QUICK CROSSWORD

Birds

Can you find the hidden words? They may be horizontal, vertical, diagonal, forwards, or backwards.

Across

1 Easily yielding to pressure (4)

3 Waterfall (8)

9 Open grassland in the USA (7)

10 Bestowed (5)

11 Relative magnitudes of 2 quantities (5)

12 Become smaller (6)

14 Academy awards (6)

16 Drinker's toast (6)

19 Natural tooth covering (6)

21 Vigilant (5)

24 Hunting dog (5)

25 Eminent (7)

26 Remiss (8)

27 Tool for cutting and shaping wood (4)

Down

1 Higher-ranking (8)

2 Banquet (5)

4 Relaxed (2,4)

5 Ire (5)

6 Make progress (7)

7 Very small (4)

8 Fervour (6)

13 So to speak (2,2,4)

15 Vanquish (7)

17 Card suit (6)

18 Aircraft (6)

20 Mannequin (5)

22 Receded (5)

23 Elegantly stylish (4)

Sudoku

ALBATROSS, BUDGIE, BUZZARD, CANARY, CORMORANT, CRANE, CROW, DOVE, EAGLE, EMU, FINCH, FLAMINGO, HAWK, HERON, JACKDAW, KESTREL, KOOKABURRA, LAPWING, LARK, NIGHTINGALE, OSTRICH, OWL, PARROT, PENGUIN, PIGEON, QUAIL, RAVEN, ROBIN, SANDPIPER, SEAGULL, SPARROW, STORK, SWALLOW, TERN, TOUCAN, VULTURE.

To

Bystander please call Julie on 07928 778457

Breathe Easy

The first rule of dive club is keep breathing. The second rule of dive club is regularly check and maintain your equipment; ensure it’s safe and environment-appropriate to use. The third rule of dive club is stay close to your buddy, especially in poor visibility. The fourth rule is know and don’t exceed your limits – practise safe diving. The fifth ‘rule’ is have fun. I’m paraphrasing somewhat. But those are the main things to keep in mind while scuba diving.

I learned to dive eight years ago while travelling and was lucky enough to volunteer for a dive centre in Cairns that chartered one liveaboard and two day-boats to provide tourists with outstanding diving out on the Great Barrier Reef. It started out as a ‘mission to overcome’ so to speak, as due to some poor visibility while in the UK, I’d become a little too water-averse. The adventurer in me was at odds with the introvert reluctant to dive into unchartered territory.

When I did conquer my fear of open water it wasn’t just liberating, it felt empowering too. Doors opened and I was awash with belief. I had envied the students on the open water course who cruised through the necessary skills with no qualms; however, when it came to working on the liveaboard and there was the odd passenger with a wobble in confidence, it seemed appropriate that I could be helpful in assuring them that I’d been in the same boat! (Geddit?!) All it took was a bit more experience in the water and some encouragement.

When I returned to the UK, wreck dives sparked my interest and in particular the HMS M2 submarine, sitting 32m down off the coast of Dorset, in Lyme Bay. Built and launched during WWI, she unfortunately sank during a training exercise in 1932. It’s thought that the crew were so keen to beat their record time to rise to the surface and launch their aircraft that the hangar door was opened prematurely on the surface while the deck was still awash, causing the hangar to flood. Her demise prompted the Royal Navy to abandon submarine-launched aircraft.

Now I’m kitted finally up with the right gear and have booked onto a trip to dive the M2 this summer. The deep dive course to enable me to dive past 30m brought with it an unexpected and unwelcome hazard. Due to the temperature of the water being so cold (below 10 degrees Celsius) my regulator (and two other divers’ regulators) froze, causing a free-flow at 29-30m on our way back up from a 33.5m dive. At the time, I could hear air gushing at speed, could see endless bubbles, and couldn’t breathe normally through my regulators. So seeing as I hadn’t experienced this malfunction, and we were so deep down, I started to panic. Thankfully all divers were okay, albeit a little annoyed, however, it’s a reminder of the necessity of keeping on top of equipment and preparing for more challenging conditions that might arise.

Between the first (less eventful) dive of the course that morning and the second (the free-flow), I’d pondered whether I’d feel confident in the event of an equipment malfunction or emergency of any sort as it had been so long since my training. The next dive resembled an eery mixture of “be careful what you wish for” and “here’s some of that extra experience in the water for you”. My love of scuba diving hasn’t ebbed as a result; if anything, it’s a way to keep overcoming challenges while exploring the planet’s beautiful marine world.

Sally Gower