Fun at An Tearaght - by Lisa Geismar

We all started the day of Sunday 7th August with a sense of adventure as Jacquie had been planning a rather special diving trip to An Tearaght, the western most island of the Blaskets. The actual paying passengers were few and far between and the dive centre was closed to allow everyone to enjoy the day. There ended up being three boats in the convoy, each one loaded up with people and dive gear not to mention huge amounts of food, drink and the most important of all – chocolate!
Upon arriving at the north western tip of Great Blasket Island the cloud had yet to lift and for those two boats without a GPS it was a quick radio call to the Dive Centre boat to guide everyone the last few miles. The top half of An Tearaght was covered in cloud and looked quite eerie as we drove around looking for the best spot to dive. At last it was decided and the first groups to go in agreed on their plans before kitting up, doing their Burger With Relish And Fries checks and were in the water in record time (for those of you who know how much faffing divers usually do).
Derek and I had agreed to have a quick peek at 40m, the visibility was amazing – a good 20m+ and there was a good amount of fish life but the anenomes for me were just stunning, so much colour. During our safety stop we were hanging out at a wall when we came across a rather large female crayfish full of eggs which was great to see. If I hadn't been missing the sunshine so much I would have definitely stayed in longer although there were also those waiting for us to surface so they could have their own adventure.
At last everyone had had a dive and it was time for a decent surface interval. An Tearaght has a lighthouse so the skippers unloaded those who wanted to make the climb while trying to avoid being washed up onto the steps covered in mussels. The climb up was long but well worth the views from the helipad as by this time the cloud had lifted and you could see for many miles. After a good look around it was time to descend back to the boats. The skippers decided we could jump off the island and swim out to them unless you were my skipper who very kindly nosed in to pick me up – I didn't want to get my woolly hat wet!

Time now for Dive 2 which took us to Inishvickillane. This dive reminded me of home (Wellington, NZ) – on a good day - the boulders, swimthroughs, kelp and colour. We managed to drop down straight onto another crayfish and again the anenomes were plentiful. The way home we dropped in to say hi to some seals but they didn't seem to be as curious as the ones on previous dives and then as we were heading for home a phone call was received to say some minky whales had been spotted off Dunmore Head. Unfortunately, try as we might they were nowhere to be seen. A good day was had by all and I would thoroughly recommend it, it is definitely some of the best cold water (some would say almost warm) diving to be had.