Trip to Hook - 16th April 2005
Jean Kelleher
I had been looking forward to a trip to Hook for
a long time. Every time it was arranged the weather did not oblige
with the correct wind direction, so when John O’Connor declared
on Friday 15th April that conditions seemed favourable for the
next day I was delighted.
I packed my gear including two bottles for myself, one for my
daughter Karen and Gerry O’Dowd’s spare bottle for
Orna. Needless to say the car was loaded down when we set off
early on that Saturday morning.
The weather forecast was spot on, the ice had thawed from the
car windscreens by the time we left the house. The sun was shining
brightly and the winds of the previous few days had died down.
We were armed with directions for the most direct way to Hook
Lighthouse courtesy of Paula O’Riordan who had previously
been a member of Hook SAC.
After a pleasant and thankfully uneventful journey we arrived
at Hook Lighthouse in time for tea and scones in the little café
before joining the group for the brief and a look at where we
were going to dive. The sea looked calm and, with the sun shimmering
off the surface, the conditions were as near perfect as we could
have hoped for.
We kitted up and went for our brief. I was buddied up with Kevin
St.John which was great. I knew that all I had to do was enjoy
the dive as Kevin was the perfect buddy to have, he would stay
close, be wary of all around, and enjoy the topography, the fish
life and the minutia of the plant life that we hoped we’d
see. We weren’t disappointed.
We followed Shane Tyrrell and Tom, Mark Seavers and Colm, and
descended into the cave under the lighthouse.
The vis was great and the first thing we encountered was Shane
showing his Tom a very strange looking fish (still to be identified).
I was carrying my newish digital camera encased in its newer underwater
housing and immediately saw a photo op!. I finned quickly to the
site where the fish had been and snapped. Due to the professionalism
of my underwater photography we still haven’t been able
to identify the fish. Still, I can only improve.
We let Shane and Colm, Mark and Tom go on their merry way and
continued on ours. The dive was really nice, so relaxing. Being
used to Sandycove, where if you have 2m vis you think you are
doing really well, it was so nice being able to see around. We
saw so many spider crabs, wrasse, a lobby, and dogfish, as well
as beautifully coloured kelp and so many fan worms. 
We
also saw many club members as they sauntered by enjoying their
dives. I even managed to catch a snap of Karen in her new pink
topped dry suit (which I think is great, even if she doesn’t)
as she finned passed us led by Jane McLaren, the Curragh’s
most recent recruit in the M department. When we did decide it
was time to surface we came up directly under the lighthouse and
had a relative easy exit and walk back to the car park.
Back at the car park it was time to compare notes where, it seemed,
everyone had enjoyed their dives enormously. A few people had
to get fills so next came the problem of who was going to fill
the bottles. Seeing as I had to get a fill for Karen I volunteered
to make the journey to Hood SAC, who had generously offered to
fill our bottles for a small fee. I loaded up the six bottles
and headed off with Mark Seavers to do this arduous task. Paula
was waiting at the Hook Club for us. As we entered the clubhouse
(after passing it twice) we got the aroma of frying sausages.
Weak at the knees from hunger we knocked timidly at a door that
looked a bit promising.
Paula greeted us and introduced us to Declan who would fill our
bottles. I was under instruction not to fill two of the bottles
if there was any time constraint. Mark and I delivered two bottles
to the compressor room. I went back to fetch two more. By the
time I had got back to the car and picked up the next two bottles
and brought them back the first two were filled. Imagine my amazement
at the speed of the fill. That certainly wouldn’t have happened
in Sandycove. I happily handed over the fee and headed back to
the Lighthouse, with time for lunch – my compressor duty
done for the year!!!!!
After a very nice lunch in the Hook Lighthouse Café, we
headed to the dive site at Churchtown. This dive did involve a
bit of a hike, fully kitted up, over land and some rocks to the
entry point. There was great trepidation from some people when
the entry involved a bit of a jump from the rocks. I was very
impressed with the way our new trainees took this all in their
stride. Those practiced entries in the pool really paid off here.
Everyone did their entry perfectly, as if they had being doing
this all their lives. It made me feel doubly nervous when it came
to my turn. All went well and I made it without loosing my mask
or totally panicking.
Kevin was leading this dive which was going out by some beautiful
gullies and had some of the most amazing jellyfish that I had
ever seen. Unfortunately the battery of my camera had died after
the morning dive so I couldn’t photograph these jellyfish.
Kevin led so well that we ended up exactly where we started after
bumping into Paula and John McLaren a couple of times during the
dive. The vis on that dive was not quite as good as the morning
dive, but still, we couldn’t complain.
We had two beautiful dives, with the most perfect weather with
sun
shining down on us, it was well worth the wait. The day was not
completely without a hitch as we had one diver who forgot a weight
belt and another who forgot a dry suit but, needless to say, in
true Curragh fashion, we all worked together and no-one missed
a dive.
Many thanks to John O’Connor for allowing it all to happen
and for being there to oversee all the activities in his usual
calm and reassuring way. We knew we were in safe hands.
Click here to see
Hook Photos
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