25 Nov, 2006
Chepstow again
The plan for the weekend had been to dive this Saturday out of Portland and then sample the dubious delights of the Weymouth night life. However, one look at the weather forecast revealed that was never going to happen. I've never seen a forecast that bad before. I didn't realise there was a category of sea state above "very rough". It's "high" apparently.
So as this was my last chance to get a UK dive in for the remainder of 2006, I headed off to Chepstow again. The viz wasn't too bad off towards the deep bit, but it had been pretty kicked up in other places. And it's got colder over the last couple of weeks. In the shallows it was up to 10C but it soon dropped down to 7C at depth.
So my grand total of UK dives for this year is 20. And 6 of them were in freshwater so, apart from the mine dive, don't really count. I can't remember having cancelled so many dives in any other year. I've also been away rather a lot, so I've managed 70 dives, but I'm obviously turning into a warm water wimp. Things are going to be different in 2007.
7 Nov, 2006
Welsh Silica Mines
I hadn't been in an overhead environment since my cave course in June, so it was time to rectify that. I decided to go back to the silica mines in Wales where I did my Intro Cave course. Before I start the report, I should mention that cave diving is dangerous. Open water qualified divers have this habit of dying in caves. It requires extra training and I learnt a fair bit on my cave diving courses, unlike my advanced nitrox, extended range and trimix courses where I felt like I was paying for a card to get gas. So if you do want to kill yourself, please don't do it in a cave because you might get the rest of us banned. Similarly, if you do want to throw yourself under a train, can you please not do it in rush hour as it's very inconsiderate.
That said, I think the most dangerous aspect of this dive was getting the kit there. There used to be a tramway when the mine was operational, but that's long gone, so you have to walk. It takes two trips and there's a fairly steep hill in the way and the path is rocky and slippery when it's wet. And it's Wales, so naturally it was wet.
The top level of the mine is dry, so we kitted up in the light zone and made our way to the start of the flooded levels. The water looked crystal clear, though us entering stirred it up a bit at the entrance. We reeled off to the permanent line and then followed that. Our depth was nothing spectacular. There are deeper levels, but on this trip we stuck to the second flooded level at 6m. Still, when there's solid rock above your head, it does somewhat alter things.
There wasn't an awful lot to see. Some remnants of the old underground railway and bricks. They used to use the silica to make furnace bricks. But the viz was great, somewhere in the 20m region and the water wasn't too cold at 11C on my Cochran.
It was quite a short dive at 40ish minutes for such a lot of effort. But it was worth it and I'd like to get back there and go down to some of the lower levels. Plus it was good practice being back in an overhead environment again.
The following day, I even did a dive in Chepstow NDAC. That's twice in one year. Something's definitely wrong. Sadly the viz there was nowhere near as good.