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Scapa Flow September 24th – October 3rd Scapa Flow in September is looking like being the trip of the year as far as I’m concerned and we have completely filled one 12 person live aboard boat with the names that were put down late last year, however, we have put on hold another boat as we expect many more people to want to come. Travelling by minibus from the Dive Centre to our first stop in Pitlochery for an evening’s refreshment and deserved rest after the 7 hour leg of the journey, we will continue the last part of the driving to Scrabster on the north tip of Scotland on the Saturday morning. After a short ferry crossing, we get time to find the boat and off load the kit before venturing out to see what the Orkney’s have to offer a group of southern divers and with a whole weeks worth of some of the worlds best known wrecks coming up I’m sure we’ll find something to do. Then after completing what some call the best diving around these Islands, including wrecks like UB116 submarine, S54 torpedo boat, the light cruiser Brummer, the Dresden and the Kronprinz Wilhelm to name but a few, it will be time for the hop back to Pitlochery for one more night, before making the final leg of the Journey. FANTASTIC. You need to be a minimum of Advanced Open Water with British diving experience and a nitrox qualification would be an advantage but not a necessity. Everyone going will need access to either a pony cylinder or twin set. COST :£499 Price includes return transport from the Dive Centre – Orkneys, self-catering accommodation and 6 days hard boat diving.Note from the editor - you can read about the 2002 Scapa trip here Up-coming CoursesAdvanced Open Water Course
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| Cancun, Mexico - by Paul Hart As you probably all know by now I turned 40 in January (but you don't look a day over 30, I hear you all cry!) and my wife and I decided that as she turned 40 as well we would book a nice holiday as a celebration and leave the kids with their auntie for a week. We had heard about Mexico from some friends and about a hotel called the Moon Palace in Cancun, and with Cozumel just off the coast it sounded perfect - we were not disappointed. The Moon Palace is a 5 star all inclusive gold award hotel and it is fantastic, if you want all the details talk to me at the club, but surfice to say it is the best hotel I have ever stayed at. A double jacuzzi in each room, staff that are falling over themselves to help you, 24 hour room service, all you can eat and drink at anytime day or night all in the price and the biggest pool you could imagine..... you get the picture. Anyway, what about the diving ? Well they have something I've never tried before and that was enough for me to have a go - Cenote diving. Cenotes are sink holes or caverns in the jungle, left over from the ice age and now flooded mostly with fresh water but also with salt water as well. The top has fresh water from rain - crystal clear as has filtered thought the rocks above. The bottom is salt water where the caverns lead to the sea. In the middle is a halocline, a no mans land of mixing fresh and salt water, several inches or even feet thick, it is impossible to focus on anything when your head is in this area. As you approach it from above it looks to be a jelly like layer as your torch beam bounces off the swirling mixture but this is of course just an optical illusion. The Cenote we visited was called Chac Mool - something to do wth a god - and was good for beginners and advanced cave divers alike as it had a fairly open entrance but has many tens of kilometres of caves if you knew what you were doing. We would be guided by an experienced Cave Instructor and where told not to swim off on our own and not to ignore the skull and crossbones signs on some of the tunnel entrances - nuff said. Funnily enough, even with these warnings, it was not a requirement to be an experienced diver, open water was fine so long as you were happy in the dark and had good bouyancy control - smashing into the stalagtites on the ceiling was obviously not good for you or them. As we would always be within 40 metres of the exit they didn't even class it as an overhead environment, a point which I'd have to disagree on, especially when you needed to swim down to get out ! The first dive was just around the entrance to get us used to the site and on the second dive we went further into the cavern and up into a large room. In this you could surface in one area and look up through a small hole to the jungle floor above. Pictures and videos below.
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Cenote diving is certainly something different and the clarity of the water has to be seen to be believed. If you get a chance to do it then have a go, it certainly makes a change from coral and fish. Speaking of which, the next dive trip was to Cozumel which is just off the coast of Cancun and boasts the second biggest reef in the world after Australia. It only takes 20 minues or so to get to Cozumel on the ferry and this was all organised by the dive centre I booked with - more about them at the end. The first dive was on a beautiful wall which went from around 15 metres to somewhere in the abyss - way out of sight - and much as you would expect from the carribean, nice and warm, huge viz and beautiful coral, the only drawback for me as a photographer was the very, very fast current that saw us moving so fast it was difficult to slow down enough to take any decent pictures and even finning into the current was futile. I eventually resigned myself to taking in the views and not trying to film it. The second dive was more sedate and I took the video camera on this one but, although it was called paradise reef, the first dive was more vibrant. Don't get me wrong it was still very nice but a second dive without the current on the wall would have been better. Lots of fish on both dives and the odd turtle, I was hoping for a ray or shark to add the icing to the cake but it wasn't to be - maybe next time.
