November Stoney Cove Dive Trip

Tuesday

On the day before D-Day, I decided to book it off and have a lazy day at home. It wasn't as lazy as I would have liked because it was frantic packing of the car. A quick break for lunch, and netflix and chill with the missus before having to leave.


On the way I stopped at my brother in laws, in Leyland, for dinner before continuing on for another few hours to get to the Red Lion where I was staying.




Arriving at the pub I met a bar maid who showed me to my room so I could get unpacked and on the Wi-Fi to start writing this blog! Oh yeah and to call the missus to have a chat

Wednesday

Waking up at 730, but with plenty of snoozing until 745 where I eventually got vertical and went to the Cooperative to find something for breakfast. In the end I had bread with peanut butter, spread using spoons that I had to buy from the shop too
Arriving at Stoney Cove for 830, I just sat in the queue and waited and scoffed some more ... I was going to say toast but that wouldn't be right!

Ah the Stoney Queue!

I parked up near a post and started to set up my gear and took a mandatory kit photo.  The weather right now is lovely, almost as though Storm Barney has blown itself out.

Gear shot ...

Rob eventually arrives at about 9 with Chong and we continue to get ready while we wait for Chris to arrive. Chris arrives for about 930 with several friends: Lesley and Charlotte.  I did a double take because that's my partners name!


We get kitted up and get in for dive #1.


For the first dive, my objective is to do a robust weight check.  I've moved most of the weight I use onto a weight belt (with the exception of 2kg as a tail weight). So that I am able to remove it and be selective picking up any weight if I need to.


Entering the water at the main quay, we assemble on the shelf at 3m. We are diving together as two groups of three: Chris, Charlotte and Lesley are leading whilst Rob, Chong and I follow. Rob is #1 in our team, this way he's a connection to the front team and with his primary light, will be able to communicate back to me in #3, meanwhile Chong is in #2 sandwhiched between us.


We saw several large Pike in the reeds and along the wall as we swam!


We went all the way to the far-right hand side which is always nice and peaceful and has good visibility.




On the way back I had Chong and Rob wait for me on the 6m shelf. Now it was time to do a weight check.  So I lay on my back on the ground and undid my weight belt, which had 6kg on it, before I let it go I did one last dump of any gas in the wing and suit - and I let go with anticipation ... I stayed exactly where I was! I was comfortably neutral. Woo hoo!




The thing is - my set isn't empty there is still around 4-5kg of weight just in the gas left in the twinset (as a very approximate guess, 1,000 litres (approx 40 bar in twin-12s) weighs 1.2kg. With 160 bar left that means there is arround 5kg of gas in the cylinders, THAT means if I was empty and out of gas, I'd need 5kg of lead to counteract that.




So despite taking a 6kg weight belt off and being neutral, I realistically still need about 5-7kg to be neutral.




Getting out of the water, I realise how bad I'm leaking - my undersuit is soaking!! So I strip out of my suit and leave the drysuit turned out of the railings, whilst I take the undersuit to the changing rooms and leave it on the radiator to start drying out - meanwhile I change into my Santi BZ400.

We did two more dives after each dive I would get out of my suit and rotate undersuits to try and stick with a dry undersuit (as best as I could) At the end of the night, we retired to Nemo's Bar to have dinner. I was a little cheeky and had a hot chocolate with a dash of rum in it - oh it was lovely! Warmed the cockles right up!

Sunset across the Cove

Returning back to the B&B after some drinks and food with the guys (and lady - Charlotte) I got my undersuits hung up to start drying out.

The result of a (very) leaky suit - lots of very wet gear!

Thursday

Returning to the north was a long tedious day once again. I left the hotel for about 9am, thinking that the vast majority of morning rush hour traffic would have dissipated.

The miles flew by and by the time I started to get into the heart of the proper land (the North-West) both the car and I needed a fill up.

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I was chuffed when I stopped at some services just north of Preston and I found a Potato and Meat Pie!! You literally cannot get them outside the North-West, believe me, in my years of living around the country they are rare!!

Keep on rollin'

Back in the right country to my destination!

Malta 2015 Holiday - Day 11

Final day, boo!! We had done a fair bit of cleaning yesterday so today was fairly laid back, Oliver came to sort out the apartment and the taxi came for us (early for once!) and off to the airport we went. Sods law it was a gorgeous day too!

Check in was painless, both bags were a good few kg under limit, going through security was almost comical because as expected my bag for pulled aside, the officer then moved my hoody out the way, saw the birds nest of hoses, regulators and my harness and just said "yeah OK".

Heading into the terminal, we got hooked onto the Wi-Fi and had lunch of sandwiches. The gate for our flight was quickly announced so we headed over.

Charlotte then started getting replies to her initial wedding enquiries, ekk!

Another holiday done, seemingly disappearing in the blink of an eye!!

Coming home, naturally the weather is gorgeous in Malta, but the weather back home .. well... that leaves something to be desired! (see below)

Good ol' UK weather!

Malta 2015 Holiday - Day 10

Today we basically did nothing, until the evening where we went out to Sardinella for dinner. For starter I had chicken with liver pasta which was delicious! I then had duck breast for my main, again delicious and a massive portion.

We skipped dessert (for now) and walked up towards Paceville with the intention of having a foot massage by fish! In the end Wendy didn't feel up for it so we didn't bother, but we did go to the Gelato shop that Rob had eaten at so often and had some fantastic ice cream! I had chocolate with Madagascar Vanilla, Charlotte had chocolate with White Chocolate.

We then walked back to the apartment slowly.

Malta 2015 Holiday - Day 9

I'm getting used to waking up without the alarm now, waking up at 8am when going to bed by 9ish! 

We decided to catch the bus to Sliema to book the Gozo cruise again, but once we arrive at St Paul's Bay we see that the sea is turbulent with big swells. We even saw that a boat had sunk in the relatively sheltered Bay!

Even if the weather was going to be nice tomorrow, the sea wouldn't be, so we decided that the Gozo cruise was a no-go and stayed on the bus to Valletta.

Arriving in Valletta, the ladies purchased a pizza slice for breakfast and I had an Almond Magnum. Catching the 91 we went to Marksacala.

A lovely bay

We walked around the bay where we saw how rough the seas were and decided to give it a miss!

Heading back around the bay we then caught the X5 towards Valletta, although we got off at the airport, and swapped to the X2 to take us directly to St Julian's.

Enjoying the sporadic nice weather

We ate dinner at Huggins and I tried a White Russian, which was surprisingly delicious!

Yummy white Russian

Malta 2015 Holiday - Day 8

A relaxing day spent doing very little. Mid morning we headed out to our local corner shop to stock up on staples and nibbles to eat. The day was then squandered sunbathing, watching TV and discussing wedding ideas.

Sunbathing