2007 Dive Reports Send in your dive reports from home or abroad and we'll print them for you. Tell us where you've been, who with, where you dived, and what you saw.

Farnes - 4th November

Seahouses Harbour was surprisingly busy with divers. Isn’t this November? What’s going on? Is that the sun in the sky? Why is the wind not lifting the sea into a chop? Is this the mythical British summer we’ve heard so much about? Not quite, but you could have been forgiven for thinking it was with four full dive boats leaving the harbour heading for the Farnes on a flat calm sea. As we approached the outer Farnes, William told us the first dive was to be on the south side of Crumstone. We dropped in and descended to around 15 metres. The viz was pretty good and the water temp a barmy 11 degrees. There wasn’t much to see at first with a few lobsters and crabs. We then approached a gully which ran through the middle of the island and saw seals darting around it. We went into the wide mouth of the gully and a number of seals were lying on the bottom. They stirred as we approached and started to circle warily. We lay on the bottom and approached slowly, cameras at the ready. I had my camera on multi-shot mode which allows me to take four shots in sequence. This is really useful for trying to capture the seals as they swim past. After a while the seals became more confident and started to get closer, and then one started tugging on Stuart’s fins. Another was swimming with its back on the sandy/gravel sea bed; I think it must have had an itch! After spending quite a while with the seals in the gully we moved off. One or two of them seemed to chase after us as if they didn’t want us to go. We encountered a number of other seals as we continued around the rest of the island. This was a great seal dive and we managed a dive time of 55 minutes. For our surface interval we moved to the location of our second dive, blue caps. There were plenty of seals on the surface and we had high hopes for another good dive. Our dive plan was to spend the first 10 minutes or so playing with the seals near the surface, then go down the drop off, before following the wall back up slowly for the end of the dive. We had plenty of seals around us again on this dive although they tended to stay a bit further away than on the last dive. After playing with the seals for a while we headed down the wall to about 20 metres. It was a bit darker and the viz wasn’t as good as the last dive but before long we spotted quite a few fish. Once we started tapping torches on the rocks this brought more fish out. They were obviously hoping we were cracking open urchins. We had about a dozen fish circling us by the end including a few very large ballan wrasse, some cuckoo wrasse and the odd pollock. Stuart kept the fish entertained while I took more photos (stuart’s camera batteries had died). Tip: Always fully charge your batteries and bring spares if possible because the colder weather and water temp increases the rate at which rechargeable batteries discharge). One fish got a bit over excited and tried chewing Stuart’s gloved finger. After getting plenty of fishy pictures we headed back up the reef where we had a number of seal sightings. This was another fifty plus minute dive. Initially we’d not been sure whether to risk travelling “up North”, or if we should just opt for Capernwray. Fortunately, we made the right choice. Rich B.

Eyemouth - 3rd August

Stuart and I had arranged to join Iain of Marine Quest on one of his midweek dive trips from Eyemouth. We’d agreed to go out at 1:30pm as some of our group had asked to dive the Glanmire. Slack was at 2:30pm, although it was a spring tide weekend so Iain warned us it may not be slack for long. As we descended onto the wreck the viz was pretty good and there was very little current. The shot was right in the middle of the wreck and we explored forwards and then aft. There are two huge boilers at the front and a number of massive pollock were swimming between them. Unfortunately at over 30 metres to the deck and diving on air we rapidly ran out of no deco time. We sent up a DSMB with a few minutes left and headed for the highest point of the wreck in order to maximise our time. There was quite a bit of life on the wreck and it was a shame to be leaving after less than 20 minutes. We made a nice slow ascent to the surface giving a total dive time of just under 30 minutes. Iain picked us up and we soon had a hot drink and some home made cake. The wind was howling off the headland but fortunately it was blowing out to sea so we were fairly well protected. For the second dive we headed to the South of Eyemouth to dive a wreck called the President. The ship smashed into the rocks in thick fog and was stranded on the rocks. Fortunately the cliffs are small so the crew was able to clamber to safety. The wreckage is now well broken up in 10 to 20 meters. We descended onto the boilers and rummaged around the plates at the base of the rocks. The viz was pretty poor due to the recent heavy downpours, proximity to the shore and shallow depth. There were quite a number of crabs and lobsters hiding in their holes. We spent about 25 minutes exploring the wreck before heading into slightly deeper waters onto a wall dive (as per Iain’s briefing). This side obviously saw more of the sunlight and the amount of life increased significantly. We spent a further 30 minutes or so seeking out the usual inhabitants before heading for the surface. Not a bad days diving but I would have hoped for better conditions and viz at this time of year. Rich.

