As usual we took over the whole upper floor of the Bayleaf in Llandaff for our Christmas meal, following a pre-dinner drink in the Butchers up the road. An excellent turn out and it was especially good to see so many of our new members and trainee divers attending.

Present: Loads of people, from the Dolphins, Cardiff Underwater and South Glamorgan BSAC.

An unusual one-off trip by some of the club members to dive in a flooded mine in the Neath Valley. The day was notable for the hard frost in the morning and the very hard carry up and over a steep hill walking to and from the mine with all the diving gear. Most people made two trips up with gear and two trips back, to make the loading a bit more manageable.

Divers had a swim around a pre-laid line through typical underwater mine passages in reasonably good visibility, closely supervised by experienced members of the Cave Diving Group. The route included the remains of an old dram, left from when the miners were last working the mine for silica, and a change of levels passing over an area of roof fall.

A very pleasant pint at The Angel afterwards helped to ease some of the aches and pains.

Present: Roger (SG), Gareth (SG), Teilo (CU), Rob (CU), Helen (CD) and Malcolm (CD). Porterage assistance from Jake (CU).

Diving at the NDAC on Sunday to let Eddie and Gabriel dive using their new, to them, suits - Eddie with his wet suit and Gabriel using a dry suit for the first time. John and Les entered the water first, followed by Eddie and Gabriel after being checked out by Trevor that they were properly kitted out. Hoses connected, air on, weight belt properly connected, etc. And off they went, with Trevor finishing his kitting up and chasing after them.

As the group had entered the water at the very end of the staging, at the shallowest part, they proceeded to the sunken Land Rover which is at 5m. Here Eddie started to find difficulty in equalizing his ears, however thankfully he was able to eventualy get down and we had a pleasent dive exploring the military items on the bottom.

Later, for a second dive, we went down the rope to visit the single decker bus. Eddie had problems with equalising again and could not get deeper than 5 metres, so was unable to get down to the bus and instead he and John followed the rock face to the shallow end. Gabriel, Les and Trevor continued down to the bus where Les discovered a problem with his supply of air and had to return to the surface, therefore ending his dive. Gabriel and Trevor continued with exploration of the bus and then on to an exploration of the Gnome Garden, after which it was decided to terminate the dive, surfacing after a normal safety stop.

Present: John H; Eddie H; Gabriel M; Les M; & Trevor M (all CD)

NDAC Chepstow. A training day for Dolphin Dive Leader candidates, with some underwater search work and a tour round the new features which include buses and a land rover. Max depth about 22m, visibility not great.

Present: Kim R, Helen S, Nick H, Trevor M and Martin D (all CD).

Pembrokeshire. A fabulous weather window resulted in the Dolphins launching their orange RIB from St Bride's Haven; a flat calm sea and beautiful sunshine. An 'Indian Summer' of the best sort (and record temperatures for the UK were recorded today, breaking all records for October).

First dive was on Stack Rocks but sadly beneath the surface spring tides and a late plankton bloom had put paid to the visibility; diving by brail.

Second dive on Nag's Head around the coast to the west of St Bride's Haven, bordering on the Skomer Marine Conservation Area. This was a new site for the Dolphins and would be a very good second dive in better visibility.

Present: John H, Martin D, Helen S, Trevor M and Pete M. All CD.

Key: CD Cardiff Dolphin member, CU Cardiff Underwater member, SG South Glamorgan BSAC member.