Capernwray birthday dive

Well it seems like an age since Costa Rica, so this week I dusted off my drysuit and headed to Capernwray on the edge of the Lake District to celebrate my sister-in-law's birthday. The sun was out, the viz was amazing and the water was....... freezing!

I've never dived at Capernwray before, but found the whole site far less daunting than Stoney Cove. The water was a gorgeous blue, the 'tame' trout swim right up to your mask to stare you in the eyes, and the wrecks and attractions on the bottom certainly keep your interest up.

Despite wanting to divest myself of lots of cash in the shop, I was disappointingly hauled out by my brother (who has certainly become his father's son LOL) clutching only a £2 hose clip!

Managed three dives - but by the end of dive three my brain felt like sorbet and my fingers like frozen sausage. A long surface swim home from the gnome garden at the other end of the quarry nearly finished me off (guess who didn't put extra wight on to compensate for adding a thicker undersuit, and who couldn't stay down at 3m when down to 50bar?).

Having totally forgotten how much all the kit weighs, and how I haven't made any attempt to lose the 'christmas pudding' and holiday excesses yet, the biggest shock of the day wasn't actually the 5 degrees C water but the treck from the car to the slipway carrying 10 kilos, a tank and the rest of the gubbins. I needed a 5 minute float about to get my breath back! Shameful.

That said, would I do it all again tomorrow? You bet I would.... oh and I logged my 25th dive :-)

PS - anyone ever fancied free diving? Me neither, but there were some interesting sights by the way of camouflage 'skin' suits and over the top (super hero style) briefs, topped off with 'dolphin' shaped fins!! Utterly bonkers but fascinating.....

Hall of fame

Good to see I've made the 'congratulations roll call' on the wonderful Diving Unlimited's website for people passing last year's PADI courses; for me that was Open Water, Advanced Open Water, Dry Suit and Nitrox...... http://www.divingunlimited.co.uk/congrats.asp.

It has prompted me to think about picking up some specialities this year and aiming for Master Scuba Diver by 2012.

Does my bum look big in this?

Well, two weeks back in Blighty and my thoughts are turning to when we can next dive.... which means the inevitable cold quarry! Not many manta rays in there I wouldn't have thought.

Anyway, in December my brother and sister-in-law ruthlessly and successfully bid for a Northern Diver drysuit and accessories on eBay that looked like a pretty good fit for my build and height.... and it is, if a little on the 'snug' side!

So, with a date in February in the diary to test it out at Stoney Cove, I've decided to embark on a new diet... not Atkins, not GI, not celebrity fad, but the 'dry suit diet', which likely entails keeping my sticky mitts out of the cookie jar at home and swapping pints of cider for a vodka and slimline in the pub!! LOL

I'll let you know how it goes, and if it works, there may follow a DVD and diet plan..... "Loose the snork to scuba"...... "From dumpy to diver".... or some other forgettable catchphrase...

Costa Rica final day: Catalina Islands

Well, what can I saw about the final day's diving for me? We went out with Bobby Jo, the owner of Diving Safaris in Playa Hermosa, and re-dived The Point and The Wall. There were no exciting incidents this time, apart from me having a little trouble getting my weight right in the school BCD and with a weight belt, and the visibility was very poor with very, very strong surge and currents. Two half hour dives that were cut quite short due to the conditions, and left me feeling a bit sad that that was the end of my diving for the holiday, later, and we headed back to Playa Hermosa on the boat, packing up our kit as we went.....

.... and then I had the most amazing experience of my life. Literally hundreds and hundreds of devil rays (mobula rays, a relation of the eagle ray) that look just like mini-manta rays and breach, or jump, out of the water, twisting onto their backs and landing with a satisfying "splash" in the ocean. They were feeding on the plancton that had caused such poor visibility, circling round and round by the boat, their wing tips sticking out of the water as if hundreds of teeny sharks were circling prey....

