Taz & Sue revisit Dahab, thanks to Taz for the words and pictures
All packed up ready to head to Egypt, we managed to get all our scuba gear (except weights and cylinder obviously) into our bags, just short of our baggage allowance of 20kg. Barely any space for clothes though, but glad it can be done. BC, regs, wetsuit, mask, fins, snorkel, computer, boots, weight belt.
Tropitel Oasis Hotel - beach view
Diving in Dahab, Egypt. We stayed at Tropitel Oasis, which was right on the Red Sea and right next to the hotel is the Lagona Dive Centre. The staff are just fantastic, and can’t do enough for you, in fact they do everything except dive for you. Once you get kitted up outside, it’s a short walk to their custom built pier and you go carefully down the steps onto a platform at sea level, depending on tides. High tide; the platform is covered in water, low tide maybe 8 inches drop into the sea. Sadly the pier is also shared by some snorkellers who have no idea about manners or how divers operate.
Lagona Dive Centre beach
If you haven’t done 50 dives, they won’t let you dive, so you must take a guide with you. These guides are only that, and not instructors. To be honest it makes it easier to take them as they clearly know their way around. Your first dive is a check-out dive where you do partial mask clear and DV retrieval. Simples.
The House Reef is beautiful; packed with a diverse range of marine life. The centre also has transport and they cover a huge range of sites. The Blue Hole is only a 10 minute drive away, and the entry point is literally a small pool, called the Bells Entry which is the best part of the dive, dropping immediately down to around 30m, you can only go in one at a time, but it makes you feel like James Bond on a spy mission. As you drop you can see through a crack in the outside wall to the deep blue of the sea. The drop opens out and you dive under a small arch and out. Below is 200m of deep blue. At the end of the dive you cross over the Blue Hole itself at about 8m. The exit is very slippy, on an old wooden pier, and it’s so busy, you’re better going at 6am. Another excellent dive was the Canyon; here you swim through a basin to get into open water, and eventually an underwater cave, reaching a depth of 31m. You might be lucky and see several shoals of fish on the dive, but as you approach you can see a line of bubbles coming from cracks in the rock.
The Canyon is recommended, it was our favourite, apart from the Coral Garden drift dive back to the House reef which was wonderful. We were lucky to see loads of marine-life; a sea turtle, octopus, quite a few moray eels (of various sizes), some really boisterous clown fish, and the other 5000 types of species I can’t recall.
The Canyon
Our average dive profile on a 200 bar, 12L tank was 18m for 60 minutes, coming up with around 50 bar.
This was supposed to be a 5-day trip to Kinlochbervie but we had problems with air and accommodation so ended up in Lochaline instead. The trip consisted of; Brian, Sands, Bruce, Adelle, Niall, Kev Watson and Alison.
The weather was good so we headed up to Loch Sunart for the first dive and did a beautiful wall on the south shore of the Loch, christened Rowan Ridge. Plenty of life on the walls to keep the photographers interested!
Polyps of Red Sea Fingers
Cadlina levis?
Cluster Anemones at Rowan Ridge
Polycera quadrilineata
Scallop eyes
We headed to the Tobermory Chocolate Shop for lunch, as usual, and then out to Calve Island to dive the wall, when things started to fall apart a bit. Carpe Diem started sending sensor warning messages so we headed back in to Tobermory. After discussions with the boat doctor we decided to bring the trailer over to Mull and recover Carpe Diem from there – rather then risk running the engine and damaging it.
Down to one boat and 6 divers with twinsets! Fortunately for us Sound Diver was available and Mark had a couple of things he wanted to do out in the Sound so we managed to get a dive on the Hispania and one in Ardtornish Bay the following day. By Sunday there was a diver less due to regulator failure so back onto Sands boat for the remainder of the weekend.
Collision damage on the Hispania
Brian by the ghost davit on the stern
Collecting sonar targets in Ardtornish Bay
Kev's new bike and cycle helmet
We're planning to get up to Kinlochbervie in 2010, here's hoping we have better luck next time!
