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| White Strand near Spanish POint Co Clare |
Showing posts with label sea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sea. Show all posts
Sunday, March 10, 2024
Sunday, August 07, 2022
Saturday, July 18, 2015
[Overdue post] Diving weekend 2015 ...the story so far...
Much overdue post, just couple of pictures of diving weekends.
Connemara with Aughinish, in April.
Cleggan beach Snorkelling time.
Maybe Badger from the wind in the willows, decided to move to the seaside...
Connemara with Aughinish, in April.
Cleggan beach Snorkelling time.
Maybe Badger from the wind in the willows, decided to move to the seaside...
Monday, September 24, 2012
A sunday in Kilkee
Another sunday basking in sunny Kilkee
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| Che watching over the boat.. |
Incoming waves:
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| Incoming Waves |
Seagull basking in the sun:
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| At least some are undisturbed by the rowdy sea |
Back from the dive:
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| Aughinish back to shore |
Pier view:
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| Enjoying the view from the pier |
Wave coming:
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| Incoming |
Gone for a swim:
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| gone for a swim... |
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| Boat: The Joker |
Nobody jumping today:
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| The boards... |
Pollock Hole Swimmer drying off :
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| After the swim |
A small note, to say there is a wonderful book:
Kilkee Moments ( http://www.kilkeemoments.ie/ ) available in bookstore, which proceeds are going to the Kilkee Rescue Center.
Later a bit further north the coast, Waves in Doonberg Golf Beach :
Later a bit further north the coast, Waves in Doonberg Golf Beach :
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| Doonberg |
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Busy day above the water - Kilkee
A busy Saturday in Kilkee, where i did dry cox fro our diving club.
View from the boat of the dive site ( Middle Rock ) , we used the Lought Dergh in the morning, after having stuck our in the sand by stubbornly trying to launch at low tide.
View from the boat of the dive site ( Middle Rock ) , we used the Lought Dergh in the morning, after having stuck our in the sand by stubbornly trying to launch at low tide.
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| middle rock |
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| George's head |
All pics from a GoPro.
It was a beautiful sunny day in Kilkee, and the place was busy, in particularly because the great swim was organised that day. Anyway our plan was to go diving, with a very low tide at noon, we planned to launch our boat at 10AM.
We were all ready for the boat launch on the slip around 10, but we decided to purge on refill the hydraulic steering wheel of the boat first. This operation took a lot longer than the 10 minutes initially planned, and it resulted in a very slippy boat covered by oil. Off course by that time the water had almost reached it's lowest point in the pier, and we had to try launching the boat with a rope ; after 4 attempts, we managed to have the boat in the water and out of the trailer, only to find it beach on a sand bank in the middle of the pier.
There was no way we could drag the boat for 10 meters over the sand until it reaches enough depth.
So we threw an anchor ( so it would not drift on shore once the tide was rising ) and borrow our friend from lough Dergh boat to go diving.
We settle upon Middle Rock as a dive site, with 1 hour delay to the initial plan.
Sadly it was not the end of our misadventures. A threesome of divers had an equipment issue - one of the guy's regulator went on free flow and refused to give air, forcing the three of them to air sharing, and aborting the dive. It resulted in an uncontrolled ascent , sightly faster than recommended - well depending on which table had been used, the rate could have been bound safe - ah the good old navy tables ( 9 meters per minutes ).
Unfortunately for me as a cox, they surfaced in the worst possible site over middle rock, right where the waves are breaking on top of the rock. I collected the 3 boys, not without having to drag them with the boat out of the danger zone. One of them was feeling a bit unwell and was put under O2.
We then proceeded to recall the other divers, without any success, despite revving the engine and banging cylinder underwater.
After 10 minutes, they finally surfaced, and once everybody was on-board we headed to the pier. Once there we called the coast guard for advice, and soon the problematic party was rush to the Kilkee rescue center for examination and all 3 of them were put under O2. They were evacuated soon after to Galway by helicopter ( the helicopter came to Kilkee for another emergency, and it was decided to use it to transport all causalities ).
Once in Galway the boys were put in a re-compression chamber and put under observation before being released late, all safe and sound.
With nothing left to do, except checking by phone on the lads progress, we decided to go on with the afternoon dive. By that time our boat was afloat ( finally ), thanks to the rising tides, and a group of 7 divers headed again for middle rock, and once again I served as dry cox.
Once again we did not escape incident, but it was more minor, one of our diver had its high pressure hose blow up on the boat, and as a result did not enter the water - which was as well as i had an helpful hand for what follow, as one of the pair aborted the dive early due to high PPO2 reading on a rebreather.
