Farne Isles

[Allan Carr]

Originally Posted by SteveJ

http://www.farne-islands.com/diving/index.htm

Billy Shiel recommended, on the above link. He has several hard boats from Seahouses. Does scenic dives and wrecks. Also Soverign Divers in Seahouses, haven't used them personally but they also have a compressor.

The reason that they are recommended is that it is their own website! The Shiels family run the grockle boats around the Farnes and for many years were very, very anti-diver until they saw it as a useful way of making money. I have run an annual trip up there for the past 16 years, the early years with a club RIB. We had to be very careful with the Shiel's boats because they would change course away from their usual route to come uncomfortably close to give us a rough time in their wake. Almost got wrecked on the rocks near the St. Andre on one occasion whilst picking up divers. A-flags and SMB's seemed to be invisible. Hence they won't be getting any of my custom.

Thes days, we dive with Farne Diving Services( www.farnedivingservices.co.uk/ ) based in Beadnell. Setup and owned by Stan Hall but now run mainly by his son Lee who is also an excellent skipper. I would trust Lee to take me into places up there that I wouldn't risk with some other skippers. They have three boats and also do B&B with their own units (all en-suite) in the converted stables behind Beadnell Hall.

As well as the Craster Arms, the Beadnell Towers do excellent food although it is more expensive than the Craster. However, it is restaurant quality rather than pub meals and is very good value. They also have real ale which the Craster doesn't.

Just had a week up there last week and had some great diving in spite of the weather.

[Dr Stevil]

Regardless of the glowing writeup I gave Sovereign last year, I won't be recommending them to anyone in the future. The withholding of the nitrox analyser is unforgivable, then there is the incident of the injured diver (which we really shouldn't comment on until the police have done their part), plus there's the insistence that you must pay for boats and accomodation thereby limiting your right to choose. Then there is the simple fact that they are frequently extremely rude to their customers and IMO treat divers as mere cash-cows to be milked.
The skipper's mother who runs the shop/filling station and the Southfield house accomodation is without a shadow of a doubt the rudest person I have ever encountered in any service industry.

Oh.. and all this was reinforced this weekend by even more rudeness to the point where it was plain cheeky. I won't give them a penny more of my money in future and I for one will not be sympathetic if the police judgement goes against them in respect of the unfortunate diver who lost his legs.

William Shiels http://www.farne-islands.com/boat-trips/
and Stan Hall's http://www.farnedivingservices.co.uk/

operations would be my future recommendations for those organising dive trips to the Farnes.

EDIT I've heard the stories about about how Billy Shiels was towards divers in the past, though I can say for certain now that William (the younger) Shiels is an active diver with Blythe BSAC and certainly knows how to throw that boat around.

Ron Young's (arguably "Mr Farnes Islands" from the divers point of view) preferred skipper and boat is Graeme Harrison and Moby, but it's a RIB and that's not good for the girls on a whole day at sea (ie no head)
mobile number 0780 278 5752 don't think he's got a website. Paul Beal has used Moby in the past

Don't foget Ron does a discount on his Farnes dive guide book for YDers, it's the only one there is!

[DIVE BUDDHA]

dont bother with soverign!!!! we dove with them over the weekend on soverign 4 with the winch at the back,,, and was very dissapointed on thier service as a whole i.e no cuppa after diver !!! the skipper whos the son was very distant from the divers as the the only interaction was the bloke who helped us with our kit,,,,, and to top it all we went to the soverign dive centre for fills and have never ever met staff as arrogant in my life i can tell ya!! and then to top it all off lou got her smb and wreel ripped out of her hands by a nice rib driver who i would have loved to have met up with on dry land and he will find the remains of the smb wrapped round his prop after it had been shredded !!!!! trip report to follow later this week

[markbsac]

i agree with the above many years ago..i went to dive on a club trip with these people...his father called his dive boat off due to bad weather his son took his boat out...i refused to dive with him.....i was seen as the bad guy and was told "dont expect a refund" which i did'nt my life was more important than a 20 quid refund...i was told by refuseing to dive i had upset the skipper and owed him an apology....do you think i gave him one! i did tell him how careless i thought he was..after all his father had cancelled his diving.....it all came down to looseing money he was'nt prepared to call his boat off as he would have to have paid us all our money back for that day.

i have not been back since.....