Alison's Malin Head gas trip looking to dive the Audacious, Empire Heritage and Justicia. We managed to dive all three target wrecks but I only took my camera on the Justicia and Empire Heritage!
Clive successfully completed his trimix training . . .
at the Zaphod Beeblebrox School . . . Brian went there too
The rebreather guys; John, Meeko (in THAT suit), Chris, Sharkie and Alan
Walking the plank!
Nice civilised trip back to Lough Swilly
Ann & Sinbad
bell of the Laurentic
Loyal Watcher in Lough Swilly
We were incredibly lucky to get out to all three target wrecks, and have superb dives on all three. The Audacious was fabulous, but no camera on that dive, so here's footage from the other two.
The Loch Torridon expedition was a feat of logistical ingenuity - eight divers, 2 rhibs, enough gas to keep us diving for three and a half days and lots of Lochinver pies. We stayed at Kinloch and launched the boats at Sheildaig, just down the road.
Kinloch, Sheildaig
Loch Torridon from the cottage
We arrived in glorious sunshine and decided to make the most of it.
Stuart and Lewis arrive with Event Horizon
Champagne?
BYOBs
Saturday was overcast but the Loch was flat calm. We decided to head out to Hinds Shoal, a blue spot on the chart to the north of Rona. The Shoal turned out to be a flat topped rock with walls and terraces, reminiscent of Ondine Rock at Lochinver. It starts at about 20m but quickly drops to over 70m with relatively sheer walls in some places. It's a beutiful site but there's always an uncouth element on these trips, no matter how hard you try!
Brian & I dropped in at the terraces and had the kind of fabulous visibility that just keeps drawing you down and down. The marine life was sparse but interesting with plenty of nudibranchs to keep me happy. At 40m there were lots of Northern Seafans - and at 48m one covered in Seafan Anemones - which pretty much made my weekend.
Seafan and anemones
One-eyed Scorpionfish
We overstayed our welcome at 48m and ended up doing lots of deco, by the time we surfaced the wind had blown up andwe decided to run for home pretty sharpish - Event Horizon had cleared off and left us long before - so much for sticking together for safety. By the time we got back we were all cold and wet but Paul was pursuaded to build a fire before he cooked our dinner!
The hats weren't the only things warming by the fire . .
Paul in the kitchen . . . about to create!
Pete catching a few zzzzz's
Gasmen?
Sunday the weather was worse and there was a brisk on-shore wind at the slip. Carpe Diem stayed warm and dry but Event Horizon tried for the wall in the Lower Loch - unsuccessfully as it tunred out - and they came back to dive the island off Sheildaig. Ann, Paul and Alison went scouting for a more sheltered slip but only found ice-cream . . .
Monday brought much better weather and we managed to get both boats out to the wall on the south side of the Lower Loch, it was a fab dive, teeming with life.
Pleurobranchus membranaceus
Sea Hare
For the second dive we headed to the Narrows, Brian and I hit it just as the tide turned so started heading out to sea then got turned round so we were heading back into Upper Loch Torridon. It's a fairly shallow dive with a sheer rock wall dropping onto a coarse sand and gravel seabed. The current is fierce so there's very little silt and the vis was brilliant.
Even though it didn't go according to plan, the dives we did get were terrific, so good I'm going back next year . . . B&B booked, boats booked, 6 places taken . . . Hinds Shoal anyone?
Thanks to Ann & Paul for catering and bring all their spare cylinders, Brian for bringing the boat and organising the marks, Stewart and Lewis for bringing Event Horizon, and to Claire at Kinloch for looking after us.
Another day trip out diving, this time we headed south to dive with the seals of the Farne islands. Our intrepid explorers onboard were (left to right); Paul M, Adelle, Tom, Hilary, Bruce, and Judit behind the camera.
We were to meet Graeme (our skipper) at Beadnell bay to launch his 8.5m RIB from the beach with the helping hand of a big red tractor. We were warned that the sea would be a bit choppy on the way our but with a reassuring “well wye-aye-like, we’re big tough divers like” (he’s a Geordie) we were on our way.
