Sheephaven SAC dived Pan Rock in Mulroy Bay’s Broadwater on Saturday morning for the first time in a quite a while, when the wintery weather kept the club divers from going out to sea.

With snow on the mountains and air temperature down to 1 degree Celsius it was not surprising that in-water temperature was also well down, now at 8 degrees Celsius.

In-water visibility was also quite poor, particularly in the upper reaches of the water column where it was down to less than a metre, a product of the run off from the recent extensive gales and storms.

The main purpose of Saturdays’ dive was to conduct as a 30 metre trainee dive, one of 3 that each trainee diver must conduct before they can be examined for the Club Diver grade.

Maximum surface to surface was 30 minutes, conducted as a two stick dive led by Simon Henderson.

Sheephaven divers were back at Pan Rock on Sunday morning for the second 30 metre trainee dive of the weekend.

In contrast to the heavy weather that had been experienced over the last few weeks we had really beautiful weather Sunday morning, with clear skies and no wind.

Anne Boyle kindly provided dry coxswain duties and consequently the dive was conducted in one stick, considerably shortening the morning as a result.

Maximum surface to surface time was up to 40 minutes, with in-water temperatures of 10 degrees Celsius at 25 metres was much warmer that in the upper layers, which was as low as
8 degrees Celsius yesterday.

This site has the benefit of a vibrant and interesting ecosystem, which on Sunday included the observation of a range of crab species, a Long Spined Scorpion Fish, Dog Fish and a very well camouflaged TopKnot.

It was a great mornings diving on a site that makes Sheephaven SAC diving unique during a
period of wintery weather.