Due to a prior commitment to see Tom in a school music production, we were unable to join the Maldives Diving team on Friday, but left home at 7:15am Saturday morning for the 2 ½ hour drive to Paignton in Devon to RV at Venture Sports where everyone was getting air fills & purchasing that last minute essential diving item.

Once assembled, we drove to the first dive site of the day at Meadfoot Beach. Having located a convenient parking area near to the slipway, we began the process of moving equipment from the car to the waters edge. My new trolley was the envy of the club, loading it & ambling across the road & down the slipway, everything was moved with the minimum of fuss & effort.

We were here for Adriana to get her required five sea dives towards her Club Diver, & for me to just dive for fun, experience & to complete my 10 dives for my CMAS 2* award.

Dave had arranged for Adriana & me to dive with Jason Cox & Jason Duignan as Dive Leader. The other teams were Lorraine & Damian with John Parkinson, & Gary & James Walker with himself.

The entry to the water was somewhat fraught as the slipway was just that - slippy, also we had to cross a rocky area to get to water deep enough to float & get fins on.

Before we could make the dive, we had a slight technical hitch. Adriana was not weighted heavily enough, so I donated my extra weights (4lbs). This still failed to do the trick, so Jason returned to the shore for our remaining spare weight. This just about did the trick, but come descent time, I had some trouble getting down, so went in search of rocks to use as emergency weight. I also added some more to Adriana, which bought her total to about ½ ton!

The dive itself was pretty good, the usual sea life was in abundance, hermit crabs, small & not so small crabs, plant life, & even a dogfish which Jason bought out of the water for all to see, thinking it dead - it turned out to be alive when it was returned to the water. Our dive was an out & back dive, lasting 24 minutes with a maximum depth of 5.5 metres. As always with sea diving, there is something to look at all the time, & surfacing always comes too soon. The tide was on its way out so we had even further to walk, slip & slide out. Dave was cussed several times by Adriana who wasn't enjoying this part of the dive, but once back on dry land, she calmed somewhat.

By now, the sun had appeared & it was far too hot to sit around in dry suits, so everyone except John & Jason de-kitted for some sunshine. I decided I would have a play on the wall which was ideally suited for a bit of low level traversing, made as it was, from boulders. I amused myself for an hour or so, by which time the call was made to start thinking about the second dive. We had spotted a sandy beach further up the coast which we concluded was the site we were supposed to be at as it had a much easier entry point, but lethargy ruled & we decided to stay put, making a mental note to remember for next time.