After a rather bumpy journey we arrived at the outer Farnes in search of seals. This wasn’t to last very long as we were soon at the appropriately named “seal gut” with at least 20 seals quickly surrounding the boat to watch us kit up.
Surrounded!
Buddy pairs were already sorted so we were off and instantly being investigated, even at the surface. Max depth was just over 5m but all the good stuff seemed shallow so that’s where we stayed. As we progressed, the seals seemed to become more adventurous.
One seal even stopping to pose for the camera
It was quite funny to watch other unsuspecting divers being stalked by a seal, only to have it disappear just as they turn around, usually after a little fin tugging.
Where did you come from?
By the end of the dive we had definitely made friends with one of them. Sitting on either side of a small gulley in the kelp a seemingly amorous seal was zipping from diver to diver, bowling people over and giving little nibbles of any body part presented to it. It even chased off any other seals that were trying to see what all the fuss was about.
With dive no1 over it was time to head back to the boat for Garibaldi’s and nearly warm tea for our surface interval.
The second dive was to be on a reef with the wreck of the “St Andre” nearby at the base of the wall. With some precision navigation, the wreck was found. Although mostly broken up, sections of hull along with anchor chain and boilers could be clearly made out. We then retraced our steps back to the reef to finish off the dive.
With dive no2 done it was time to head back home. Thankfully the sea had calmed and made the journey back much more pleasant. All in all, a lovely day out with some seriously close seal encounters. All finished off with some fine fish & chips from Seahouses.
Thanks to Bruce for the words, Judit and Paul M for the pictures.
Four of us stayed up at Lochaline until the middle of the week - it gave Bruce something to do between diving and running the Three Peaks Race. We downsized from Sound Diver to Carpe Diem but managed to hang on to the fantastic weather. . . . so we decided to try for Bo'fascadale on the Monday afternoon slack. On the way up we did the Pelican in Tobermory harbour.
After lunch in Tobermory we headed up to Bo'fascadale.
We got two terrific dives on the Hispania.
Brian making friends with the Hispania's duty wrasse
Sheila's long awaited trip to Lochaline! Sheila's partners in crime for this trip were; Alison, Ann, Franca, Hilary, Sarah F, Brian, Bruce, Gordon, Rocky the Oracle and Tom plus non-divers Valerie, Elie and Marco.
Most of us have spent a fair bit of time at Lochaline Dive Centre over the years, but this time we were looking forward to testing out Annie & Marks new boat mv Sound Diver. As usual we all arrived in dribs and drabs depending on our work commitments (or lack of!) and how long we spent in the Real Food Cafe at Tyndrum. The weather was looking a bit dodgy on the way up - snow on the mountains and lumpy rain at Glencoe - and lots of deer on the hills.
Saturday morning we had a huge breakfast at the dive centre (thanks Lee) then split into 2 groups with the divers heading north to Calve Island wall, and the walkers talking about going back for a coffee in the dry.
The walking party: Elie and Valerie - Sound Diver - Gordon praying to the kit gods
Something must've gone wrong with the organisation somewhere, everyone was kitted and ready at least 5 minutes before we needed to be and without a single prompt from Sheila or Skipper Mark!!!
A whole boat load of divers kitted, ready and waiting - a Divetech first?
Sheila booked us in for dinner, bed and breakfast at the dive centre - and Lee rashly offered to cook scallops if we collected and cleaned them - so it would have been rude not too really.
Calve Island Wall is a fantastic dive - it drops off vertically to 50m or so, has a good exchange of water and is covered in life. There are nearly always shoals of fish in residence and the vis is usally good.
Devonshire Cup Coral
Cushion Star
Wee prawny thing
Peacock worms
After an excellent dive we headed into Tobermory for lunch. While we made a bee-line for the Tobermory Chocolate Shop, Mark and Lee topped up the cylinders for the afternoon dive. Sound Diver has an onboard compressor and diver lift, along with oodles of kitting up room and a large enough cabin for everyone to get inside during bad weather - perfect!
For the afternoon dive, after a nice hot cocoa(!), we headed into Loch Sunart to do a drift through Risga Narrows. Bruce and Rocky were very keen and got kitted way too early -
Peaked too soon lads . . . leaving plenty of time for Sheila to take the mick . . .