Farnes - July

After the disappointment of the Tynemouth trip planned for the Saturday being cancelled by Deep Blue, I was hoping for some seal diving action on the Sunday Farnes trip. Unfortunately when I got to the harbour the wind was whistling around a Force 4 to 5 and white horses were developing out to sea. William suggested waiting an hour so we could dive on the South (sheltered) side of the islands. We duly agreed and waited until just after 9:30 before rocking and rolling our way across to Longstone Island. We had some keen wreckies on board who wanted to dive the Chris Christianson so we agreed to hold on another 20 minutes until slack tide. Graham and I descended onto the wreck and I was pleasantly surprised at how much light there was. You could easily make out the two boilers and larger parts of the wreckage as we made our way towards the wall. After we’d ascended to about 20 meters we started spotting seals jetting around in the water. We followed them into some of the gullies and we found more seals lying sleepily on clumps of kelp. By lying on the seabed and inching forwards we were able to get within a few meters of the seals. We spent a good 10 minutes or so taking pictures and watching four or fives seals coming and going. As we ascended up the rocks we had a few more seals circling around us. After 50 minutes I was down to 50 bar so we sent up the SMB and left our flippered friends behind. Once back on board the wind had really picked up and quite a swell was developing. We were really restricted on sites for our second dive so we headed for trusty old blue caps. In short this wasn’t as good a dive as our first and the viz was quite a bit worse. We did manage to spot the odd seal, including one which sneaked up right behind us. After 60 minutes we’d reached the maximum dive time so we surfaced back into the swell. Considering the conditions it was a good days diving, particularly our encounter with the seals. (See Gallery for Seal Pictures) Rich B.

Anglesey - June

This was my first trip to Anglesey and the clubs first trip with Elfyn and Terry of Julie Anne charters. The forecast for the weekend was not good but as we approached the welsh boarder the sun was shining. Once over the Menai Straits we head reached “the island” aka Anglesey. We were staying in Amlwch, which is a small town built up around a copper mine. We checked in at the Denorban Hotel/karaoke bar/night club and we were offered a "quiet" room. The karaoke kicked of at 11:30 and we headed off to bed not long after!! Over breakfast we swapped tales of our sleepless night. My own favourite being the impromptu street karaoke party which took place outside our bedroom windows at 2:30 am We arrived at the harbour, loaded the boat and Terry the skipper explained we were going to dive the “Unknown Wreck. This was an hour and half away but the viz was much better offshore. On arriving at the site we descended the shot and started exploring quite a large piece of wreckage. At a minimum depth of 26m no deco time was about 20 minutes which was a real shame. There were lots of shoaling bib and pollock around. The wreck was encrusted with life and was an excellent way to get the weekend started. Viz was pretty good too. Unfortunately Steve was attacked by a killer lionsmaine jelly fish. I’m reliable informed that it sneaked up on him and pinned him to the sea bed while relentlessly stinging him with its tentacles. Mandy and Steve managed to prize the beast off using their dive knives and surfaced as quickly (but safely) as they could. Once on board Steve was liberally coated in vinegar to take away the agonising stinging session. (Please note some parts of this story have been exaggerated to avoid making Steve look like a big sissy !!) Steve REGULARLY reminded of his encounter with the jelly fish for the remainder of the weekend. Our next dive site was back near Amlwch, a wreck called the SS Dakota. As this was another long trip back most of us took the opportunity to catch-up on some Zzzzs. I helpful drowned out the noise of the engine for my fellow divers by snoring (loudly). The S.S. Dakota is well in shore and with a max depth of 15 metres the viz was suffering from the very bad weather we’ve had recently. Despite the viz this was an excellent dive, lots of life and quite a large wreck to explore. Even in the poor viz you could get a real feel for the size of the ship. Unfortunately another delinquent jellyfish attacked Sheila this time. After much vinegar, and yet another reenactment of Steve’s near death experience we headed back to Harbour. Clearly we were all looking forward to another lively evening of Karaoke and sleeping above the thumping bass box that is the Denorban Hotel. However, Terry suggested that we head up the coast to the Douglas Pub and sample some of their good grub. Unfortunately the Douglas was fairly popular on a Saturday night but the staff very kindly let us order pub grub in the formal restaurant. This quickly emptied following our arrival and we soon had our own dining suite. After arriving back at the Dinorben we had another few drinks. We all had a surprisingly good nights sleep, perhaps it had been quiet downstairs, perhaps it was the 10 pints of larger we’d each drunk, I guess we’ll never know. Unfortunately Graham had mixed his 10 pints of larger with 10 pints of cider and so spent most of the night being sick (joking about the 10 points, it was 9, still joking !!). Graham really was poorly though. As we waved Graham and Jared off home we headed out for another days diving. Terry again recommended we head offshore, good viz, etc, etc. We were going to dive the wreck of the Mona, which quickly became known as the “Steve”. Yes, he’s still going on about that bloody jellyfish. It took us two hours to get to the site, just time to stock up on a bit more kip. During the journey I heard one of my fellow divers enquire if the noise coming from the back of the boat was an engine problem or my snoring, how rude I was just resting my eyes!! We descended the shot onto the Mona and there was a surprising amount of current running over the wreck in comparison to the slack we’d encountered on the surface. This made for an interesting game of dodge the jelly fish. The wreck was teaming with shoals of fish which would dive out of the way as a jelly fish approached. We also found one or two huge conger eels hiding in the prop and inside the wreckage. I tried to get close enough to get a picture but I was pretty worried about it pulling me into the hold!! With a minimum depth of 22m we didn’t get much time on the wreck so headed up the shot line as we ran out of no deco time. Unfortunately we suffered another casualty on this dive as Angela had been “jellyfished” this time. Our final dive of the weekend was going to be on the Royal Charter, a wreck which sits close in to the shore in maximum 6 meters of sand. We dropped in and finned over to where the sand met the rocks and followed this along spotting the odd wrasse in the kelp. There were some massive crabs on all the dives and this one was no exception. After about 30 minutes or so we started finding increasingly bigger pieces of wreckage. There is still gold being found on this site and at the time of our dive another group of divers were carrying out some salvage work. The ship had been carrying £320k worth of Australian gold at the time of it’s sinking. We didn’t find any gold but did spot various anemones, lobsters and the odd fish too. On surfacing I was surprised to find that two other divers who’d joined us for the day had not yet been in. They'd asked to dive a different site which unfortunately lead to us being delayed for nearly an hour before getting back to port. Personally I thought this was a pretty strange arrangement but Terry made us some more brews as compensation. We finally got back to harbour at close to 6pm. We quickly unloaded, said our goodbyes and headed home. Even if I do say so myself, this trip ran like a well oiled machine, thank you to everyone who came along and smiled through the various adversities. Special thanks to Steve “Mona” Graham for taking so much abuse in the name of comedy…. Rich