Anyway after all that stress, everybody was brought back safe and sound on the shore, for those who did dive, they had a lovely one - well that's what they said despite the puking on the boat afterwards.
And that was all for the day, best thing was to head to the pub, have some food, and welcome back the boys from their escape to Galway.
Some key lessons from this:
It was a beautiful sunny day in Kilkee, and the place was busy, in particularly because the great swim was organised that day. Anyway our plan was to go diving, with a very low tide at noon, we planned to launch our boat at 10AM.
We were all ready for the boat launch on the slip around 10, but we decided to purge on refill the hydraulic steering wheel of the boat first. This operation took a lot longer than the 10 minutes initially planned, and it resulted in a very slippy boat covered by oil. Off course by that time the water had almost reached it's lowest point in the pier, and we had to try launching the boat with a rope ; after 4 attempts, we managed to have the boat in the water and out of the trailer, only to find it beach on a sand bank in the middle of the pier.
There was no way we could drag the boat for 10 meters over the sand until it reaches enough depth.
So we threw an anchor ( so it would not drift on shore once the tide was rising ) and borrow our friend from lough Dergh boat to go diving.
We settle upon Middle Rock as a dive site, with 1 hour delay to the initial plan.
Sadly it was not the end of our misadventures. A threesome of divers had an equipment issue - one of the guy's regulator went on free flow and refused to give air, forcing the three of them to air sharing, and aborting the dive. It resulted in an uncontrolled ascent , sightly faster than recommended - well depending on which table had been used, the rate could have been bound safe - ah the good old navy tables ( 9 meters per minutes ).
Unfortunately for me as a cox, they surfaced in the worst possible site over middle rock, right where the waves are breaking on top of the rock. I collected the 3 boys, not without having to drag them with the boat out of the danger zone. One of them was feeling a bit unwell and was put under O2.
We then proceeded to recall the other divers, without any success, despite revving the engine and banging cylinder underwater.
After 10 minutes, they finally surfaced, and once everybody was on-board we headed to the pier. Once there we called the coast guard for advice, and soon the problematic party was rush to the Kilkee rescue center for examination and all 3 of them were put under O2. They were evacuated soon after to Galway by helicopter ( the helicopter came to Kilkee for another emergency, and it was decided to use it to transport all causalities ).
Once in Galway the boys were put in a re-compression chamber and put under observation before being released late, all safe and sound.
With nothing left to do, except checking by phone on the lads progress, we decided to go on with the afternoon dive. By that time our boat was afloat ( finally ), thanks to the rising tides, and a group of 7 divers headed again for middle rock, and once again I served as dry cox.
Once again we did not escape incident, but it was more minor, one of our diver had its high pressure hose blow up on the boat, and as a result did not enter the water - which was as well as i had an helpful hand for what follow, as one of the pair aborted the dive early due to high PPO2 reading on a rebreather.
Anyway after all that stress, everybody was brought back safe and sound on the shore, for those who did dive, they had a lovely one - well that's what they said despite the puking on the boat afterwards.
And that was all for the day, best thing was to head to the pub, have some food, and welcome back the boys from their escape to Galway.
Some key lessons from this:
- Direct system horn, which was very helpful to signal and call for help, without the lads blowing it, i would have reacted much later.
- Dry cox: it has the advantage to speed up the dives, avoiding for people waiting on the boat ( in case of 2 sticks ) while over are diving - either before or after their own dives. But in case of emergency, the cox is busy driving the boat, and cannot take care of the diver at the same time. I would highly recommend to have 2 people on the boat at all times.
- Recall: there is a need to find a proper recall procedure for diver underwater, revving the engine did not work - but maybe I was to gentle with that - banging piece of metal underwater did not work either ( which i thought would ).
- The importance of working mean of communication with land ( either VHF or cell phone )
Friday, August 17, 2012
Bodyboarding under the rain
Last night we headed up to Spanish Point ( Co Clare ) for a surf session, well for me it was body-boarding, as i think I have given up any up of standing up on a surfboard ... maybe I should try the long board...
Good waves, not big and quite regular, through very steep at times. The water was warm enough, but we had to support drizzles of rain...
That was also a good opportunity to test out my new toy, a Gopro camera.
After that it was time for Dinner, and a delicious pan fried monk-fish in Milton Malbay, before going back to Limerick.
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| Flat calm at the moment ..... |
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| On the water during sunset |
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| Spanish Point view from the water |
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| Post surf, pre dinner..... |
Sunday, July 15, 2012
Scubathon 2012
Nevermind Bastille Day, this weekend my diving club ( Aughinish ) along with the local diving club in Kilkee were organizing a scubathon:
By Scubathon this meant 24 hours diving, with diving in the water all the time, rotating by one hour slots.
