Perhaps a little prematurely you decide it's time to begin diving again. As you huddle around your mug of tepid coffee, sat on a plastic chair overlooking the sea, shivering gently in time with the waves lapping onto the deserted beach, your mind wanders, remembering a time when you were warm. Then you get back into your cold dripping wetsuit for your second dive of the day.
I began bubbling as a beginner last March, since then I have learned to bubble in a more advanced manner. By September, I felt ready to tackle PADI's Advanced Open Water Diver course at Fort Bovisand near Plymouth.
This involved doing five dives. Three of which were compulsory - navigation, deep and night dives, plus a choice of two others from a list of really juicy sounding offerings. In fact, the choice is made for you and we did naturalist and boat dives.
The navigation dive is a doddle if your buddy can navigate, its a complete nightmare if they can't (ie. I can't). It doesn't matter though, PADI's rigorously enforced high standards ensure that even if you fail you pass!
Far from teaching you anything at all about our native marine flora and fauna, the naturalist dive involves you simply making a list of what you have seen whilst rummaging around the weed covered rocks in 8-10m.
The night dive is great if you enjoy the company of ten other divers lighting up the site like Blackpool illuminations, any fascinating nocturnal beasts you may have seen have all gone back to bed thinking the first sunset was a hoax.
The deep dive was special. We were taken by boat to the wreck of the James Egan Lane, an American liberty ship sitting upright in 25m of water. For 20 very short minutes we explored the bow section in superb visibility, descending the cliff like hull covered in anemones and sponges to torpedo created holes through which shoals of fish could be seen slowly circling inside the holds. (Ignore the irritating species of diver who has been to warmer climes, diving in British waters can be a truly magical experience.)
The last dive, a boat dive in "cannonball alley", was a good excuse to rummage around in 10-14m depth among lots of wreck debris and the odd basketball sized canonball fired from Fort Bovisand.
The cost of the course was oe50 which includes kit hire and air, but not accommodation. The weekend broadens your experience, increases your confidence and gives you an internationally recognised qualification which is slightly better than complete beginner.
We will be diving regularly at weekends from now on. If anyone is interested in getting involved, come and have a chat.
Carol Keeble