View from Sandycove
I know that we say that we normally dive on a Thursday evening and Sunday morning, but hey, the weather has been so predictably bad since the end of April that we have, on the odd occasion, just followed the weather. We have a new Guru – windguru – and the site informed all in sundry that the wind would drop off on Sunday at 7.05pm (yes, it was that specific).
Ten gathered at Dun Laoghaire Coal Harbour at 6.30pm and we were a mixed bunch. From our gender balance and age range, we could have been mistaken for a family get-together on any given warm Sunday evening. With only a few sailors coming and going in the harbour, we departed shore on our adventures.
Our first dive site was at the SW corner of Dalkey Island, where half of our group dived. Each diver was achieving something; two chalked-up another dive towards doing their Club Diver (Diver**) certification; one in full flow preparing for his Leading Diver (Diver***); one getting in his first dive of the season (now that exams are all over); while another was just happy to do another dive to distract from the hectic lifestyle brought on by a young family and a new job. The stories back were the expected reports of diverse flora and fauna. Although the visibility was only about 2 metres, there were smiles all round.
View of Dalkey Island from Coliemore harbour
As with the wind (which had backed off considerably about 25 minutes earlier than expected – but we can live with that), the High Water (Neap Tide) also fell perfectly slack to schedule a specific dive for the second shift of divers. We headed straight for the site of the wreck of the Guide Me II about 1.5km SE off Dalkey Island and the Muglins. The story of this small ship is for another time, but in the almost calm conditions, we were soon in the water on the way down the shot-line to the wreck sitting upright in 38 metres. The line is secured around the empty gun-mount near the bow. The visibility was about 5 metres and once eyes have adjusted to the darker conditions, torches are required only to enjoy the detail of the orange and white anemone literally covering the hull or the several crustaceans (especially lobsters) that have made chez GMII their permanent residence. The fish life was predominantly young Codling shoaling near the remnants of the wheelhouse and a few Butterfish on the deck. After appropriate decompression stops are made, there were more smiling faces post dive as we headed for Dun Laoghaire to fill cylinders and leave the place as we found it.
While passing the Muglins, someone recalled the story of the two mutineers whose bodies were left hanging on makeshift gallows at that location around the end of the 1700’s. But that story is also for another time…..
Peter Brady
29th July 2011