The event coincided with the maritime festival in Kilkee, so the town was busy.
I started off by trying to help setup the camp early in the morning, then I was off to do the first 2 hours of cox duty over Newfie, bringing divers to the site, watching over them and recovering them at the end.
Later during the day, it was my turn to dive, 62 minutes of easy diving in 10 meters of water, with a nice blonde mermaid. We saw a couple of flat fishes, some pollock, and tiny fish hiding in the sand.
I was actually quite annoyed by my main regulator which was leaking, and i was not sure i could make the full hour, by loosing air permanently... but it ended up ok, finishing with 50bar on the dot.
After a night sleep, in kilkee under the tent, I went back to Limerick, leaving the others close the event.
And it was time to close the weekend with a nice chowder, some tunes and some stout in the Curragower:
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| Poster Scubathon |
The event coincided with the maritime festival in Kilkee, so the town was busy.
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| Maritime festival in Kilkee |
I started off by trying to help setup the camp early in the morning, then I was off to do the first 2 hours of cox duty over Newfie, bringing divers to the site, watching over them and recovering them at the end.
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| The last boat to get in the water |
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| Covering diver over newfie |
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| Covering boat in newfie, george's head in the back |
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| Flags |
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| Sunset in kilkee ... :D |
Later during the day, it was my turn to dive, 62 minutes of easy diving in 10 meters of water, with a nice blonde mermaid. We saw a couple of flat fishes, some pollock, and tiny fish hiding in the sand.
I was actually quite annoyed by my main regulator which was leaking, and i was not sure i could make the full hour, by loosing air permanently... but it ended up ok, finishing with 50bar on the dot.
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| my mermaid ... buddy |
After a night sleep, in kilkee under the tent, I went back to Limerick, leaving the others close the event.
And it was time to close the weekend with a nice chowder, some tunes and some stout in the Curragower:
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| The End ... |
Saturday, July 07, 2012
Back in Galway from the sea
So this saturday I went back to Galway for the final in-port race of the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012...
As they say the final showdown:
We used our diving club ( Aughinish ) boat to get to Galway bay. Launching the boat from Doolin, all the way up to Salthill - the race was taking place just in front of it.
We arrived around 11AM after a smooth drive - despite being against the wind and the swell, thanks to a dexterous cox - before the sailing boat left the Galway docks.
While they were going out, we were able to get pretty close and have a good view of those ocean beasts.
There was many boats trying to follow the race, including the local hooker:
Then the marshall pushed us behind the yellow buoy, so the race could start... and off they went for an hour of intense action.
Puma won the race,
And after another pass near the boat, we decided to turn back to the Clare side of the bay.
We did try to get into Monks in Ballyvaughan, but a sand bank prevented our plan - and I won't say anything else about that.
It was a fast drive back to Doolin, where the Dolphin was waiting for us, with the wind pushing in our back.
In summary a very happy day at sea ! I will be following the next race ( probably won't come to Ireland this time :( )
- UPDATE -
As they say the final showdown:
We used our diving club ( Aughinish ) boat to get to Galway bay. Launching the boat from Doolin, all the way up to Salthill - the race was taking place just in front of it.
We arrived around 11AM after a smooth drive - despite being against the wind and the swell, thanks to a dexterous cox - before the sailing boat left the Galway docks.
While they were going out, we were able to get pretty close and have a good view of those ocean beasts.
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| Spanish Boat |
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| The French Boat ... winner of the overall race :D |
There was many boats trying to follow the race, including the local hooker:
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| Galway Hooker |
Then the marshall pushed us behind the yellow buoy, so the race could start... and off they went for an hour of intense action.
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| The race |
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| Camper and Groupama battling out to catch Puma |
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| Camper and F.Cammas boat |
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| Groupama chasing Camper |
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| Puma... and yes we are behing the buoy :) |
Puma won the race,
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| The winner of the in port race Puma |
And after another pass near the boat, we decided to turn back to the Clare side of the bay.
We did try to get into Monks in Ballyvaughan, but a sand bank prevented our plan - and I won't say anything else about that.
It was a fast drive back to Doolin, where the Dolphin was waiting for us, with the wind pushing in our back.
In summary a very happy day at sea ! I will be following the next race ( probably won't come to Ireland this time :( )
- UPDATE -
- The full inport race:
- And Bock account of the race ( from a different boat ):
http://bocktherobber.com/2012/07/volvo-ocean-race-2012/
- UPDATE -
My diving club account of the event: http://www.aughinishdivingclub.com/news/170-volvo-ocean-race
- UPDATE -
My diving club account of the event: http://www.aughinishdivingclub.com/news/170-volvo-ocean-race
Tuesday, July 03, 2012
Road trip to Galway for the Volvo Ocean Race
Following the successful stop over in Galway in 2009 ( see my 2009 posts here and there ) , the 2011-2012 edition of the Volvo Ocean race (formerly the Whitbread Round the World Race) was scheduled to finish in Galway, with a last leg starting from Lorient, France.
