it was , once again, very cold for semi-drys and we called it a day. We stopped at the pub for a swiftie and then headed for home.
There are many innuendoes that crept up during the weekend, especially where 'Going down on.......' or 'Penetrating ........' but the main thought that ran through my head more than once was 'Bloody Gerbils!!!'