Sheephaven SAC: Sheephaven divers are flat out training for their next big adventure in early June, when they will snorkel out from the mainland with their destination Tory Island.
We started training months ago when the water was cold and the weather even colder again. But now we are able to stay longer in the water and our distances are lengthening with our stamina improving as a result.
Last Sunday we snorkeled from PortnaBlagh across to Killyhoey, along the length of the beach to the estuary bar and returned on the same path, all in an average time of just over two hours from start to finish.
The distance covered was around 3 miles, giving us an average speed of 1.5 miles per hour, which for the Tory snorkel gives an estimated time of over 5 hours in the water.
For the divers preparing for Tory every opportunity is now given over to getting a few more hours training done, with last week’s build up to Sunday’s time trial involving snorkels in Port Arthur, PortnaBlagh and Woodquarter.
All we need now is few more weeks of training and then loads of luck for fair weather on the day.
After that is all done we can get back to diving, but just to keep our hand in we dived Blackrock off Downings on Saturday morning on an idyllic May morning with weather conditions that would compete with anything Sheephaven divers have seen abroad.
Water temperature was a comfortable 10 degrees Celsius, while in-water visibility was an excellent 10 metres or more horizontally.
The dive was led by club Dive Officer Ryan Ward and involved two sticks, conducting dives to over 20 metres for surface to surface times of over 35 minutes.
It just doesn’t get much better than this.
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