Bobby Jo was the first to throw on her snorkel and fins, followed by us when we were assured it was safe to snorkel, and it was just like being in the midst of a 'brought to life' National Geographic picture!

As we floated about at the surface marveling at these amazing creatures, another pair of humpback whales breached on the other side of the boat. Our screams of delight must have been heard in Nicaragua!!

An unbelievable end to an unbelievable first ocean dive experience.......

Costa Rica day five: Palmares and Virador

My fifth day diving in Costa Rica sees us head out to one new and one familiar dive site: Palmares Island and Virador, just off the coast of Playa del Coco.

Unfortunately, the first dive to Palmares was cut short to around 27 minutes because my octopus was free flowing in its holder on descent and I didn't notice until I was down to 150 bar in five minutes. I had a new buddy, a Canadian diver - who was a very nice chap but who was so intent on taking photographs with his very expensive camera kit that he steadied himself on my regulator hose to take a photo (cheers), kicked me in the head with his fins (ouch), and generally caused my heart rate to speed up as he disappeared into the low vis gloom in a different direction to us once too often.... I felt some responsibility in sticking near him as his buddy, but the current was pretty strong in areas and at the point he drifted past me and shoved me out of the way to take a photo of some creature or other (yet again) I pretty much gave up and left his welfare to the DM.

I got back to the boat feeling pretty down - having discovered it's no fun diving with a total stranger who apparently cares only about their own dive experience - only to see the magic of a mother humpback whale and her baby from the boat, surfacing for air. We'd hoped we would see whales while we were there, but none of us could contain ourselves when we spotted the pair and we spent a happy half hour just taking in this amazing pair.

The second dive saw us back at Virador - and me diving with my SIL again, having handed the Canadian over to my brother under the guise of him helping with the camera - and the visibility dramitacally improved on the other side of the reef.We drifted out over a ledge onto a sandbank at one point and saw two sleeping stingrays, lazily dwelling on the bottom; one flicking a casual eye up at us as we hovered above him to take photographs.

Costa Rica day four: Catalina Islands

We all wake up really excited today to be taking the smaller, faster boat out to Catalina Islands, where word has it that the last divers out here the day before saw huge manta rays and humpback whales.

Again, it's just the three of us and the divemaster Rafa, with Louis captaining the boat and helping to set up the gear (hopefully this time securing the tanks a little better and checking the o-rings before he puts the regulator first stage on!).

This is what I've been nervous about, a deeper dive with an unreferenced ascent at The Point, but I'm fine. The visibility is much clearer today, although the strong currents and surge make swimming quite difficult. And suddenly there it is! Everyone is rattling anything they can to get everyone's attention.... manta rays. Not just one but three or four of them. Amazing. Despite this I can't help but get over excited at a little school of Moorish Idols..... well he is Nemo's best buddy!!

The second dive takes us to The Wall, where we descend quickly to 10 metres and get caught in fairly strong surge, another diving first for me!

Visibility is good and we are delighted to see between five and six massive manta rays, smaller stingrays and a pod of devil rays above us, swimming in formation just like birds in the sky!

Of course, my diving experiences are becoming nothing if not eventful, and I surface after this dive to discover that the rubber inflator hose to my BCD has split wide open and I can't get any air into my BCD! Not that this would be an issue, but Mi Reina Grace, the dive boat, can just be seen disappearing around the back of the islands, clearly assuming the currents would bring us up on the other side.... oh bugger!

Treading water with my regulator in, as the surface is too choppy for my snorkel, works for about five minutes and then I admit to feeling ever so slightly panicky. My brother suddenly suggests losing some weight (now's not the time to tell me I'm fat I think indignantly... LOL) but Rafa happily takes my weight pockets. Still no boat.

We use our whistles and I wave at a distant boat, and soon enough another dive boat is plucking me and my SIL out of the water... where we come face to face with six people who'd been on our plane and are in our hotel! How embarrassing. As soon as they see what's happened to my BCD and that we aren't in any real trouble it's all laughs and encouragement, and one of the guys even offers to send me a new one when I get home. Nice one.

