Pembrokeshire. Another beautiful June morning and the promise of a scorching day to come; seven Dolphins assembled at St Bride's Haven car park (Trevor, Pete, Sarah, Rachel, Bethan, Helen & Malcolm). Quite a few other cars about already, some other divers and canoeists all keen to get out and enjoy the water.

Pete launched the orange RIB off the beach. The tricky lane down to the shore and the lumpy rocks across the beach would make launching here without a land rover impossible, however we were quickly afloat with all systems go and heading for Stack Rocks, following another club's boat across.

Stack Rocks. Helen and Malcolm dived first, heading NW from the northern end after submerging in the shelter of the camel (or dragon?). Despite some streaky mank in the water the visibility was good (8m) and the reef beneath was carpeted in life; urchins, big deadmen's fingers, star fish, squat lobsters, crabs of all flavours, nudibraches, sea-cucumbers... There were also some big things, about hand sized, that looked like a cross between a nudibranch and a sea-cucumber. Haven't seen those before (Tritonia hombergi?). Helen took a lot of photographs.

The dive got steadily better as we went deeper, with deep gullies, cliffs and caves replacing the flat reef and small overhangs. One of these dark caves was harbouring a huge grey congor eel with a line of prawns acting as gate keepers. Ascending we were surrounded by jellyfish and comb jellies, summer is on it's way. Surfaced after over fifty minutes.

Sarah, Pete and Trevor dived as a threesome and collected several handsome-sized edible crabs. They also had a good view of an octopus and spent well over forty minutes under water.

Returned to St Bride's Haven for lunch and to swop empty cylinders for full ones. Lots of people enjoying the beach and a mad dog enthusiastically digging lots of holes in the sand. Also a chance to dry out a bit for those of us with leaky drysuits.

Second dive was Hand mark which is more or less straight out from St Bride's Haven until the north end of Stack Rocks is to your east. An area of lobster pot bouys suggested the right place and the fish finder showed depths of about 20m dropping gently to the south and more steeply to the north.

We picked on one yellow bouy to use as a shot and Helen and Malcolm went in first. Visibility not as good as earlier and a slight current running to the east. On the bottom the sandy patches between the rocks were covered in brittle stars and there were a goodly number of (sadly out of season) scallops about too. Big dahlia anemones and long-clawed squat lobsters (Munida rugosa) were plentiful on this dive.

The second team down found a huge lions mane jellyfish waiting for them at the bottom of the rope, before heading north looking for more crabs. With the water temperature well over 11°C both groups of divers had forty minute dives.

After diving Pete charmed a few mackerel into the boat, whilst we waited for the tide to get up the beach a bit. By the time we got back to shore the water was flat calm and crystal clear in the bay. If the visibility stays like that for next weekend it will be superb diving.

Photos to be added when Helen has sorted out her computer problems. M.

Pembrokeshire. Another dry sunny morning and a reduced team of five (Pete, Trevor, Martin, Helen & Malcolm) met at the boat at 9.30am. Slightly slow boat sort-out due to fitting a new radio (thanks Steve!). Martin and Helen went to Milford for fuel whilst Pete, Trevor and Malcolm completed the boat fettling and drove down to Gelliswick. Weather forecast for a northerly breeze of about 13mph and small swell from the west.

All sorted and ready to launch, happily dressed up in our thick rubber suits under a scorching sun, and the land rover decided to get tempermental and refused to start. Precision application of the land rover mechanic's tool of choice (a large hammer) failed to secure co-operation. Eventually the starter motor relay was successfully shorted with deft application of a screwdriver, and we were back in business. Whilst standing round the open-bonneted land rover we were able to watch the paddle steamer 'Waverley' passing down the Haven and said good morning to Jamie Owen, who was passing along the pavement on a walk. (Join the Dolphins and meet TV celebrities!)

With only five on board the boat flew down the haven and we rounded St Anne's to find only a gentle swell. We tucked in on the south side of Gateholm for a first dive, where the water appeared calm and the island blocked the wind. Overfalls towards the western end of the island, and a nearby buoy leaning at a strong angle, suggested more tidal action in that direction...

Martin and Malcolm went in as a buddy pair, with Helen loosely a third doing photography. After sorting out Martin's weighting we descended to find a mixture of sandy and silty patches between big blocks of rock topped with kelp. Very little surge and no current so a nice bimbly dive in a max of 14m. Lots of big spider crabs and other life deeper in the cracks; squat lobsters, leopard spotted gobis and prawns amongst others. Only a few wrasse about but we did find and have a good view of one snoozing dog fish. Surfaced under SMB after ~30mins.