. . . and for Rocky to do some research!
A girl can never have too many gloves, apparently.
It was neap tides but we got a pretty brisk ride through the narrows - and everyone came out with a smile on their face! Still had time to take a video and a few photos . . .
Tritonia on Deadmen's Fingers
Red Fingers
Seapens all in a row
Featherstar
Sunstar
Long Clawed Squattie
Annie and Mark have up graded the dive centre considerably over the winter. All the rooms now have an ensuite wetroom complete with shower - no more dashing to the showers in the corridor! They've also put decking outside the dining area and patio doors out to it - it all looks very smart. Some of the trees have gone too, so there's a great view down Lochaline - it's a fantastic improvement.
We spent a very pleasant evening scoffing Lee's excellent dinner and making Heather Cream cocktails - surprisingly Heather Cream goes with just about everything but is particulaly good with Green & Blacks cocoa and Lee's filter coffee - or a mixture of both.
Sunday was glorious, sunny, calm, blue skies, blue sea and not a cloud in the sky - excellent planning Sheila? We headed off up the Sound to do the Rondo at a very civilised time.
The vis wasn't quite as good as on Calve Island but it was a great dive.
Sarah found these nudibranchs, Aeolidia papillosa, busily laying eggs at the stern
Gordon at the stern - not laying eggs!
Sarah at the stern
Looking up from 30m-ish
Divers on the rudder
Gordon and Sound Diver at the Rondo
After the Rondo we headed down to Duart Castle for a look at artefacts from the Swan and to visit the tearoom. That was when things started to get silly . . .
. . . .and the swim ashore was highly entertaining.
Bruce may have been reading too many Batman comics . .
Lismore light from Duart Castle
Divetech, probably the most active dive club in Edinburgh?!?
It was horrible, bodies everywhere
Bruce & Ann did wake up enough to make daisy chains . . . or a daisy slug in Ann's case
After a short nap - and a bite to eat we headed back to the boat to dive the Swan.
By the way Bruce, that big hill behind you . . . it isnt that one, its the bigger one behind that :-/
Thanks to Sheila for organising the weekend, to Annie, Mark, Lee and Gosha at Lochaline Dive Centre for looking after us, and to Sarah, Tom and Alison for the photos!
Ropes off at 9am from Eyemouth meant an early start for the Fabulous Four, consisting of the Amazing Diving Dustans plus Brian and Alison. We were hoping to get out to an undived wreck on the Wee Bankie, NNE of Eyemouth, but the weather was a bit dodgy so we headed south to HMS Patia instead.
Ann & Alan passing the time on the trip out
Jim & Martin - probably the worlds smiliest divers :)
Checking the plan!
Team brief . . . er, no, not really
We passed a few interesting landmarks on the way;
Lindisfarne Castle . . .
Inner Farne Light . . .
. . . and this one!
It was a long trek out to the wreck and we did start to get a we bit bored . . .
Martin was still smiling though!
Just another hour to go . . .
HMS Patia was a Pegasus class, fighter catapult ship; a merchantman converted to carry a Hurricane aircraft on the deck which was launched via a rocket driven catapult on the forecastle. Once launched there was no way back for the pilot, they either had to make it to dry land or ditch in the sea and hope to be picked up -bit of a design flaw you might think!
On the 27th of April 1941, following her conversion to a fighter catapult ship, HMS Patia was steaming north to collect her Hurricane aircraft. She was attacked by a German bomber on this, her maiden voyage. The bomber was shot down but scored a direct hit on the Patia, causing a massive explosion and sinking the ship approximately four miles off the village of Boulmer in Northumberland. 39 of the crew were lost but 31 managed to struggle ashore.
HMS Patia sits upright on the seabed at 63m, the deck is at 55m. She is intact for two-thirds of her 130m length - we only managed to get on the wheelhouse and forward hold. Unfortunately the vis wasn't too good and it was too deep to take a camera - I have difficulty keeping track of my various gas supplies and computers let alone a camera at the depth! All in all a good day and no visits from Veronica!