Costa rica day three: Argentina point

Back to Tortuga on the fifth dive so far; starfish, trumpet fish, popeye fish and stingray. Just gorgeous and the photographs speak for themselves.

The second dive of the day takes in Argentina point, where a choppy surface swim takes us over to another boat's anchor line for a desecnt down to about 1o metres, where we explore the reef. Visibility is much improved here - it changes hour to hour and site to site - and here we are rewarded with three stingrays in a group and a large spotted eagle ray.

There's only the three of us today so I buddied the Costa Rican divemaster Rafa; the whole dive became a master class in buoyancy skills as I attempt to keep up with him as he swims over the reef peering into all the nooks and crannies for moray eels, octopus and scorpion fish. But I've only got eyes for the eagle rays today. Absolutely beautiful.

Costa Rica day two: Monkey's Head and Virador

Monkey's Head is a really picturesque volcanic rock, that when approached side on looks like a gorilla's face. It's rated as an 'easy' dive site, and it's fairly shallow with our deepest depth getting to just 15 metres. This shallow and there is plenty of life to see; pacific box fish, freckled porcupine fish, huge schools of golden jacks; moray eels and another octopus.

Currents are reasonably strong and now not expecting a dive to go without incident, I get my first jellyfish sting! Bit like brushing against nettles.

This is the first time I've ascended and descended though open water, and attempted a safety stop without any reference point or line, and I'm desperate to get it right, as my going to the more advanced site of Catalina Islands, where all the big stuff hangs out, likely depends on my performance here. My new Suunto Zoop computer makes a huge difference and I manage it fine... yeay!!

The second dive is at Virador, a low-lying volcanic island that again is home to an abundance of reef life. There's a shark cave at about 10 metres... gulp.... although our guide assures us it's only white tip reef sharks that hang out here. You have to go way out to Bats Island to run into the native bull sharks!

The first ascent was aborted as my brother's tank started free flowing at around 5 metres - who's putting the equipment together, and am I just a dive jonah? LOL - and as the currents were quite strong, we surfaced miles away from where we had descended just 3 minutes ago! The boat had to pick us up, change the tank and quickly drop us off at the entry point again to try another time.

This dive was awesome - I technically did my first drift dive I guess and averaged about 20 metres. Saw loads of stingrays gracefully flying past and 38 minutes seemed like 38 seconds.

Costa Rica day one: Surprise and Tortuga

Well, it's finally arrived and after a fantastic Christmas and early birthday that saw me frantically repacking to fit all the new gear I'd received off my gorgeous hubby and lovely family (sparkling new regulators and carry case, a Suunto Zoop computer and a Seaquest Diva BCD) we set off to Gatwick airport on 28th December for a 12 hour flight to Costa Rica....

After a day by the pool to get over the jet lag we are collected from the hotel at some ungodly hour in the morning by the lovely Nico from Diving Safaris and driven to Playa Hermosa to the shop... not so eager are the four other divers we are supposed to collect on the way, who apparently decide to stay in bed with a hangover!

At the shop I'm feeling pretty scared - although I wouldn't admit it to my brother and sister-in-law - but also pretty excited. It's going to be a day of 'firsts' - first dive without an instuctor there to hold my hand; first dive with my own kit; first dive off a boat; first dive in the ocean; first dive with my inspirational 'divemaster in training' brother (that's him up top there)....

A few forms later and we get onto the boat. We're diving today at a site called 'Surprise' with one of Diving Safari's instructors, Canadian Tracy (easy to remember) and one of her Open Water students who just certified. Trying to at least look confident I get kitted up and launch myself off the boat into the water with a backwards roll I'm hoping looks slightly more classy than the one my sister-in-law has just done.... Oooops! I always find it works better when you put air in your BCD!! How could I forget that?!