St.Abbs - June

Unfortunately as I approached Scotland on Friday afternoon I was greeted by thick fog (it’s grim up North!). I was staying with my family in Eyemouth so we pitched up the caravan and braved a walk down into town. The odd boat that was out was pitching and rolling and there was a strong Southerly wind. I checked the forecast for Saturday, hmmm…..maybe a nice trip to Edinburgh will be in order. I arrived on Saturday morning expecting the day to be called off but to my surprise Billy was already out with the first group and we were expecting to be out for 10:30. The sea still looked rough, it was misty and still pretty windy. Despite all this we headed out of the harbour as we were assured by Billy it would be calmer “rund the point”. Sure enough Billy found us calmer waters and we dropped in on the Skellies. Beneath the waves there was quite a lot of surge but we had a good 50 minute dive with quite a bit of life. St.Abbs has a great selection of anemones as well as the usual crab, lobster (not on this dive), wrasse and pollock sightings. I also saw my first Lumpsucker (picture above). The second dive was at Pettico Wick as there were limited sites available due to conditions, tides, etc. We dropped in on the letter box which is a small swim through before heading across to find the main boiler. We found it more by luck than anything else and then continued to head North East finding various other rusty plates. We found two freakishly huge hermit crabs (fist size shells). I also noticed a lot of pipefish hiding in the kelp. The disappointing thing about the dive was the viz, it looked like it was snowing for most of the dive. We managed about 40 minutes and then headed for the surface. Day two and the wind had calmed but the sea was still a bit lumpy. We headed for Anemone gully for our first dive. I jumped in and was surprised to find the taste of sea water in my mouth. After a couple more tester breaths (gurgles) I called the boat back. I found out when back on shore that the mushroom value had been displaced when I’d jumped in and this was allowing water into the reg. During the surface interval a very nice man called Bob (who just happens to be a dive gear engineer) whisked my regs away and came back ten minutes later with them in full working order. Bob very kindly undertook the work at no cost other than a donation to the lifeboat. Fingers crossed for Dive number two. Unfortunately we were once again limited in available dive sites so we headed for Pettico Wick. This time we opted to be dropped on the boiler as my new buddies (Dennis and Graham) had not seen them on the first dive. Despite being dropped in next to the boiler it still took us a couple of minutes to locate it (viz not so good then). Considering the weather we were very lucky to get four dives in (three for me!!). Fingers crossed for next time. Rich B.

