It’s Stoney, but not as we know it!
On a chilly winter’s evening ten intrepid (barmy?) divers and one cold-laden non-diver arrived at Stoney Cove to carry out a night dive. Dave had arranged it all and, feeling slightly curious, slightly apprehensive, we kitted up. Two of us were even in semi-dry suits and wondering just how cold it was going to be.
Anyhow, buddy checks completed we jumped in. Yup, it was cold! There were some very girly screams and dark mutterings through clenched teeth but nobody bottled out.
My buddy and I had already planned not to go deep but to just pottered about on the shelf. That was fine with me, my semi dry was filled with water which was slowly either warming up or lowering my body temperature, I wasn’t sure which and my computer was showing 8C, which is quite cold enough, thank you.
As we moved around the familiar landscape, lit only by our torches everything appeared slowly out of the darkness. The rocks, the Nautilus and the Viscount all took on a slightly eerie look.
There were crayfish scuttling about and roach lurking in the distance. The perch all seemed to be asleep, each sat on an appropriately sized rock looking blearily at us. In the Viscount my torch picked out a tiny perch, dozing on the ledge. Ah, sweet… then I panned across and there was his daddy! His dorsal fin was raised and he looked really hacked off at being disturbed!
Most interesting were the pike. Normally seen sleeping in the weeds these were out and about doing Jaws impressions. We saw at least four in our half hour dive.
Once we had lost the feeling on our fingers (and other extremities) we decided that enough was enough and headed for the shore and hot showers.
Dave had very thoughtfully booked us into the Nemo where we had a very pleasant Christmas dinner.
Thanks Dave, a great evening and good fun. Let’s do it again next year!