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Hey, It’s me…… Yes, it’s the one you know and love. I have risen from my long winter hibernation and like a bear with a sore head, I’m on the hunt for juicy little morsels to bring together for your viewing pleasure. But to start with, I hope you all out there in diving land had a very good Christmas and New Year. I myself spent most of the Christmas period and the New Year working on my upcoming autobiography, “Fireman Sam: Stripped”. It’s hot, naughty, and a little bit racy. Watch this space. Also thrown in for good measure, a night at my favourite hang out, The Bullet Wound, with me old mates Paddy the Greek and K.Y Kelly, (bit of a slippery customer this one), a few little tipples, a rather rushed kebab and B&B at the hot sheet motel, y’know the one with four tiled walls and those nice thick metal bars at the window…….you betcha!
Anyway, enough about my upcoming community service order, here’s another little story for ya! My mate Paddy the Greek has branched out a bit. He’s opened up a garden centre just down the road from me good self, and very nice it is too. However, the local council didn’t thing so after what happened the other weekend when Paddy had a bit of a marketing brainstorm. Oh yes! “Drive through compost, this weekend only” said the sign. My word, you should have seen the mess, and that lovely natural smell too. Fantastic stuff!!!!!
O.k then, enough of the old flannel, let’s get it on. Having skived of early from my place of employment, I was loaded and away to a cosy little pub at the foot of Mount Snowdon, our meeting point, (the pub, not the mountain!). The sound of a large drunken slur coming from a dark corner of the pub indicated where the highly skilled, (yeah right!!!), team were to be found. After a few more barrels, erm I mean pints of the local twelve day old were consumed, it was time to head off for the luxury accommodation. The boy Keith took point, declaring that he would lead us to our place of rest……mistake. Cue twenty minutes of off road work in the club battle bus, the grounding of several high performance cars, and the campsite house having it’s doors and windows double checked at a quarter passed midnight by us because that’s the caring sharing types we are, (oh my!). Still, we were soon bedded down, me of course in the penthouse suite!
Saturday, and yes it was raining but it was rather mild. Bloody good job too as the heating in the bunkhouse had packed up. No worries, we were soon saddled up and on our way to breakfast at the old favourite Pete’s Eats. Yummm. A dammed good blow-out later, and we were at journeys end and the hustle and bustle of kit sort out took over, and yes it was still raining!!!! Vivian quarry looked inviting but cold and just to prove how hardy (or daft!) we were, the lake was all ours. With the hernia set strapped on I executed a fine giant stride entry followed by a gentle descent to the bottom and off we went. Vis was not so good, probably due to run-off caused by the rain but after about half an hour, (believe me, that’s about all I could handle at six degrees!), and a swim through the blast hut, we were on the surface and out. I was glad to have the hernia set on as the walk from the lake back to the car park soon warmed me up! I thought I’d take the time to have a bit of a chat with the new owners of the site,(and get out of the rain too!) and was rather impressed with the changes they’ve made. New bottle bank in the compressor hut, cylinders filled in the changed round shop, it looked good. Dive two, and this time it was a bit of shot line work. Entry, descent and up the lines carrying out stops as required, something we’ll be doing at Scapa but a bit deeper than eighteen metres! I was glad to be out at this point, the cold spots in my suit were starting to make their presents felt! Brrrrr. Kit off and load out was then the order of the day after which it was back to the Hilton bunkhouse for wash and brush up. A night in the Saracens Head for the usual blow out ended things nicely. It had been a good day.
Sunday, and by golly the sun was out! Fantastic. Our efforts with the heating at the bunkhouse had not been all that successful but it had done us well. The sun was trying its best as we arrived back at Vivian and we were not alone this time, their being several other brave souls willing to hit the drink. Dive three, and again a bit more work in the blast huts and shot line ascent, this time doing the safety stop on the bar at five for three. Vis was starting to go what with other divers and the run off caused by the rain taking its toll, but things went good and guess what? When we surfaced it was raining!!!!! No worries, we gave it the minimum surface interval and were back in the saddle! Dive four, and this time it was SMB work, or so we thought. Good deployment was followed by a slight technical hitch on the way up but that’s what the weekend was for, sorting skills out so it wasn’t too much of a problem. I could feel the café calling as we got out so that’s what happened along with a bite to eat and a bit of a talkie bit. Five or so hours later saw us back home and sorted, and a good weekend was under our belts.
So their you are, not bad at all! I’ll leave you with this small note to finish with, a big sorry to the people who’s house on the campsite we did a crime prevention check on at god knows what time passed midnight. We weren’t that worst for wear, honest…….
Later people.
Fireman S.
As the new dive season approaches don't forget we are still running the club diving days at Stoney Cove on the last Thursday of the month. If you have qualified over the summer and want to get a few dives in with an Instructor or Assistant Instructor, before the season starts, now’s your chance. The next date is 29th April with Paul.
December 03
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