Clyde - May

Is the Clyde the new Oban or St Abbs ? Were the rumours true about Deep and Dark ? Well read on, and find out about diving the Firth of Clyde.

Arrival and Digs
Everyone arrived Friday night with the first getting there at 5.00ish and the last pair at 11.00pm ish. Those who arrived early found very pleasant accommodation at “Roberta’s” B&B in Largs which consisted of both the main house which slept 8, in a Single, 2 x Doubles and Triple Room, plus an annexe out back which had 2 x Twin rooms and a conservatory for sitting in.
A quick reckie of the area and we were off to the “George” for a few beers which is a well known “Divers” Pub, after a couple of pints, a break from the norm and no Chinese Takeaway, but Fish and Chips on the sea front with some having Haggis’s or a we now refer to them Haggi (hag-eye). A couple more beers and then back to the B&B for some shut eye and ready for the big day.

Saturday
7.30am start for a full Scottish Breakfast served by Hue and Roberta and off to Inverkip, which is about 9 miles away along the coast road and takes about 15mins, arrived and in the Marina for 8.40am Elaine and Tom on board the MV Clutha ready to greet us. The Clutha is a converted fishing boat which Elaine has owned for about 6 years of her 24 Year Skippering career (and she’s only 38 !), and is set up purely for divers with big kitting up benches, loads of deck space and an on board air compressor, the dive ladder is not the best we have come across but a lot better than some we’ve encountered over the years, plus Tom the deck hand helped.

Dive 1
Built Southampton 1883 1077 Nautical Tonnes 259' x 36' x 18'. The "WALLACHIA" was sunk like many before her by a collision with another vessel. She was carrying a valuable cargo, which included whisky, gin, beer and acids, when she went down. Today she lies in about 34m of water and the average depth of her deck is 30m. She is supposedly a very interesting dive with lots of old jars and bottles to be found. Myself and Andy were the lucky divers who got to experience the Clyde first and what an experience, dropping down the shot line through what can only be described as cold murky tea, we eventually found the wreck (we think !) and sent a signal to everyone that the shot was in place with 3 big bell rings on the line. We were then off to discover and see what we could uncover, the answer was f*ck all and the viz was so poor we could barely make out anything and battled just to see each other’s torches. After persevering and getting acclimatised, we did do a full tour Bow to Stern and back to the shot (how that happened we’ll never know ?), and ascended back up the shot passing divers coming down wishing them good luck on the way (and God Bless !). A dive time for Andy and myself of 32 Minutes was only bettered by Eric and Ange with 35 Mins, most people doing significantly less (with a domestic to follow !).

After a cup of team or hot blackcurrant juice, it was back to port with our spirits somewhat dampened ! But as Elaine and Tom both pointed out “we’ve not had viz as bad as that for ages, in fact last week it was gin clear, at least 5 Metres in fact !”, so hey lets look on the bright side, it can only get better. Back on board after our surface interval in the Marina restaurant and off to dive number 2 the well-known and biggest wreck in the Clyde, the Akka !

Dive 2
Built Sweden 1942, 5049 Gross tonnes . 442' x 56' x 25' The "AKKA" sunk in 1956 after hitting the Gantock rocks. She is the largest diveable wreck in the Clyde and is dive suitable for all levels. She lies in about 30m of water at her bow and about 40m at her stern. The deck slopes from 16m to 24m, bow to stern and is a very interesting dive, not only due to her size but also for the fact that almost all of her is covered in masses of orange and white anemone and dead mans fingers. She is still a very intact wreck and divers can swim with ease along the outside companionways. Once again Andy and myself were in first and were greeted with much better viz than the Wallachia, but still dark and gloomy. A pleasant dive followed with exploration of the companionways and superstructure. This wreck is very like the Breda and James Eagan Lane, with a lot more things to see and a true behemoth of a wreck. On this dive we even saw other buddy pairing from our boat so that does prove that the Viz was much improved. Average dive times of 30-40 Minutes, but what’s this on breaking the surface the weather had changed and instead of the slight chop that we had pre-dive, suddenly mountainous sea and large waves, made getting back on this boat “interesting”.

