It's supposed to be open to divers from 07:00 to 10:00 daily, but we were already half-changed when a personage turned up to unlock at 07:25. Getting into the water is simply a giant stride off the pontoon. This normally presents no problems, but getting to our launch point, my booties were slipping perilously on the ice!!! Does this give you an idea of how cold it was?

As I put my mask into the water to rinse the lenses my hands froze. "Oh my God," I thought, "is this a good idea?"

Oh well, all for one and one for all. We jumped in and immediately the thermal properties of my Namron semi-dry were once again proved to be excellent. The water was no more than 5 - 6^o, but I didn't feel the cold at all. Sadly, the same could not be said for my gloves, a pretty shagged pair with the thermal properties of a dead fish. My hands froze immediately. However, me and Pete are made of harder stuff (his hands were frozen as well) so we thumbed down and got on with the dive.

You can see from the picture that visibility wasn't up to much. Maybe 4 feet, more pictures were a waste of time. The bottom is a chalky mud, so we hovered just above it at about 6m (don't think Grangewaters gets deeper than that). We found a boat, very similar to the type of dinghies that were moored at the far end of the lake, so we weren't sure if it was a feature for divers or a genuine wreck! Other than that the bottom was a featureless mudscape with some weeds and the odd can of Dr Pepper (secondhand).

After a leisurely 20-minute dive Pete signalled he was cold and thumbed up. We finned our way to the concrete ramp and as we got out of the water the cold (it was 0^o topside, frost on the grass, ice on the pontoon, you get the picture) made Pete very uncomfortable indeed. Oddly enough, the water slopping around in my Namron kept me toasty warm (apart from me hands which were blocks of ice), but Pete was in dire need of a hot drink and a warm puppy (eh?).

Daisy to the rescue! Pete sat down inside, I lit both rings of the cooker and put the kettle on. It took a while, but eventually Pete thawed out after a couple of mugs of tea. I left him to steam up the inside of Daisy as I wandered about. A group of learner divers were just kitting up with their instructors and I hoped they'd brought the right kit to keep them warm. Incidentally, Pete has a drysuit whereas I wear a semi. He was wearing three layers to my one, yet in terms of keeping warm in our colder climate, the kit doesn't appear to matter as much as your metabolism and the amount of body fat you have. I'm happy to be criticised on this point, but I've dived in pretty cold stuff (30m at Stoney in late winter?), but have always felt nice and comfortable where other people appear to freeze. You judge.

Anyway, suitably thawed out, we decided to call it a day. Pete just wasn't going back without decent gloves, and I was inclined to agree. We met an instructor (sorry chum, never got your name, but thanks for the tip) who was just getting out of the water just as we were leaving. Pop down to your local Halfords, he advised, and try the Neoprene cycling gloves. They have a plastic zip, a protective flap, rubber grip pads on the palms and fingers and, being Neoprene, are ideal for divers! I asked him how his hands were after the dive. Still wet, he held one out for me to feel. Cold, yes, but certainly not cold like mine had been. Seemed like sound advice.

I'm off to Halfords. Will I go back to Grangewaters? Yeah, why not!

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