I eventually surface to a slightly worried looking buddy - my SIL - who roars with laughter when I explain what took me! At least it washes my nerves away. The dive goes in a flash and I'm delighted to find that I do OK, I love it down there, my buoyancy control is fine and that when I remember to take in what I'm seeing (although the visibility is pretty poor) I'm gobsmacked with wonder at the beautiful reef life down there; moray eels, puffa fish and an octopus.

I'm a bit cold in my 5mm when we swim through the thermoclines, and I run a little low on air, surfacing when I get to 50bar, giving me enough for a safety stop.

Back on the boat for the surface interval I have another 'embarrassing incident' when I discover that I am in fact sea sick, as the pineapple I've just scoffed reappeared almost as quickly as it went down, to shouts of "FISH FOOD" from the captain and a knowing look from my sister-in-law, who, it turns out, takes quells to stop the very same happening but didn't think to offer me one before we set out! LOL

The second dive of the day takes us to Tortuga where we descend down the anchor line to do a little wreck diving. This time we see a stingray, despite visibility being almost an arm stretch in areas! I'm buddying my SIL and am mortified to see that her tank has come completely loose and has slipped out of its holding in her BCD! Not good, but with a bit of rearrangement we get it back in place and off we go. Nothing like some little 'incidents' to liven up a dive eh?!

The end of the season, and I achieved what I set out to

It's taken me a few days to get around to blogging about the diving last weekend. I was back at Stoney Cove to do my advanced open water, dry suit and nitrox specialities. That meant five dives (all in a dry suit), one of which was deep, one navigation and the other nitrox (although we actually dived two on nitrox)....

Saturday's dive one was a disaaaaassssster dahhhhhrling! (anyone watch Strictly?).... despite 8k on my belt and 2k on each ankle, and an initial weight check that seemed fine I really struggled to get down. Once down there, I was all over the place. I did a passable fin pivot and hover but the rest of the dive saw me up and down like a yo-yo. I couldn't get the hang of the shoulder dump, which wasn't venting automatically as well as it could have, and it was almost a relief to surface.

Once at surface the scuba unit removal went ok, but the weight belt removal (my favourite.... not) went only marginally better than during the open water. I passed becouse my technique was spot on, but once again the weights slipped along the belt making it impossible to get the thing redone up.

I almost gave up there and then, but the instructors were so supportive and when it came to the second dive of the day I took all their advice in, used air in the dry suit to prevent squeeze and modified my buoyancy slightly with the BCD. And I put some extra weight on. Success!! It was fantastic, and I managed to almost look like a real diver! LOL

The third dive of the day saw three very cold students (one fell out due to mild hypothermia) - and in my case, one student with feet as wet as an otter's pocket - get back in for the navigation dive. I'd been diligently practising my square in the car park with right hand turns, and the buggers made me do left hand turns under water! I'm sure it was more luck than judgement that I got back to where I started, and I spent the rest of the dive practising fin pivots while waiting for the others to do their bit.

After a great curry and final adventure playground assault course at the pub, I headed to bed shattered but looking forward to getting Sunday out of the way.

Sunday morning arrived cold and damp. There were definitely moments of "what am I doing here?" as we kitted up, but I'd looked forward to the deep dive for ages and I wasn't disappointed! We took a nice swim down to 25 metres, and the only issue was sitting on my knees doing the tasks in the cold for so long (I was just getting twinges of cramp when we set off again). But it was fascinating to see the loss of colour from the charts, the affects of the cold and depth on the timed task, the water bottle trick and the cracked egg.

After a safety stop we surfaced, and that's when it all got a bit distressing. The rescue boat was out to a diver who had got into trouble by the far side of the lake, and police and emergency services (including an air ambulance were swiftly at the scene). They were doing CPR for 90 minutes, and to be honest it looked pretty serious. I still don't know the outcome, but my thoughts and prayers are still with that diver and their family today.