After that it was time to celebrate the overall race winner Groupama, who only arrived second , 7 minutes after the leg winner.
The boats are still in Galway till Saturday 7th of June , where they will race one last time in a in-port regatta.
A magnific leg 9, i have to say, stretching along the coastline of Ireland, taking the inside of the Fastnet and the outside of the Aran-Island.
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| Leg 9 (and final) of the Volvo Ocean Race |
I had decided to go over to see the boats arriving in the docks, so Monday i had an eye on the online GPS tracker, and estimated arrival time of the 550nm leg.
Initially scheduled to arrive tuesday morning, the boat did an excellent progress, and the estimated time went down from 3AM, 2AM to midnight.
Initially scheduled to arrive tuesday morning, the boat did an excellent progress, and the estimated time went down from 3AM, 2AM to midnight.
So around 9pm I left limerick for an impromptu road trip, and I manage to "press ganged" a sailor for this adventure. We arrived a bit after 10PM in all lited Galway
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| Wheel |
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| Wheel |
The boat arrived in the complete darkness, crossing the line a bit before 1AM, then move slowly into the docks ( which could not be opened till 2AM due to the tides ).
Off course a myriad of lighted boat went to welcome them... ahead...
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| Camper entering the docks |
Within 30 minutes of docking - well probably a lot more - the leg winner (Camper ) was hushed on to the main stage, in front of drunken Irish and dancing raving teenagers ;)
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| Leg Winner : Camper |
After that it was time to celebrate the overall race winner Groupama, who only arrived second , 7 minutes after the leg winner.
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| Overall Winner : french Groupama |
We also had a look at those magnificent boats:
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| Volvo 70 |
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| Volvo 70 Mast |
We waited the arrival of the last 2 boats, and soon it was 5AM ... time for a bit of sleep before driving back to Limerick/Shannon.
And to finish the highlights of Franck Cammas crew victory:
The boats are still in Galway till Saturday 7th of June , where they will race one last time in a in-port regatta.
Thursday, June 07, 2012
Irish Holidays with my parents
I am back from 10 days travelling with my parents in the North of Ireland with my parents. A good occasion for me to visit, Irish places I don't usually hang into.
Here's the full road trip ( minus some detours ):
View Larger Map
Over 1400 km, a couple of days in Dublin , then in UK before finishing in Donegal.
First we started in Dublin
Visiting the Guinness StoreHouse
The quays, and Trinity College and the book of Kells
Also a bit of wandering under the sun in the streets of the fair city:
We also visited St Patrick Cathedral, and seen it's organ fund:
Suprisingly at the restaurant in Temple Bar I was able to find some Muprhy:
Then after a small detour through NewGrange ,we were off to Belfast to see the Titanic Quarter:
We settle for a couple of days in Antrim, visiting the Bushmills Old Distillery:
Then the Giant Causeway, and the coastline. Before going back to the republic we went to Derry:
The flower were blooming all over the place...
We settled in Killybeg for a couple of days:
Off course we had a bit more pints of Guiness:
And healthy Irish breakfast:
We also did a bit of tweed shopping:
It was soon time to go back to Dublin, but on the way back we stopped at the Bundoran beaches:
And Carrick On Shannon. By 5PM wednesday we were in Dublin, I said goodbye to my parents before they fly back to France, and soon I was on the way back to Limerick via the bus:
I realize that I have a lot more pics, so I'll add a post or 2 to add those later.
All picture on this post taken with Instagram on Android.
Here's the full road trip ( minus some detours ):
View Larger Map
Over 1400 km, a couple of days in Dublin , then in UK before finishing in Donegal.
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| Tallship anchored on the Liffey |
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| Guinness for moral support |
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| Sculputre along the old quays |
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| That's the way to ensure it won't be stolen... |
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| A keg as an organ fund... inside St Patrick cathedral ... ??? |
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| My favourite stout... Murphy |
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| The entrance of the Titanic experience... |
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| The dry dock in the Titanic Quarter in Belfast |
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| A nice sample of Bushmills |
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| Diamong in Derry |
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| Heather blooming |
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| Killybeg fishing harbour |
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| Mor stout |
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| Irish Breakfast ... foodporn |
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| Tweed shopping |
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| Bundoran Beach |
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| On the way back to Limerick |
All picture on this post taken with Instagram on Android.
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