Chairman’s Letter June 2021
Hello everybody……………..The Covid virus is still taking its toll on diving opportunities, particularly in respect of foreign travel. However, whilst we remain in uncertain times it is great to report that the diving season is well under way with successful trips to Anglesey, Plymouth and currently Cornwall in the last few weeks. Then there is Liverpool Bay diving, and I can tell you that the viz is returning, with 5/6 meters experienced on the City of Brussels last Saturday Further adventures are planned over the coming weeks to Pembroke, Scapa Flow (postponed from last year) and Plymouth.
The new Humber RIB is now scheduled to arrive at the beginning of July and it will then be taken down to Conway Marina to be professionally kitted out with VHF radio, GPS and Echo sounder. Our old Viking has now been purchased by a member and it is good to see that it will being staying within the club.
Speaking of the club boats, I think it is important that those leading trips should touch base with Chris Mills, the Club Equipment Officer both before and after a trip, initially to establish if any of the equipment needs attention or renewal and post trip to discover if anything has been damaged or lost. If this protocol is followed it should remove all the anxiety and any uncertainty surrounding the kit. After all the Equipment Officer (which is a thankless job) cannot be expected to affect repairs if he is unaware of their existence. Moreover, I would ask you all to ensure that any damage or loss is reported immediately rather than just walk away to avoid possible embarrassment. Let’s be right we are all guilty of careless on occasions.
As you are aware the club and pool have been open since the end of May, however, with the current restrictions still in place we are not able to offer our full range of services with numbers being limited to 20 people in the club and 12 in the pool. Hopefully after the 19th. July we will be able to return to something resembling normality. The training team are aware that several SDC’s need to be commenced/concluded which include boat handling and twin set training. So watch this space and if you have any quires do not hesitate to get in touch with your training team of Dr. Chris Wood, Steve Mills and Terry Maloney. Incidentally, our congratulations go out to Chris who recently qualified as a GP, well done mate.
The Club Annual Dinner has now been booked by Dave Edwards for Saturday, 30th. October 2021 at Birkenhead Park Rugby Club. This really is great news considering that last year’s event was lost to the Covid virus. Dave is really trying to make this a memorable event and tickets will shortly be available from behind the bar at a cost of £40 pp. The format will be similar to previous years and we are currently exploring the prospect of having both a DJ and a singer.
That’s it folks…..safe diving.