Three of us tootled over to Loch Fyne for an adventure - not quite the famous five or the secret seven - more the midweek three. We didn't have a boat and there wasn't a wreck so not quite in the Enid Blyton mould but one of us did find treasure and we had lashings of hot cocoa to round it all off!
Rocky suggested shore diving the Kintyre, which was seriously considered for all of a millisecond, then binned in favour of something with slightly less rock climbing involved, emphasis on slightly! After the usual Pitstop we finally arrived at Gortein Point (or Triple Reef as Rocky likes to call it) about 1pm - Tom was caught humming the theme tune to Indiana Jones on several occassions and apparently he has the hat too - Tom "Indie" McGuire!!!
Gortein Point, looking north
Looking south
The plan was to bimble down to the second or third reef depending on how we felt, and what the vis was like. Alison's ears were a bit snap, crackle and pop so Rocky and Indie buddied up and Alison tagged along so she could stay at 10m if necessary. Alison saw this as a perfect interpretation of Pete's diving in a three theory (unlike the Stallion Rock arrangement). The entry was sheer poetry - having taken the mickey out of Judit and Weronika for faffing with fins - Alison managed to make them look extremely professional by getting grounded on a rock and having to be towed off - very elegant!!! Thankfully no-one else had a camera.
The buddying system didn't quite go to plan, Tom went off scalloping, leaving the other two as the buddy pair but we managed a reasonable dive with no dramas (once Alison's fins were sorted).
Urticina anemone
Poor Cod
Hermit Crab
Indie went that way!
Rocky chose Anchor Point for the second dive (no alternative name here - in fact no name at all according to Dive Planner, Rocky). This was a much easier entry and exit so went down well with Indie and Alison. The scallops got a quick dip while we were diving, so they were happy too.
Anchor Point
The fin fitting improved a great deal on this entry but the vis hadn't. And the buddy pairs were fairly loosely connected, first we lost Rocky, and then Indie, but Alison knew where she was the whole time :) As Weronika says, they're just boys!
Indie found the treasure - scallops for tea in their house - and we all retired to the Creggan Inn for lashings of hot cocoa after our big adventure. Thanks to Enid, sorry Rocky, for the transport and organisation & Indie for the company! I'm sure when Bruce gets back the midweekers will have moved on from Enid Blyton to the Dangerous Book for Boys . . . Indie suggested we rename the whole expedition "Waiders Lost in the Dark" . . . excellent!
This was planned way back as a "get back in the water/check kit" day in preparation for the Lochaline weekend in May. Turns out, our Ocean Diver trainees are so keen to get in the water they kidnapped Sarah and came along to get some skills done, between hot chocolates at the Pitstop.
Sheila, Sarah, Alison, Judit and Weronika convened in the Pitstop at 10am for breakfast and briefing. We left Edinburgh in sunshine and reached Arrochar in the rain, it remained overcast and driech for the rest of the day.
Conger Alley was chosen for convenience - and because we had a health and safety expert on hand to help us cross the road. Despite predictions of faff and bubbles, Sheila and Alison managed to kit up and get in the water with few dramas, and less swearing than anticipated. There were no kit failures, and Sheila was back in the swing of it all in no time. The dive itself wasn't particularly inspiring, pitch black and poor vis at 30m, light and poor vis at anything much less. We did find lots of pink sea cucumbers that I dont remember being there before, a token conger and a wee flatfish or two;
Sheila was hugely impressed . . . the first thing she said when she took the reg out her mouth was "That's the last shore dive I'm doing - ever!!"
Meanwhile Sarah, Judit and Weronika had a good training dive, although the mask clearing caused a few problems, and they took the fin removing ceremony to extremes;
Notice Judits lack of mask and Weronika's excess of fins! The chat in the background isn't too clear but there was lots of giggling, an "I suppose we could've gone to help", "So what happened to the mask?" and Judit's response . . . "Mask clearing is not 100% yet" :)
A number of interesting, new divesite fashion trends made an appearance during the surface interval;
I'm not sure they're going to catch on, but you never know!