Helen surfaced ten minutes later having taken some nice photographs, where she had managed to avoid the silt clouds created by Malcolm and Martin.

Trevor and Pete decided to try a dive slightly further to the west, where the fish finder showed about 20m. In light of the slight concern about the current it was agreed that the divers would put up an SMB if they were drifting at any speed, a chop on the water making it hard to see bubbles. After about twenty minutes our boat (in sea area 'Lundy') received a radio call from another vessel some distance to the north (almost in sea area 'Irish Sea'), reporting they had two divers on the surface. From our position we could easily see the boat to the north but the divers SMB was only just visible.

So, where had the plan gone adrift? It turned out that Pete had had huge problems getting his ears to equalise on descending. They had not reached the bottom and had been stuck in mid-water, where they had had no sense of movement. However, eventually they saw a rock, which went past at a blistering rate of knots and realised they were drifting. At this point they put up the SMB and ascended, and were very pleased to see the boat close and approaching them... Then they realised it wasn't the right boat (thanks to whoever you were for the radio call).

Crossed to Skokholm and had lunch in a bay at the eastern end, surrounded by puffins, guillemots and razorbills. Lots of jelly fish visible in the water and a young seal sitting on a nearby rock. Is there a better place to be on a sunny Sunday afternoon?

Rounded the western end of the island by the lighthouse and came back east as far as the landing stage bay. Malcolm, Martin and Helen kitted up first and went in, quickly separating as M&M had to return to the surface to sort out mask problems; Helen carried on alone with the camera.

Back on the bottom we found a similar low energy environment to the morning dive, with a few wrasse and lots of spider crabs and a fair bit of kelp. However, the high-light of the dive was the seal (perhaps seals), which kept turning up to try and eat Malcolm's fins, or cuddle them. A real treat and repeated several times; he (or she) clearly wanted to play with us. Very curious about our fins and not at all worried by bubbles... At one point i was lying on my back in the kelp watching the seal trying to eat my left fin (they do have quite big teeth!). Behind him, silhouted against the light surface, I watched a bird swim past underwater.

Even when we were putting the SMB up there were three of us paying attention, two human and one fascinated seal arranged in a triangle on the bottom. He also joined us briefly on safety stop to have one final go at pulling off my fin... would happily have spent the rest of the afternoon down there, air and time allowing. A real red letter day, especially if it is only your second UK sea dive! Helen surfaced to say that she'd been accompanied by two seals during part of her dive, one smaller and one larger.

Pete and Trevor also dived in the bay but didn't see the seals underwater, despite seals surfacing all around their bubbles and clearly investigating them. Perhaps seals are fussy about fin colour or after-shave or something.

Only a slight chop on the water now so flew back to Gelliswick and had the boat all away by about 6.30pm. No problems with the boat and both engines are running fine. To compliment the new radio we are going to tidy up the wiring and intend to have the power connections for the radio inside the console; this will hopefully reduce salt and weather damage. This will be done next visit to the boat. Laminated copies of tidal atlases will be added to the dry 'clean' boxes for both boats (and the backs of these will show useful radio frequencies and similar info).

Cromhall Quarry. A joint Cardiff Underwater and Cardiff Dolphins trip to allow new members to dive with us and trainees to have their first open water dives. Seeing the forecast was good and Cromhall provide barbeque facilities it would have been rude not to take along a few sausages and burgers.

Full team consisted of Les, Trevor, Gabrielle, Martin, James, Rob, Andrew, Morgan, Shirley (safety cover and chef), Helen and Malcolm.

Everyone who wanted to dive was able to get in the water. Morgan and Gabrielle had their first open water dives guided by Les and Trevor. Helen dived with Andrew and James. Martin dived with Malcolm and Rob. Only fair to say that visibility under water was pretty dreadful. That said a few fish were seen, Helen saw some dead newts and Rob managed to have a go on the remains of the Cromhall bicycle.

The weather warmed up after a cool start and everyone enjoyed a couple of hours in the sun and a bbq lunch. Thanks to Helen and Shirley for doing most of the catering.

An afternoon dive proved that the visibility hadn't improved much. Morgan and Gabrielle snorkelled instead and had no problem with the water temperature in just swim-suits. Summer must be on its way.

We intend to have another BBQ soon, probable date is 3rd July at St Bride's Haven. Watch out for further details coming soon... (All photos this report by Trevor)