With one dive left to do, it was with some trepidation that me and my buddy went back in for the nitrox dive. But once in I was so glad I'd overcome that nagging doubt about going back in. Yes I was cold. Yes I was wet (despite some last minute repairs, the dry suit was still leaking at the boots) and yes I was tired after the surface swim to the buoy. But descending down the line was so much less stressful with a computer to track the depth we were at. By this time there was just the two of us, as the other two students didn't make the descent.

A familiar swim around the Staingarth, and then we headed out to Defiant, the sunken tug boat, before finding our way in the dark and poor vis to the Wessex (awesome DM and his navigation skills!). We kept swimming and before I knew it we popped up at the surface right by the slipway!

It's been an awesome couple of months - and I am sad it's the end of the season. But I've got Costa Rica next month, where I will finally be able to write something other than "Location: Stoney Cove" in my logbook, and I'm already thinking about the courses and trips I can do next year...

Just one note to self, might need a second job to help pay for it all! Hope you've enjoyed following my journey so far.

:-)

Getting ready to bump into Nessie again

Off up to Stoney Cove again tonight for the advanced open water course - that's me at the back with Nessie last time - although I much prefer to think of it as 'adventure diving with the minimal skills I currently possess'!

Just as last time, I'm feeling pretty nervous about the whole thing as it has only been four weeks since the open water course, and I've only had the one pool session in a dry suit since then! Got three new diving buddies on the course this weekend and they are all more experienced than me I think, so I'm hoping that I will be able to keep up with everyone and manage the dives successfully.

Some big pluses this weekend are that it's not all totally new to me, that I don't have to do mask clearance or removal in the freezing water and that I'm diving in a (hopefully) dry suit and on enriched air nitrox, having passed the test with 84% the other night (although the calculations and table use need some refining!).

On the plus side, if I manage the deep dive without it all going pear shaped and I don't end up with a suit full of air at the surface hanging by my feet after a rapid uncontrolled ascent, I'm all set for the deeper dives in Costa Rica next month, where it will be blue, and warm and clear and fun!!!

This I fear will be my mantra this weekend whenever it seems a bit too cold, wet and miserable for me......"Costa Rica, Costa Rica, Costa Rica...."

Adios and I'll let you know how I get on when I get back!

Dry suit diving has its drawbacks

Saturday night saw me in the pool practising dry suit skills in preparation for the advanced open water course this weekend. It all started quite well, until the buddy check when I realised at "W" that I'd kitted up minus my weight belt! Doh!

Once in the water things started pretty good - the fin pivot and hover went well but my low pressure inflator hose would not come off the suit. I tried. The instructor tried. The DM tried. Moving on to the next skill - filling me up with air and trying to right myself before the surface - it became apparent that the suit wasn't getting any air in, and I kept landing on my back at the bottom of the pool!

Quick surface and it became clear it was locked halfway on, halfway off. Without thinking, the instructor asked me to take my BCD off at surface and get that skill out of the way, so I undid all the releases and slipped one arm out, and immediately hit on a snag..... a still attached inflator hose! LOL

Eventually after much pushing and pulling - leaving me with a fair few pinch marks on my chest - the DM freed the hose and it worked like a dream from then on in. I spent the rest of the session practising buoyancy and fin strokes and came out a little less stressed about diving Stoney Cove in a dry suit than I was in the moments before I went in!

Totally inspiring!

Ignoring the American language around disability, this film is so inspiring. I've been twitchy and nervous about doing my dry suit course this week and this has put it all into perspective for me. Who cares if my buoyancy isn't perfect first time? Who cares if I screw up every now and then - I'm still a beginner! These guys are awesome:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/40005787#40005787

Adventure dives - next up dry suit

I'm somewhat relieved to discover that I'm not the only learner diver to struggle with buoyancy, as my brother – who is training for his Divemaster and headed to Stoney Cove this weekend with a group of open water students – is finding that their current crop, by all accounts, have not quite mastered the art of BCD control!

