Bringing the boat to Kilkee

Another gorgeous weekend, with clear blue sky in Limerick.
A very early start on saturday, in order to bring the Aughinish Diving Club boat to Kilkee, using the Tarbert Ferry.
So by 9:30 AM the boat was on Kilkee slip, ready to launch.

Anuka on Kilkee slip before launch

 We had a lovely dive in Diamond Rocks, just outside the bay. The sea was calm initially, but the weather started to pick up. Underwater there was quite a bit of movement, surprising since we were around slack water, loads of life down there, with fishes and a couple of small lobsters.

George's Head ... calm sea

 After the dive we decided, to recover the boat. Back in Limerick, I ended the day with a lovely walk up to Barringtons Pier.

Limerick viewed from Barrington Pier

  

Sunday morning, I was back in Kilkee for another dive, shore-based this time, absolutely lovely. We enter the water through the Pollock holes, and headed to Doctor's Rocks though a gap in the rocks.
We were welcome in the first meters by a conger eel swimming peacefully through the seaweed.
In the first minutes of the dive, we stumble upon a sleepy dog fish. After another snorkel in Newfie, I headed back to Limerick.
Ended up the day by a walk up to the living bridge in UL, with some French and Italian company.

The Living Bridge - UL

Born on the walk way.

Amongst the graffiti near the Locke, I found the thought of the day ...

Love is ....

First Diving Weekend of 2012

My diving club Aughinish went to Kerry in Portmagee for the first weekend away, using the pretext of Easter Bank Holiday.

So what makes a diving weekend away ?
Answer in pictures...

Towing the boat down... and back

Launching, mooring the boat in the harbour...

Anchor in Portmagee harbour...

A good bit of delicious food...

A tiny bit of drinking...

Enjoying the scenery...

Sadly no underwater pictures, since i did not bring my camera this time, but in the end 2 lovely dive with one magnificient crawfish, some anxious and damp covering of the diver in the boat, may be a head trauma or 2.... in the end a good weekend.

And as an added bonus: ASM is going to the semi-final of the H-Cup :D

Sunny Snorkel was no april fool....

A couple more pics from last sunday snorkel in Kilkee.

Danger sign near the jumping boards

Clear water....

Trying to snorkel up to George's head ... not

Navigating through the seaweed...

House with sea view in Kilkee

Link to the previous post.

 A very busy day in Kilkee with 5-6 clubs down the slip, you can read more on the diving (CFT) website:
http://diving.ie/site/post/2012/04/south-west-coxn-course/

How to end the week well

Underwater summary of the week

Found in newfie, a natural smiley...

Well, it has been a great week, with the escapes to the beach Tuesday and Wednesday. I was back in town Thursday night, with the usual concert in Bourkes. This time it was Rarely Seen Above Ground ( R.S.A.G. ).
A brilliant artist drummer, I was quite surprised by the performance in a very good way.

leaflet Bourkes

RSAG in Bourkes

Friday, was quiet at home, watching TV and chatting on FB. A bit of rest before having a rugby day, watching the French league, with a worrying prestation from ASM - hopefully it will be better next weekend - then heading saturday night to Thomond Park for the Munster-Leinster game. Not a great rugby game infairness but the ambience in Thomond is always good, even if the boys in blue managed to calm down the public.

Munster pre-game mascot

Sunday morning brought by the sun, which was perfect for a nice spin to Kilkee. A full good hour snorkel, a nice hot chocolate cake and small catch up with the diving buddies....

Anemone in Newfie

Under ....

Checking out the divers down below....

Me

Nice hot chocolate cake

In summary: good music, good company, the sun, the sea, some rugby game... what else can you ask for.

First Dive of 2012

At the usual suspect place, Newfie in Kilkee.

Great to be back in the water. My buddies getting down 

 And again... ( don't ask )

Me in my outfit

me in my dry suit

 

 Roll on the next dives...

Evening surfing

Evening surfing ( after work ) are the dream in Summer in Ireland... lovely time down there.



Left work at 5pm, headed straight to Lahinch with my surfboard, and straight into the water. I am managing very slow improvement in my surfing abilities, anyway that was an excellent way to spend the evening. :D

Back in the surf....

Getting wet

Great weekend, half productive ( another series of boat repair for the diving club ), half sporty/active ( surf but mostly body-boarding in Spanish Point, Sunday with PJ ), and all that fun and entertaining, with the mandatory passage to the Wicked and Costello on Saturday night....
All good. :D



PJ trying to ride a wave:

PJ riding it

Waterford Tall Ship 2011

I went Friday 1st of July to Waterford see the tall ship, and took some pictures, little did I know...

Tall Ship

hot air ballon, in Waterford sky

Russian Crew member

Russian crew

Masts

Night View

Brilliant occasion ( http://www.waterfordtallshipsrace.ie/ )

Here's a slideshow of the pictures I take:

Blue Monday

Monday sky was blue and sunny, so instead of heading back to the city and my flat, I took the opposite direction, straight to the west clare beach.

Ended up doing a short snorkel, the water temperature was actually better than the fresh wind.... defintely should have organized that damn barbecue.

me...

White Strand, Co Clare

Underwater Ireland over the years

First octopussy

Last monday, I saw my first Octopus in Irish Water. Actually we saw two, in was at 27 meter deep near Scariff island in county Kerry. One of my buddy, Brian was lucky enough to capture it on photo before his battery died. See below Brian picture.

Eledone Cirrhosa

octopussy
Originally uploaded by upskill2008

Via Flickr:
Brian snapped this little guy just before he squirted ink and I ran out of batteries. Diving off Scariff Island, Derrynane.

Officially back scuba-diving

That's it, after a couple of snorkels in the lake and in the sea, I am officially back diving with an impressive 30 minutes dive in Newfie, Kilkee down to 10 meters. Lovely day and lovely dive with great people indeed.

To illustrate this some picture of Kilkee with the ladies going to train for the Currach race.

Traffic Jam at Black Head

There was a traffic Jam in Black Head this Saturday:




the reason: the start of LEG8 of the Volvo Ocean Race ( Galway to Marstrand )

As the boat left Galway, they come fast along SaltHill:


Loads of boat came to visit the race, and accompany them along the irish coast


As they pass the lighthouse, they all started tacking to take the inside route, between the Aran Island and the Burren... much to our delight:


And here's the chinese-irish competitor






Some boat came quite close from the shore (here Delta Lloyd ):




Finally everybody wished a goodbye and safe sailing top the Dragon: