It was Wednesday 21 March and I was in the Greyhound.

Weathers looking good for weekend, how about a snap trip to Plymouth I cried? And yes I got 5 other takers. So off we went Friday night B&B booked with an arrangement to meet in the Thistle Park Tavern for last orders.

We all got there OK and managed to park the boat amid the chaos that is Queen Anne’s Battery in the off season.

Saturday morning found us bathed in sunlight (see the picture) with not a cloud in sight and a gentle off shore breeze while we launched the boat. Fantastic we thought until Martin’s drysuit zip gave up the ghost while I was zipping him into it – oops. Fortunately the dive shop had one that fitted so well that Martin bought it at real bargain price at the end of the weekend (no more orange suited Martin).

Off we finally went to dive one of my favourite wrecks ‘The Persier’, the vis was reasonable and the water a balmy 9 degrees, we completed the day by diving the ‘Mew Stone’ on the way back and finished our tanks on a rummage dive in the ‘Barn Pool’.

Sunday morning and the weather was a bit overcast but never the less still good for diving. We managed to locate a new site we had often seen other divers using but never dived ourselves. We called the site ‘Coffin Rock Reef’ after the shape of one of rocks on the shore, but I later found out it’s real title was ‘Hilsea Point Rocks’. This was a series of pinnacles starting at 30 metres and coming to within 6m of the surface. The dive was so good we left our anchor down and after lunch dived the area again. This will be site I’m sure we will visit again.

Back to Queen Anne’s and the sun came out while getting the boat ready for the road and a relatively easy drive home (for the M5).

So to summarise Me, Sue, John, Martin S, Nigel and Steve managed to snatch an excellent weekend away and started the UK season off well. The boat worked without a problem which must be reflection of all the hard work put in by Stuart and the rest of the team.

By Andy McKay

The disappointing start to last years diving year due to poor weather conditions was never going to re-appear this year as the start of the season saw a group of us loading our gear onto a plane and heading for the sunny climes of Cancun, Mexico.

We had researched the diving before leaving the UK and made our arrangements with Manta Divers (www.mantadivers.com) who were eager to reply to our many queries via email and offered the diving packages that suited us with transport from our hotel to the dive sites.

Our first morning, the minibus turned up and off we set on a good calm day to start our first dives in the warm Caribbean Sea. The sort of weather we had expected but not the weather that was to stay with us as the wind increased for the rest of the first week. The weather stopped the dive boats leaving the harbour but luckily it does not stop the diving we had gone all the way to Mexico for... the Cenote’s! Although the snorkel with the whale shark was an unexpected treat.

Our second day and I’m not sure exactly what we were expecting in a dive guide but it was certainly not a completely mad German guy named Leif (pronounced ‘Life’ which seemed to perfectly describe his outlandish personality!) and a Mexican guide Alex. They were excellent with clear and detailed dive briefs which only begun to describe the scenery we were going to witness in our Cenote diving.

We left the main road and turned into a track and drove to the closest part of the Cenote…. The Mayan translation is roughly ‘sink hole’ and that was about what it looked like. There are times when you ask yourself why am I here and am I really going to jump in there????  Split into 2 groups with our guides we entered the water and dutifully followed in single file as per our specific instruction (the buddy system does not work in this diving environment). The Cenote’s were amazing in their structures and the stalactites and stalagmites stood proud and some of the photographers in the group managed to achieve some fantastic shots but in truth nothing was going to do this scenery justice.  After 2 dives in ‘Chac Mool’ Cenote came a late lunch and the drinking competition. The battle between German and British was all down to the ‘dark beer in the barrel!’ After a few hours the minibus driver put a stop to our fun filled games and drove us all back to the hotel.

After a couple of days sight seeing and being general tourists we were on the phone to Manta Divers enquiring about the windy weather conditions, still no sea diving so how do you fancy another Cenote? What a silly question we jumped at the chance?  Tajma Hal Cenote proved to be as excellent if not better then Chac Mool with the crystal clear water making it look and feel as though you were suspended in mid-air. Leif’s general advice was not to remove your regulator while you could still see bubbles; all sounds obvious but when you feel like you are diving in thin air it all makes perfect sense.

The final day of the first week saw us all getting up early and catching the ferry over to Cozumel for more sea dives. The diving was good although still showing evidence of previous hurricanes, but we had been spoiled by our experiences in the Cenote’s and nothing was ever going to match up.

Half the group returned to the UK after the first week while the lucky ones among us had managed to get 2 weeks away from work and continued our Cenote diving after the others had left.

Our final Cenote ‘Dos Ojos’ was exactly what Leif had promised us ‘outstanding’ the rock formations were totally mind blowing with the water clarity nothing like any of us had ever seen before. Leif left us at our hotel promising to call us before we flew back home.

A day trip over to Les Mujeres and Alan was our perfect driver for the day in the hired golf buggy! The only way to travel on a very small island only 4.5 miles long and 0.5 miles wide.

The last few days were chilling out time and preparing for our final night out with Leif who called as promised and what a great night to end our holiday.

Many thanks to Mimi of Manta Divers, Alex our Mexican dive guide and of course Leif who added ‘life’ to our diving experience.

Written By:

Sue Bowler

February 2007