Everyone safely on board and back to port discussing the chances of diving Sunday, which due to the forecast SW winds force 5-7 seemed somewhat unlikely. Back to the digs a few afternoon naps and out to Largs for a curry at the Koh-I-Noor which we had booked the previous night due to Bank Holiday Weekend. Eventually we got our table(s) after a total mess up by the staff and seated, we were ready for some good food, what we did get was poor to say the least, dishes that were no resemblance of “normal” Indian meals and poor service proved that the Koh-I-Noor was a poor choice by me ! “But who cares, we are going diving tomorrow …. we hope ? “

Sunday
Oh dear, up for breakfast and the weather doesn’t look too good, back to Inverkip after leaving Hue and Roberta’s and back on board the Clutha with glum faces from Elaine and Tom, doesn’t look good ! A quick chat and an offer from Elaine to give it a go, we decided that retreat was the best option and that if the viz was poor Saturday, mother nature would have done a fine job of reducing that with her overnight winds, on this note we left the Clyde behind up for the journey back to England.

Summary
What did we learn from the weekend ?

• Well the Clyde is not the new Oban or St Abbs, as it is quite a temperamental stretch of water and unpredictable regarding viz !
• Yes the Clyde is Dark, although not deep ! due to the good positions of the wrecks and how proud of the seabed they sit.
• There is little doubt, even from what we saw that the Clyde has potential ! Wrecks are the order of the day and if you like wrecks you’ll like the Clyde.
• The digs were great, clean, comfortable, warm and a great breakfast.
• The MV Clutha is a great boat with a great crew (in fact William Shiels has been dethroned by a democratic vote as being the “sexiest skipper we know” (by 7-5, but we only had 4 women on the trip ? Who is this secret William worshipper, but it was unanimous that Elaine has the best arse of any skipper we’ve encountered !), the only problem with the Clutha is mentioned above, and that is the unpredictability and unreliability of the Clyde.

Will we be back ?

I would go back and give it another go, the potential is there for all to see, the set up is good, great digs, great location, great boat with on board compressor, great people. But who knows ? It will be at the discretion of the gods (or committee as we like to refer to them), but I for one say … let’s give it a go !

Alan (Dale)

Farnes - March

And then there were 9………and “Seal Ben” The first club sea diving trip of the year saw a very respectable 12 divers reduced to 9 by the Saturday morning of the trip. Ben aka “Seal Ben” also joined us on board Glad Tidings 7. The winds were fairly light but due to get stronger so the plan was to head off as quickly as possible. Some time later…..after a few early season hiccups, we headed out of the harbour. We agreed to try and do some seal diving if possible so Ben and William set about finding us the best site given the conditions, experience level of the group and signs of seal activity. Blue Caps seemed to be the best bet so we had a little briefing from Ben on how to attract the seals and then we jumped in. I was diving with Martin and Ian and as we descended a couple of seal pups eagerly headed towards us on the surface. All looked promising so we dropped to the top of the wall at about 5m, tried to stay still, keep breathing to a minimum and waggled our fingers (as instructed). After three or four minutes of looking like complete idiots we decided to descend onto the wall and take our chance of spotting the seals while on the dive. Needless to say most sensible creatures were still tucked up for the winter so we had to do a fair bit of searching around in holes and crevices to find anything. There were quite a few squat lobsters hiding in the crevices, the odd starfish and plenty of urchins. We headed along the wall searching for more interesting life for around 35 minutes or so and then decided it was time to head for the surface. Total dive time 40 minutes, average temperature was an unseasonably warm 6 degrees. While we’d been under the waves the wind had already started to pick-up but as usual William was spot on with the boat and plucked us out of the building wave conditions. Once everyone was on board we made our way through the wind to the shelter of Staple Island. During the surface interval I had a problem with my drysuit zip which seemed to have thrown a tooth!! I decided to leave it alone on the premise that I’d probably get another dive out of it if I didn’t start fiddling. After topping up with plenty of hot drinks and food we swapped our tanks ready for dive number 2. Martin and I jumped in just along from Pinnacles and descended down the wall. It wasn’t long before I felt the chilling North Sea seeping through my zip and down my right arm. Thankfully my undersuit was socking most of it up!! We explored along the wall for close to 30 minutes. Once again things were fairly quiet but we did spot some very large crabs hiding in the crevices. We ascended and were duly picked up by William. Once on board I rang the water out of my undersuit and got my warm coat on. Once Ben was back on board after his hour long dive!!, we headed back to Seahouses. The wind had really picked up and we huddled behind the wheelhouse trying to take shelter from the waves crashing over the front of the boat. Hopefully a good day out had by all and two steady away dives to start the 2007 sea diving season off. Richard B