Scotland trip, 2014

 

 

We’re all going on our summer Dive – 2014

 

So its 5 O,clock in the morning on 16^th August 2014. The alarm clock is screaming at us “get up now”. All of a sudden the realisation of “this is the start of our diving holiday in Scotland”. We quickly jump out of bed, well some of us do and get ready to set off at 6 o’clock for the sunny climate of The Mull Straight, Oban Scotland. The cars are packed, the boat is hitched up and off we set.

The arguments start! The two sat nav’s can’t agree because the driver is ignoring them both and going his own way. The motorways are clear and the travelling is going smoothly, now the sat nav’s, including the psychic one, are agreeing with the driver and the kids are asleep in the back. A breakfast stop at the Tebay Services was much needed and welcomed. Two more short stops and we were nearly there! Turn left said the sat nav, so we did. Cover your eyes and pray, it’s a single road with passing places and we mean single and along the coastal track not road. Fingers crossed we will not meet any other traffic. Ooops spoke too soon, heading towards us are two car loaders, pull into the passing place quick! Eventually we arrive at Lochaline.

The accommodation is at the old post office which looks out over the mouth of Lochaline, a very nice four bedroom house with Kitchen, lounge, dining room, drying room, two bathrooms and a down stairs toilet for us oldies.  As we looked out of the windows the dolphins were in a playful mood and jumping. What a fantastic welcome and start to a fantastic week of diving!

As the night progressed in came the rain and mist along with the gales.  After studying the weather from the window the following morning, while eating bacon sandwiches, we decided today, Sunday, was not the day to go diving, going off the evidence of the yacht in the mouth of the straight.

So some went for a windy walk, some went to the shop, some baked bread practicing resuscitation on it and some sat writing this report. On a good note the leg of lamb is ready to go into the oven for tea. Oh did I mention the Hotel was only 100 yards down the road!

 

Day two - Monday and the winds have gone, fingers crossed, but the grey clouds and the rain keeps threatening but today we are up for it! The ferry is running so that’s a good sign! The boats loaded and we are ready to go after watching the helicopter delivering the containers to the ship which is anchored at the side of the accommodation.

So off round to Cable Bay for buoyancy checks and a wall dive. We have three groups of two, each group following each other at intervals. The experts with the Go Pro first, that’s what we let them think, we just let them go first to take the pictures before the sand had been stirred up.

The wall was full of life and I don’t just mean us. We saw crabs, Dublin Bay Shrimps, starfish, sea squirts, leopard spotted goby’s, wrasse and lots more sea life. If the official photographers have done a good job there should be some good footage. Oh, talking of footage did I mention that one member lost a fin as he was approaching the boat after his dive. A pair was hired from the local dive centre. Thank goodness they are here.

A second dive found some of us doing some training towards our Sports Diver Qualification the rest of the group went off hunting scallops. They were pretty successful at it as well! A nice bag of scallops for tea.  No one told us that diving holidays had such high standards.

No dolphins today, although there were two seals in the bay teasing us by popping their heads out of the water and looking at us.

Day three – Tuesday and as the sun shone through the curtains one member was woken with a surprise, he opened the 1^st floor bedroom curtain and found a rather handsome gentleman looking at him. Once awake he realised that it was a reflection of himself in the mirror!

We were to dive the Rondo but the current was to strong so we deviated to The John Preston to find the cannons, which proved to be illusive unlike the Dublin Bay Shrimps,  Leopard Spotted Guppies and dead men fingers along with an amazing variety of other sea life all be it no Dolphins or seals today.

The afternoon dive saw some training towards the completion of the Sports Diver Qualifications. Others just had a gently meander to see what could be found which included a wide selection of crabs, star fish and we also found phosphorescent sea pen plant. I have to admit though the fish we saw were nothing like the size of the Salmon which we had for dinner.  Some divers also made friends with some jelly fish that were the size of a dust bin lid. Funnily enough these divers just wanted to eat anti histamines for their dinner.

Day four – Wednesday and the mood is quiet. May be all the hard work of the dives are catching up with us, it can’t be the late nights as we are usually fed, watered and in bed by ten o’clock. So an early breakfast and out to Ardtonish Bay to gather more scallops for tea by all of us.  Everyone was successful, so a good tea should be had.

It was overcast and windy in the afternoon but we decided to go back to the Rondo. We dropped in by the shot line and descended to find a glorious array of plant life in white, yellow and orange. If you did not know better you would think that you were in the tropic that is apart from the temperature of the water. There were also lots of fish in varying size from small to large in many colours. The Rondo is a fantastic wreck to meander in and out of, although one diver would disagree as a jelly fish took a liking to him just as he returned to the shot line. He got covered in tentacles’ from head to toe. A quick wipe down to remove as many tentacles as possible was quickly done but unfortunately the jelly fish won! Over the week so far, five to the jelly fish, one to the divers.

Home for a nice shower and as I looked out of the window a grey seal popped his head up to have a look around. After a couple of minutes he rolled and dived to disappear. He apparently tormented the guys while they were sorting out the scallops but would not come anywhere near them.