While Sheila, Weronika and Alison opted for shore cover in the afternoon, Sarah and Judit went back for more after a quick recap on BSAC tables . . . training in progress!
Then there was a bit faffing with kit . .
Sheila and Alison were verging on hysteria by this point, as you can tell by the cackling. Judit did well with her second dive and air sharing exercises. Over hot chocolate and biscuits in the Pitstop Weronika shared her philosophy on diviing with us "Diving is like chidlbirth, lots of pain and inconvenience beforehand but you forget about all that as soon as you get in the water" . . . By 6pm we were all home safe, washing kit, nursing aches and anticipating the next Diva Dive Trip :)
Thanks to everyone for the entertainment - haven't laughed so much since last weekends Stallion Rock trip! Mary we missed you, hope you are all feeling better.
We managed to double book Sunday 19th with a training day for the Ocean Divers and a boat trip to Loch Fyne for t'others. In the end Alex & Tom decided to combine the two. It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day, so what could possibly be better than messing about in a boat on Loch Fyne? Especially since the midgies haven't made an appearance yet.
We met in the Pitstop at 9am sharp, the cast in order of appearance were; Alison, Alex, Taz, Tom, Pete, Rocky the Oracle, Marcin, Justyna, Weronika & Scott.
Despite the early hour, the drive up was stunning.
Having filled up on bacon rolls and coffee we headed south to our launch site at Strachur on Loch Fyne. The first wave consisted of Alex, Tom, Pete, Rocky the Oracle and Alison with Taz to keep us in line and dive marshal us. After the usual faff we headed off to find Stallion Rock just across the Loch; compared to previous attempts the hunt for Stallion Rock was an amazingly slick operation!
Stallion Rock is an elongated pinnacle, it sits about 25m off shore, and is visible at low tide. A gentle slope leads down to around 10m followed by a vertical drop to the seabed at 40m-ish. First in were Rocky the Oracle, Pete and Alison; no-one is keen on diving in a three so Pete suggested Alison & Rocky buddy up & he would tag along, sorted (more of this arrangement later)!
We headed to the bottom of the wall & guddled about a bit until Rocky broke away and tried leading us across the silty seabed in search of 45m. There wasn't much to see so Rocky was reigned in & pointed firmly back in the direction of the wall, where there was lots of lovely marine life, including Sea Loch Anemones and this Scorpionfish laying eggs.
Should you find yourself diving with Rocky in the future this is what you can expect - with the exception for Bruce, who would've been down to 45m and collected a couple of dozen clams in the same time.
After the decidedly chilly dives last weekend, Alison brought along a stage (and used it) so she could get out a bit earlier. Rocky brought one along too and took it for a ride in the boat, and Pete? Well, Pete just likes doing deco!
While Alex and Tom took a dip, the boys opted for a comfort break, the Skipper decided putting them ashore was way too risky & opted to land them on Stallion Rock instead.
We weren't quite sure what Pete was offering to hold?
But we do know what Rocky was doing a few seconds later
Stallion Rock . . . it's just a name lads!
With all divers accounted for we headed back to Strachur for lunch, during which Pete enlightened us on his theory of diving in threes - apparently this involves the two least experienced divers buddying up and the most experienced diving independently but keeping with the buddy pair. According to Pete, clearly the diver least likely to get narked out of his tree in this particular scenario, it works really well!
The afternoon dives were a logistical challenge - 10 divers plus kit on the boat, 2 delivered to the bay at Kenmore Point for a shore dive and the remainder to Stallion Rock for a dive in the shallows.
It turned out to be a great day - lots of fun - congratulations to Taz who is now an Ocean Diver!
Thanks to Alex & Tom for organising the day & to Alex, Rocky and Pete for towing and spring cleaning the boat!
Ullapool and the Summer Isles - 11th & 12th April 2009
It didn't really go according to plan.
Plan A was to take the rhib up to Ullapool for the Easter weekend, 3 days of diving the beautiful Summer Isles and Loch Broom. Unfortunately Niall "Rocky the Oracle" Kennedy discovered he had psychic powers and predicted, or perhaps instigated, several incidents that impacted Plan A. First being the trailer-board cable's successful suicide attempt on the Forth Road Bridge, followed by a wheel-bearing self-destruct on the Kessock Bridge.