This has been weighing on my mind since being seduced into taking the advanced open water course, with the prospect of taking the dry suit course in order to do it without freezing to death! I've been reading the section on dry suits in preparation for next week's knowledge review and am somewhat amused to find that I might have to screw myself into a ball, while launching into a backwards roll (or was it forwards?)... either way I'd pay good money to be able to see myself do that little trick! :-)

Alternatively, I might have a suit malfunction and blow up like Mr Staypuft while hurtling to the surface, or my boots might fill with air forcing me into an upside down position........................ Yea gads, what on earth have I signed up for?

I'm in the club!

Dropped my kit back to Diving Unlimited (www.divingunlimited.co.uk) last night and picked up my temporary PADI card, as there have been some rumblings about going to Capernwray in a few weeks time to get some practise in before going to Costa Rica. While there I became a club member, which means I can get some pool sessions in before the end of the year and hopefully try to get a grip on buoyancy control!

It's really tempting to dive straight in to the advanced open water course, but I'm just not 100% sure I'm ready yet....

Shopping!

It's a slow day at work and I've found myself online looking at all the lovely scuba equipment I can add to my letter to Santa this year (only 58 days, 9 hours and 45 mins to go)....

Anyway, having seen some divers at Stoney Cove in novelty hoods I stumbled across this page: www.scapascuba.co.uk/hoods.htm

Check out the Monkey hood....... classic :-)

Adventure dive: wreck

Now we're qualified the group all elect to go on an adventure dive – the first dive towards our advanced course. We stick in our buddy pairs with the same instructor, but all get into the water together. Which is great until Bob pushes my head underwater in an attempt to drown me (not sure PADI would approve! LOL). What a wag eh!

The surface swim seems quite long and the descent is pretty uncomfortable. Not scary but it seems to take ages before we get down the line to the the wreck at 18m. It's a lot colder down here and darker (obviously) but it's so amazing to get buoyant and swim round, into and over the sunken tug boat. We see large perch in the wheelhouse and the other guys from the course and all too soon I'm below 100 bar and we are heading back to the line.

The ascent goes ok until the others ascend behind us, and their air bubbles make going up the line totally discombobulating (love that word. Think giant washing machine. Or jacuzzi). It's the strangest feeling and I definitely don't like it. At the 5m safety stop I somehow lose buoyancy control and I'm on a one way ticket to the surface :-(

Not the way I wanted to end my first adventure dive, but I forgot to dump air using the valve so can't slow myself down. No physical harm done... just a little dented pride! Bobbing about at the surface trying to look nonchalant and in control while waiting for the rest of the group to ascend is not a good look... the last think I need is for anyone to send out the boat to a lone diver surfacing on their own, I'd never live it down. So I put my snorkel in and get closer the the buoy and watch the others ascend and pretend that was my ascent plan all along!

And that's it! The end of the most physically and mentally challenging thing I've done in years (since my mining geology days in the 1990s as a fresh-faced student probably), but I've had the best time. Met heaps of brilliant new people and hopefully hooked up with a club which I can look forward to many more exciting dives with in the future.

Thanks to Vinnie, Bob, Mark and James, Ian and Phil.... Duncan and Chrissie, Claire, Cheryl, Sue and everyone else who made this whole course and weekend such great fun and reassured me along the way that it was all possible......... and that's my Gwyneth Paltrow moment over and done with :-)

Finally, big love to Dan and Lynne (see pic above)........ roll on Costa Rica!!!!!!!! xxxxxx

Open water dive four...

Had a great evening on Saturday. After a log book session and a much needed pint I got a hot shower in before heading out with the club for a curry. Have a great evening and attempt the "Stoney Cove Virgin Circuit"..... once around the children's playground out the back of the pub without touching the floor (not a chance, even when I changed from heels to trainers).... before falling into bed at around 10.45pm shattered!

Sunday dawned frosty and a shiveringly 4 degrees air temp! Yowser! But I don't know if it's the good night's sleep, but I get to Stoney all optimistic and geared up about the final dive of the open water course.