Day five – Thursday, we are expecting bad weather to move in this afternoon so it’s an early start. We set off to Fuinery Rocks, a site that none of us had ever dived before, so we are all Fuinary Rock virgins! The order of teams had been decided, that is until it turned into FIN day. What do we mean by fin day you may ask! Well it goes like this the first divers were kitting up and the pin on one of the straps broke, so a fin needed to be borrowed. The next set of divers then started to kit up and another pin on another set of fins went, so a quick change over with a spare strap. This in turn delayed the third divers’ entry into the water. We did find this site to be a fantastic scallop bay, not that there were lots of them but boy were they large, another good dinner to be had. There was plenty of colourful sea life to be found as well.

The afternoon dive was at the base of Eileen Rubha An Ridire rock outcrops. On arriving at the outcrops we saw several seals basking in the sun. They did keep an eye on us though and did enter the water to get a closer look at us. Unfortunately when we entered the water they did not appear to want to come and play with us! Never the less we all entered the water and meandered our way through a mass of rather large sea kelp, which had some currents running through it. We came across a high energy site of soft coral in an array of colours and sea life along with some extra large scallops which today got a reprieve due to us having collected enough this morning but tomorrow is another day!

Day six – Friday, our last day of diving! An early start was in order to catch the tide so that we could dive the Rondo again.  The corals were as ever in full colour even though not quite as bright as it was being dived at a different time of day with different weather conditions. Even though we dived it earlier this week there are still new things to see. We all managed to get in and out without being stung by the jellyfish, although we had a few near calls.

Then we went on a site seeing tour to survey some small outcrops of rocks to assess as a future dive site. There were seals basking in the sun who again kept an eye on us.

We then travelled back to Ardtonish Bay where we decanted air from two cylinders to top up our cylinders to complete a short dive. Some were finishing off skills to complete their Sports Diver qualification; others went on a scallop hunt. Today’s scallop hunt was not as successful as previous as the dredgers had been out, so our pickings were smaller today. As this was our last dive of the holiday it still proved to be a successful and enjoyable dive. This was a first for the LSSAU, two dives and off the water by just after one o’clock – noon!

After a leisurely lunch we set to emptying, cleaning, prepping and repacking the boat and equipment ready for the home journey. Once the boat and equipment had been sorted it was shower time. Once spruced up it was time to go to the hotel for the start of a de brief over a quick drink. The de brief continued in the dive centre’s restaurant over a very nice meal of nachos, chilli and finishing off with a fruit salad. Then home to bed in preparation for the drive home.   

 

Up at the normal time and the final breakfast was consumed with the sun streaming through the window. Everyone’s personal equipment was packed into the cars, the accommodation was emptied and cleaned and off we set home, this time missing the coastal track! The journey to the ferry was going very slow as the traffic seemed to be queuing up in front of us, it was almost like being on the M6. Then we realised that there was an old Land Rover towing a boat in front of us going at a steady pace. Then we realised that even the Land Rover was being held up by cyclists. The rest of the journey went smoothly.

Thank you to the organiser without whom this whole trip would not have been possible.

Thank you to the instructor who put in a lot of time for training instead of enjoying the holiday.

Thank you to the boat handler who gave up his whole week to get us out and back to dive sites safely.

Thank you to all the chefs who kept us well fed and watered.

Many thanks to all members of the group for making this a most enjoyable dive experience.

LSSAU goes to Plymouth - 9 to 11 May 2014

Forecast to be a blustery weekend, wind WSW veering W, speed 21 to 25 knots gusting up to 40 knots, which translates into force 6 to 9, Marg, Geoff, Pete, Shirley, Simon and Tom, ventured down to Plympton scout hut, unchanged in terms of facilities from last year and costing £5 per head per night.

The George Inn, a ten minute walk from the hut, provided a very palatable pint of St Austell beer, Dartmoor and HSD, along with good food, so good that Saturday night saw a return.

Following an uneventful launch and boat check, we headed for Cawsands Bay, completely sheltered in the lee of Rayne Head. Vis though was poor with 1.5m horizontally and only a foot or so vertically. The sea bottom was sandy with some sea weed, hermit crabs, squirts and the like, but it kept all three buddy pairs interested for on average a 30 minute dive.   

The return to Mountbatten Centre with the following sea was much quicker and great fun. The weather conditions having worsened, we recovered Vixen to return to Plympton, wash down and pack up kit in readiness for calling in at Vobster inland dive site near Frome on the return the following day.

Vobster provided an enjoyable dive with vis much improved on Cawsand Bay.

Pete and Shirley successfully completed use of SMB and a low vis dive, Simon had a further dive leading skill signed off and Tom had both low vis and small boat signed off – all well deserved.

Many thanks to Marg for organising and enjoyable weekend, even if the diving conditions weren’t as good as they might have been, to Kyle for preparing and helping with Vixen and to Sam for being home contact.