Gildenburgh in December... brrrrrrrr !
It was the 2nd December 2000, and me and my sister, Caroline, decided to visit Gildie. Caroline had only just passed her PADI OW in September, and this was to be her first dive after qualification. Being December it wasn't going to be a warm one, but what the hell, we're UK divers right?
If you want to skip the story and just look at the pictures, click here...
Caroline doesn't have any of her own gear, and this was going to be the biggest threat to a successful day's diving. As you may already have read elsewhere here, I have a 5mm titanium-lined Namron semi-dry, which has kept me warm in waters as low as 3°C, and most other divers think me mad, but I can't see the point of a dry-suit if you don't need one.
However, without any of her own, Caroline was hiring gear and so a semi-dry was the only thing she could hire, as she's had no experience with a dry-suit, and nor have I. Needless to say Gildie, however well-equipped they are, weren't going to have something like my Namron in stock, but we decided to go for it anyway with the caution: "as soon as you feel cold or start to shiver, give me the thumbs-up and we'll abort the dive".
OK, it was a glorious sunny winter's day but, of course, not particularly warm outside. The outside temp was about 12°C and the water was 9°C, so not freezing, but cold enough if you aren't used to it. Apart from two sets of diving students we were the only ones there (and the only ones intending to dive in semis!). We hired a complete set of gear for Caroline and we got kitted up.
The plan was to do a giant stride off the plank, explore the double-decker bus and then glide over to where the Meteor used to be (at 12m on the map) and the reed beds at the far right edge before surfacing and swimming back to the bank.
Caroline hadn't done a giant stride in open water before as all her training had been off a rib, but she bit the bullet and did a perfect entry. We then swam over to the black and white buoy and did our descent. This was a real pain for me as for only the second time ever I couldn't equalise! I went from 3m to 2½, then down a bit further to 3½ and up again to to 3 and so on until I got down to 7m when I felt me ears pop at last and all was OK. I only mention this as in some circles it is considered namby-pamby if you can't equalise. Well, it must happen to all recreational divers at some point and is nothing to be embarrassed about. It didn't happen to Caroline who was suitably smug about it afterwards!
We explored the double-decker bus from the outside and as this was Caroline's first ever 'wreck', she was quite excited about it. After a few minutes I decided to lead on to the far right as per the plan. Well, it seems I have some work to do on my navigational skills! I was expecting to come up against the commercial aircraft cockpit (again, see map) but first we came across a Cortina Estate followed shortly by what looked liked an old Morris Marina. The fact that both of these were at 17m kind of suggested that we were off-track, but when we hovered over the National Express bus at 18m I knew my compass was wrong (well, it couldn't have been me, could it?).
We sat on the bus and contemplated its demise at which point Caroline motioned to me that she was getting cold, so we surfaced. As I hit the surface I looked around and realised my compass had in fact been correct (odd, that, really!) and we were at the far end of the lake. Oh well, time to inflate the BCD fully and we paddled our way leisurely back to shore.
Caroline was really chuffed that she'd done her first open water dive as a qualified diver. She'd had no problems, and I realised that, since she had only recently qualified, it would have been better if I had gotten HER to navigate! Not to worry, we had a good time and hit the cafeteria for a welcome mug of tea. At this point Caroline got the real shivers and we retired to the cosy warmth of Daisy the camper which, after turning the gas cooker on for a few seconds, warmed inside to 30°C. Soon we were warmed up sufficiently, but after some consideration, Caroline decided it really was too cold for her to do a second dive, which was a shame because I was nice and toasty warm in my Namron. Not to worry, I'm never one to miss an opportunity, so we got dried and changed and it the bar for a welcome veggie-burger and chips and more tea!
Suitably refreshed, we hit the road home. Another notch in the diving belt and a nice way to spend a Saturday, rather than being jostled with millions of other people doing their Christmas shopping (which seems to start earlier and earlier every year).
That's all for now! (click next below the map to see the pictures)
OK,
on with the dive...
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