The water is unbelievably even colder than Saturday, but I'm determined to do the dive as well as I can and do the two outstanding skills from the day before. CESA is first (getting to surface on one breath of air) and Duncan does it first time. I take three goes. Hey ho, you can't win 'em all! Then we went down to the platform under the bus stop for the full mask removal (which I have been dreading)! Deep breath...... a few gasps..... more breaths.....and I've done it!

I could hardly contain myself and punched the air (well water) above my head in delight. Everyone else is clapping and giving me big okay signs and I feel relieved and chuffed in equal measures. Nothing about diving could ever possibly be this bad again.

At surface Vinnie is just about to congratulate us when he remembers I haven't done the weight removal at surface! I took my gloves off to make it easier and within seconds they are freezing. A bit of cramp (me and Vinnie) but then it's done. In a matter of seconds I've rolled over and redone the belt all by myself! Easy!!

And that's it. I'm an Open Water Diver. The feeling is incredible :-)

Open water dives one to three...

I get Duncan as my buddy (phew, I like him a lot and he's really calm and we've worked together in the pool a lot so that's a huge relief) and Vinnie as our instructor (another inner "hooray" as much as I love Bob, he's a bit of a joker and tends to put me off underwater a lot) and off we head to the "Bus Stop" for our first orientation dive.

Walking the few hundred yards to the water is agony! The weight belt is 10 kilos, there's 12 kilo tank on my back and the unfamiliar suit, hood and gloves make it a complete nightmare so I'm out of breath before we've even gone in (note to self - go to the gym more often you muppet!).... I get my fins on (with help) and do the giant stride entry and JESUS!!!!!!!!............. the shock of the water temperature sends me spinning.

The dive is not entirely pleasant, I can't take my breaths properly, the visibility is less than I'd imagined, and while I'm not panicking I am pretty relieved when we get to surface again. That said, there were fun bits; we went down to 8m for 23 mins, swam past the nautilus and through the cockpit.

After a surface interval of 1:43, we embarked on the second dive of the day. This time I'm more prepared and the giant stride off the bank seems less stressful. We went down to the platform and did regulator recovery, and alternate air source use/ascent. The mask fill/clearing skill is not a huge success as I caught my breath due to the freezing water and water got up my nose and choked me! But I coughed through the regulator and eventually cleared a partial fill.

This time I managed to get my buoyancy better and I saw shoals of perch and had my photo taken with "The Monster" in the Den! This dive was to 8.4m and lasted 28 mins. At the surface I couldn't clear my snorkel at first, but did eventually manage the snorkel/regulator exchange swim. Got out exhausted but a lot happier....

After two hours at surface we did dive three, which kicked off with a surface compass swim. We descended and went down the road – where I apparently swam past my brother and his wife without noticing – and we went over the edge and down to 12m. A lot less scary this time than the hang over the edge in dive one.

I felt the cold on this last dive and I was really getting tired. The full mask clearance was a nightmare – once again the cold water on my face made me struggle to breath. I'm so disappointed in myself as in the pool it was a skill I did effortlessly almost. At surface Duncan and I have to tackle weight belt removal.... I can't do it. My gloves make me fluff the removal and I drop a weight, and then cramp sets in to both legs. Luckily Vinnie says I can do the skill on the fourth dive.

Day one

Woke up early and spent ages getting my kit re-packed and checked (if only I'd been so thorough at home as I'd forgotten contact lenses and my coat - that's why there are things called lists you idiot!), At 8am I went out to join the others (one or two people saying they felt fine and most definitely not hungover - yeah, right!) and set off for Stoney.

Once there we get the site tour from the instructors and now I really feel like I might cry! It's cold, grey and the water looks totally uninviting, but I'm here and I pull myself together and set out to get into my wetsuit...... where I meet some really nice people in the changing rooms who all do their damndest to reassure me that it's going to be great and there's nothing to worry about. I think it's down to them that I get my gear on and head back to the van with something akin to a smile on my face.....