| Imported post
John,
To do the Farne Islands you need a boat and a good skipper who knows the sites the currents and the changing tides. Some of the angriest waters you'll ever see is around some of those islands when the tides change.
On a visit there, the skipper pulled into a lee between some islands as the tide changed.. The water was like nothing I'd seen before, it litterally bubbled and boiled with loads of whirpools that looked like they would suck a diver down.
Mark turned to me, wearing the most serious and concerned face I've ever seen him wear, he looked me straight in the eyes and said.. "Kid, there's no f***ing way I'm getting in that" I laughed so hard I though I was gonna follow through... Wiping away tears of laughter I told him that we were just waiting for the tides to change, and sure enough half an hour later the water was like glass... Its a wierd but wonderful place.
Ben
I wouldn't suggest the Farnes as the venue for some of your first open water excursions, although there are novice dives there, things can become very unpredictable and people have been swept out if they've ventured too far around an isle and gotten caught up in a current, some of which can be very severe, also its then very difficult for the boat to see you if your floating away with an island between you and the boat.
We reached the corner of an island on a dive but didn't dare turn it because the current was raging past, so Mark jammed himself into some rocks so that he was secure, we then tied ourselves together with a buddy line and he fed me out into the current like a kite on the end of some string, I just hung there laughing my socks off.... dunno what I would of done if he'd let me go mind, but it was great fun at the time.
But don't be put off though, at the right times and in slack water its great diving, and the amount of seals there will freak you out.  |