And the moral of the story so far? Don't let Rocky the Oracle say anything future-related within 2 miles of a water crossing - gaffer tape sounds like a good option!
After an unscheduled, over-night stay in Inverness, Brian and Rocky the Oracle were RAC'd back to Edinburgh on Good Friday (a misnomer in this case). Truck deposited at garage for repair, Rocky-mobile collected, kit transferred & driven at break-neck speed back to Inverness, overtaking everything in sight, not passing go, and not collecting any speeding tickets (perhaps it was a good Friday). Boat collected & towed to Ullapool - no overtaking whatsoever and no chance of a speeding ticket. Arrival in Ullapool timed beautifully to coincide with pub closing! Meanwhile Valerie, Sarah and Alison enjoyed a leisurely supper at the Ferryboat Inn and several alcoholic beverages :)
Saturday brought more complications. The Rocky-mobile, whilst admirable as a tarmac-based towing vehicle, is not designed for beach launching. So onto plan F which involved the girls chatting up RAF Lossiemouth SAC - a bum job but someone had to do it! The lads from Lossie helpfully offered their perfectly adapted Landrover to get our boat in the water - although in the end they did favour the man-handling approach.
&
Suitably launched, kitted and over-heated we finally headed off for a dive.
Saturday 11th of April, 2009 was an historic occasion in the recent history of Divetech; Rocky the Oracle planned a whole day of diving, a previously unknown phenomenon in the Club diving arena. There were copious quantities of dive site documentation, tidal graphs and everything - it was a truly awesome feat of home printing. All the arduous hours of research, pinched from the Ullapool SAC website, paid off! We found the Fairweather V, (nothing at all to do with the marker buoy or global positioning) and had the best dive of the year so far. Whilst it was blowy topside, we had literally acres of vis on the wreck, no current, and no other divers - nice one Rocky.
In 1992 the Fairweather V ran onto rocks, in Annat Bay at the mouth of Loch Broom. The hull was undamaged but water flooded an open hatch during the salvage operation and the Fairweather sank close to shore in 25m of water. She now lies upright and intact on a seabed of sand and broken shell; she's covered in marine life and generally considered one of Scotland’s top dives.
As you can see from the photos the vis was amazing which made it an outstanding dive – certainly one of my best! We found lots of Pleurobranchus membranaceus (breast implants according to Mrs D) on all our dives, including this one going for a constitutional around the Fairweather.
After a quick lunch of Lochinver pies and chocolate eggs (a well balanced diet!) on Isle Martin we headed off to do the wall on the Islands sheltered east side. This is a really BIG wall, a vertical drop-off from 10 to 85m; the vis here was fabulous too, with plenty of life between the boulders and on ledges and many more Pleurobranchus membranaceus.
With all the faff of launching, and quite a bit involved in the boat recovery plus bottle filling, showering, camera pampering etc we were only just in time to order food at the Ferryboat Inn. Rocky ordered remotely.
In the course of conversation, after a few beers, Rocky the Oracle complained of being the only “active” diver who doesn’t have his photo on the Divetech website – so here ya go always happy to oblige!
Sunday dawned bright and clear, with blue skies and a flat calm sea, so we headed off to check out Conservation Cave. The cave lies on the west side of Tanera Mor, largest of the Summer Isles. The slightest swell turns the cave into a washing machine on spin cycle, so it’s only diveable on the calmest of days. Because of the constant water movement it’s a high energy site with enough anemones, sponges, starfish and other assorted marine life to keep underwater photographers happy for hours! Sarah and Alison had a terrific 65 minute dive being gently swayed from side to side by the waves – very relaxing!
The lads decided that 65 minutes at 10m just wasn’t rufty-tufty enough for them and headed over to a promising rocky outcrop. We didn’t find its real name but christened it Rocky Dubh. Working on the premise that the underwater landscape often reflects that seen on the surface, Rocky Dubh looked like a good choice – apparently it didnt live up to that promise, so it was renamed Rocky Don't.