[DIVE BUDDHA]

it was a poor service mark and i can ascociate with the gung ho attitude mate and i wont be diving with them again as i though that it was expensive diving for a hard boat trip of no more than a couple of miles out !! although im supprised someone didnt get hurt with the idiots on the water in ribs as me and lou could have been seriously hurt if she hadnt let go of her wreel althouth it did drag her up about 4 metres just as we was coming up for our safety stop and could so easily have pulled her into the prop!!!!

[MATTBIN]

Originally Posted by Allan Carr

Thes days, we dive with Farne Diving Services( www.farnedivingservices.co.uk/ ) based in Beadnell. Setup and owned by Stan Hall but now run mainly by his son Lee who is also an excellent skipper. I would trust Lee to take me into places up there that I wouldn't risk with some other skippers. They have three boats and also do B&B with their own units (all en-suite) in the converted stables behind Beadnell Hall.

As well as the Craster Arms, the Beadnell Towers do excellent food although it is more expensive than the Craster. However, it is restaurant quality rather than pub meals and is very good value. They also have real ale which the Craster doesn't.

Just had a week up there last week and had some great diving in spite of the weather.

That's the chappy, John Gulliver organised my/our first trip up there and it was very good, sadly for Dave Crompton Sovereign werent as good and I really felt for him when I had a bad time during the trip he organised. I disliked it so much it has coloured my view of heading that way again.

Matt

[SilvaFish]

Originally Posted by yipeediver

it was a poor service mark and i can ascociate with the gung ho attitude mate and i wont be diving with them again as i though that it was expensive diving for a hard boat trip of no more than a couple of miles out !! although im supprised someone didnt get hurt with the idiots on the water in ribs as me and lou could have been seriously hurt if she hadnt let go of her wreel althouth it did drag her up about 4 metres just as we was coming up for our safety stop and could so easily have pulled her into the prop!!!!

anybody come across a SMB, an Underwater World (Stoney) one on a small yellow reel? The last I saw it, it got caught on a small floaty thing with an engine with a couple of divers trailing off it!

I have no idea which company or club ran that RIB, but the SMB was up for a good 5 minutes as i'd nearly finished my safety stop and was ascending when my 'balloon got popped'. It actually was both of ours that got caught, but Leigh managed to pull his out, I couldn't do that as I was doing the underwater jetski thing!

Oh well, dive show soon........ will have to look for a 'prop shredder' model..... and for the 'guilty party', where on earth did you learn to drive!!!!!!?

[DIVE BUDDHA]

hey lou i tell ya what u was well lucky u had piece of mind to let the wreel go cos another 5 seconds u may have been haveing an extra short hair cut and yes a question of where he got his licence from cos the weather conditions resmbled a mill pond and was flying round like bloody idiots ???but made up for all with me stroking the seals on dive 2 out of 4

[SilvaFish]

Originally Posted by yipeediver

hey lou i tell ya what u was well lucky u had piece of mind to let the wreel go cos another 5 seconds u may have been haveing an extra short hair cut and yes a question of where he got his licence from cos the weather conditions resmbled a mill pond and was flying round like bloody idiots ???but made up for all with me stroking the seals on dive 2 out of 4

Ooooo I don't fancy a Number 1 flat top cut, am growing mine out now, although will probably drop out again when I see them prices for reels!!!!
And the seals made it for me, and how you managed to get to stroke one is anyone's guess, you jammy bleeder!!! Although getting close to them whilst they are resting on the bottom was ace, and coming face to face with one in mid water was excellent and whoever had a direct line to the weather gods made it even better, as both days were glorious!!!

[Allan Carr]

We had a great time with the seals last week. We also managed to stroke one - a young white one with a scar across its nose. It was very friendly with all the divers. My son was lying on his back on the bottom with a big bull seal playing with his fins! On one dive we had 6 of them following us around. They seem to be particularly friendly at the moment.

The comments about the unfriendliness of Sovereign are a marked contrast with Farne Diving Services. My wife is disabled with back problems which prevent her carrying any significant weight and she needs a lot of help kitting up and unkitting. Lee Hall was extremely helpful as always and the hot drinks are there the moment you are back on board.

Of course, there's also Stan Hall for entertainment over breakfast. Those who have stayed there will know what I mean. He was telling me on Friday that Sovereign was started up with a loan from him to buy their first boat. They then proceeded to ring up all his regular customers to try and lure them away - which didn't amuse Stan!