“Clear blue skies, sunshine, temperatures of 27 °C and a flat calm sea with great visibility”. You could be forgiven for thinking I was talking about some far away foreign shore but not so! It was the June Bank Holiday weekend on Inish Meain, Aran Islands, nine mile south of Rossaveel .

The slip at Rossaveel was closed from 4pm on the Friday until Tuesday making it useless to us for launching or retrieval. We had to use the slip in Shruhan which is just across the bay from Rossaveel. Shruhan is not the easiest slip to launch or retrieve from as you have to reverse a long distance along the roadway as there is insufficient room to turn close to the slip.

The weekend got off to a shaky start with force 5 winds blowing for the crossing, late on the Friday evening. We arrived safely at the north pier, Inish Meain just before dark. A little bit of ingenuity was required to get the MCH16 compressor onto the stern of the RIB before takeoff.

The winds subsided very quickly over night and we were able to work out of the east pier which was within a two hundred meters of where we were staying with Martin Faherty, Cois Cuain. The compressor was sited on the pier close to the steps so it made everything very easy. Most of the diving equipment stayed onboard for the entire weekend with cylinders only removed to be filled. 

On Saturday the winds had eased but there was still a bit of a swell so not all the sites were available to us but we got good diving off the west side of Inish Meain. After lunch back on Inish Meain we had a second dive close to the three wind generators on the south of the island.

By Sunday the sea was flat calm & we headed to the north of Inish More to a dive site called the Canyon (N53 08.697 W9 51.061) which as the name suggests is like an underwater canyon that bottoms out at 33 meters. For lunch we headed back to Kilronan, a village on the south side of the island. Fish & chips were enjoyed by all and we ran into some old friends from Dalkey Scuba Divers who were also diving the Aran Islands for the weekend. Fish n’ chips prices from a chip shop are however at a premium price on this island which is a pity in these recessionary times. It would make you wonder what foreign tourists think of the value they receive when visiting Ireland & if they would return.

Our second dive was off Glassan Rock on the south west tip of Inish More before heading back to Inish Meain.

On Monday morning we headed for Poll na bPeist (The Worm Hole), a wide cave which opens out & ends in a large rectangular opening on the surface similar to a man made swimming pool. Almost everyone found it although one buddy group was unfortunate. Unfortunate in the sense that they told everyone that they did not find it!

Everyone was sad to be leaving such a lovely island & beautiful weather behind and all would have loved to stay for a few days longer.

Organising a diving weekend on an island is always a daunting task for any Diving Officer as you have to decide what is essential & what you can do without. Then there is the logistics of getting it all out there & back in one piece. Rosemary, our DO done a great job in doing so with the weekend running very smoothly. This was helped by everyone pulling their weight leaving us finished early with plenty of time for rest & relaxation in the evenings.

I hope we get the chance to return sometime soon to explore all the remaining dive sites we had not the time to dive as I feel this was only a small sample of the excellent diving the Aran Islands have to offer.