SHEEPHAVEN divers continued with their busy schedule of club activities last week with dives on Tuesday evening, Saturday morning and on Sunday.
The snorkelers were also in the water on the same days.
The Tuesday evening activities were carried out in Portnablagh and had been rearranged in order to assist the Gartan swimmers the following evening.
Both the dive and the snorkel took place in wonderfully calm conditions on an evening that would rival anything abroad, with clear warm waters and the presence of plenty of marine life to observe.
The Wednesday evening Garten swimmers event had the support of a Sheephaven dive boat and a crew willing to assist if required.
Saturday mornings diving began at Tory with a two boat dive party led by Kevin Boylan in conditions that were challenging enough to take the decision to return to the shelter of Horn Head for the second dive.
The first dive location was on the eastern side of the island, between An Tor and the lighthouse and produced a perfect dive in pristine waters with horizontal visibility at well over 10 metres and a temperature of 14 degrees Celsius.
There was an abundance of large fish life, such as Pollock and Wrasse present and the seabed gives way from rock and boulders to sandy patches at depths greater than 25 metres.
The mandatory two-hour surface interval was carried out in the shelter of Port Doon and later the divers were accompanied on their return to Skate Bay by a 25 strong pod of Dolphins, who put on the full show of bow riding, jumps and tail splashing to the delight of everyone on-board.
The second dive was conducted to depths of 25 metres and dive times of over 40 minutes, subject to the specific no-decompression rules that applies to the relevant divers.
On both occasions as the divers were in the water the snorkelers who had been in the dive party got to explore the coastlines of both Tory Island and Skate Bay, quite possibly entering swim-through and caves that are very rarely frequented by anyone else.
Sunday morning was another two boat dive party, this time expertly led by Michael Bonner with Anne Boyle providing dry coxswain duties to help the morning along.
In addition to all the diving and snorkelling Sheephaven divers lent a hand in the rescuing of one visitors speedboat from the rocks and the next day retrieving a lost mobile phone from the harbour in Portnablagh, all in the days work in could be said.