On the way back down Loch Broom we stopped off at Cuckoo Point for a short, final dive. Again we had great vis, plenty of marine life, and found some wildlife on the surface when we stayed for 32 minutes rather than the imposed 30!
The lads were keen to get the boat out of the water, fix the trailer board cable and start the long trek south. After a number of rewiring attempts - with cable getting gradually shorter - they finally found a wiring diagram on the internet and got it right. Thank goodness for mobile phones!
Despite the incidents it was a fabulous weekend – one we'll try to repeat in October without the dramas! Thanks to;
Brian for sorting the boat, air and navigation; and not giving up when the truck started to self-destruct.
The ladies and gentlemen of RAF Lossiemouth SAC for help with launching on Saturday, hope you enjoyed the Easter Eggs – we still owe you a drink or two, hope to catch up with you sometime to pay the debt!
Iris and Alistair Fraser of Glendhu B&B for looking after us way beyond the call of duty – particularly launch and recovery of the boat, use of the garage for cleaning, and for taking delivery of the lovely Lochinver Pies. We are extremely grateful and hope to be back if you’ll have us . . .
And last but certainly not least Rocky the Oracle for saving the day and getting the boat to Ullapool, and back home, in one piece. And if anyone is wondering why Rocky . . .
We took the boats out for a test run, to make sure they're ship shape for the Oban trip. . . .
then Sarah took Judit for her first open water dive in ZERO vis.
Gold stars all round for sheer determination - no-one else was even considering getting in the water! Although Judit does seeem to have a bit of a fixation on her fins
Sarah's "romantic", Valentine's trip to the Clyde, not a red rose in sight and you had to look pretty hard for some of the wrecks! It was great fun; we did the Beagle, Akka, Wallachia and Greenock - one or two by braille.
Saturday started well with fog on the Clyde and an early phone call from Skipper,
Elaine, to say we had an extra hour in bed!
Steve ("Kev's Friend") from Pentland SAC
with Adam and Arno from Dundee
On the Akka
Kevin (origin unknown), Steve ("Kev's friend")
and the eponymous Kev
Dundee's finest
Thanks to Sarah for organising the trip and to Elaine and Martin of the mv Clutha for keeping us topped up with air and hot soup.
With Sarah P's Clyde trip looming on the horizon, a shakedown dive was in order this weekend. Dogfish Reef, on Loch Fyne, provided the ideal location; a high spring tide just at the right time so no-one needed to stagger too far in their kit and a pub with a real fire and hot grub close by.
Dogfish reef lived up to it's name, Furnace definitely didn't - it was freezing!
This weekend was a busy few days for Divetech what with beach surveying, diving, suit shopping and our annual trip to the panto with friends and rellies! This year is was Alladin (All - a - din .....) complete with 3-D genie - wasted on the kids!.
Judit suit shopping with "help" from Alison & Sarah
- Chris & Dougie at EDC have yet to recover.
Post panto scoff
- thanks for arranging it Valerie!
The top of the table
Edinburgh Castle in the snow
- another braw weekend!
Having been blown out on every trip since the Lochaline rhib extravaganza in November a few of us decided that it was high time we got our kit wet again. The trip organizer seemed mildly surprised when it started to snow, just as we left Edinburgh, but even the BBC had it on the forecast!
On a bright sunny Saturday morning Hilary and Tom joined a number of divers, and over 40 other members of the public, for January’s Cramond Beach survey. The survey takes place every three months and is run by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) and is supported by the City of Edinburgh Council.
A hundred metre long stretch of beach, running from the strandline to the edge of the marram grass zone, is surveyed with the aim of identifying and removing the litter from it. On first sight, looking along the survey area, the beach looked reasonably clean. However, following a detailed search an amazing 15 kilograms of assorted litter was collected.
Following the survey, which takes around an hour, a more general uplift of litter was undertaken of both the beach and the marram grass zone. This yielded another 50+ kilogram’s of rubbish. After weighing the bagged litter, refreshments were provided by the MCS.
If you would like to join in the next session please let me know, or contact Anne Saunders at the MCS.
Alison 
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