The Tour begins!

[Simon TW]

It was a very hot evening in Hurghada when I was discussing diving with some friends. The friends were a mixed European bunch and we were talking about the diving in our own countries. Allthough I have dived Scapa twice and had a splash or two in loch long I haven't done any other diving in Britain(Lakes and quarries excluded) and so I thought that I had been missing out on some good diving.

The idea was to spend a month or two travelling and diving, it would be impossible to cover all of the country in a couple of months and the weather would eventually prevent me from doing it in one go so I thought that the North would be a good starting point.

After a couple of discussions and a little (very little) thought I came up with a plan.

Firstly, I needed a new drysuit and some kit for the cold water. I also needed some cylinders for the ybod (as I'd left mine in Egypt) and a couple of cylinders to decant from. Some phonecalls, visits and several posts on YD sourced most of the required kit. For the cylinders, I had two but none O2 clean so I rang Andy Heyhurst (Dales Divers) and as it would happen he was running a course that included O2 cleaning and I booked myself on it. The course was last Friday and not only did I learn about O2 cleaning I learned all about how regulators work and was happy as a pig in muck stripping Apeks and Posiedon regs down.

Sunday 21st August was the first day of diving, I had new kit and I'm not that happy in a drysuit anyway but now I have to test and ensure that everything is working and as it should be.

I had posted on here for Buddies and had received a few responses, I did expect more amd was a little dissapointed but I only really needed one. i had an offer to dive at Dotty but as I was already in the lakes Capernwray or Wastwater would be the preference. JohnK and DaveJ with Karen (both John and Dave I've had the pleasure of diving with once before) answerd the call and it was sorted. Capernwray on Sunday.

I met John and Dave in the queue and we were able to park together. I have never seen Capernwray so busy. We kitted up and discussed kit and the dive and the diving that we had been doing.

I could bore you all to death with a report on the route taken and what we saw, but I will spare you. It's a quarry, that should be sufficent. oh and some Dir bods were putting line in patterns on the bottom. Fundies? (i think Neil said he was to be there)

In all it was a very pleasent day. I got two dives in, one hour fourty mins on the box and caught up with some old YD buddies. All of the new kit worked well and I'm pleased to say the drysuit did was it was supposed two. The only snag seemed to be the boots are two wide for jetfin pockets.

I'm at St Abbs next so will keep you posted.....

[Adrian Kelland]

If you get down to the SW, we will see what we can sort Simon.

Now if you can be in Exmouth on the 4th Sept...

Adrian

[neilh]

Originally Posted by Simon TW

oh and some Dir bods were putting line in patterns on the bottom. Fundies? (i think Neil said he was to be there)

Yup, we were there on Sunday and, depending on the time, were either demonstrating a complete cluster f##k for dive 3 or an almost reasonable team for dive 4!

Now you've mentioned it I do remember seeing a couple of divers going past at one point with one on a YBOD. I wonder if that was you...

If you saw the back of my head you might have noticed the black YD slap strap

[Simon TW]

Yes that would have been us. (i've just posted on your thread)Two twinsets and a YBOD.

I knew I should have worn my "horned hood" but I was trying new kit and with that was new hood.

[Simon TW]

Originally Posted by Adrian Kelland

If you get down to the SW, we will see what we can sort Simon.

Now if you can be in Exmouth on the 4th Sept...

Adrian

The southern tour will be next year, I hope but I hope to do the south coast to the silly's but there seems to be a awfull lot of diving along there.

[JohnK]

yep - a great fun day - thanks. That was us swimming past trying not to get tangled in the lines - looked like fun. DaveJ reckoned you were playing cats cradle cos we saw another line out nearer the wessex on the way from Orca.

Thanks again. Great weather, great dives and even the dive groupies were on show - I love summer !!!

[Simon TW]

After a pleasant day at Capernwray I was preparing to head north. St Abb's was to be the next destination and I had spotted a thread by Colin Marriott about a boat “Topline”. (“Topline” is the name of the boat and also the name on YD of the skipper Paul.) I phoned Paul and booked a couple of days diving for the Saturday and the Sunday, this was the August Bank holiday weekend and I was very lucky to get a space as I found out.

I’m a little new to UK sea diving (just a couple of times at Scapa and Loch long) and I’ve never dived off a boat in the UK so it was to be new experiences for me. I had had some discussions with some other YD members who booked themselves on the boat and I was to meet up with some at St Abb’s on the day and others who were staying in the caravan with me.

Dave Crampton Josie and Jules were staying in the Caravan and Colin Marroiott and Porg were meeting at the harbour.

All nearly went to plan, we met at the Caravan in a field on the Friday evening and had a little drink and re-aquatinted ourselves before retiring, however Dave had had a fall on Friday and was badly grazed and bruised. (He said he did it kiteing but that’s what I say when I’m pissed) so he was unsure of his dive fitness but would know better in the morning.

Morning arrived and we got up and ready, Dave watched me pack the old scrubber. And helped with all the kit to the harbour. He had decided not to dive but would look after the dogs (Sam and Nova) when we arrived at the Harbour we started to get ready, I was down to my undies when Porg and Colin arrived and introduced themselves. (My first meeting with two from YD and I’m nearly naked!) We got the kit on the boat and cast off, it was a kind of mini gig 7 from YD and as I| was to loose my cherry it was nice to have company.

Colin and Porg were first in then some others went and then Jules Josie and me. All OK and down… hang on the down bit wasn’t working too good, I’d added extra weight but obviously not enough. I thought I can fin down so long as I can hold a stop it won’t be a problem and at 5 metre I stopped, I then started to rise so thought it best to call the dive as Jules and Josie were well down. Now before anyone thinks that they know better and post that I would be lighter at the end of the dive due to gas consumption, yes I would be but not much. I’m on a ybod and the weight doesn’t really differ that much compared to OC. I could have collected a Rock, well yes I could but not a good idea as I’m on a ybod and I need hands free on assent. So I was back on the boat. Dive 1, 5.5mtr 1min. so not racking much deco.

Dive 2 was with more lead, 3 kilo to be precise and still a little light. So that was it, UK cherry broken. The evening was pleasant, curry wine and a film.

On the Sunday I was diving with Colin and Porg as a three and we planned to do two dives but we were having fun so we managed to get on the 5 O’clock boat and did three dives. Porg (Helen) was to dive on the Monday and I hadn’t planned to be diving the but there was space on the boat so I agreed to dive, I didn’t need much persuading. As she doesn’t drive and accommodation was short she bunked in the caravan and got used to the dogs.

Mondays dives were as good as the others, on the first dive though we were separated and as we hadn’t agreed separation procedures prior to diving I looked for 1 minute then surfaced. She had done the same and was being picked up as I surfaced. We were offered a chance to go back down and thought we’d give it a go but my reel was tangled so that was that. The second dive was nice and a good day was had by all.

For those of you who haven’t dived St Abb’s the diving is surprisingly nice, Topline is a splendid boat and being YD is worthy of support. Hot drinks and chocolate biscuits are provided in abundance. Paul is a local guy and knows the sites well and at £10 per dive you can’t complain about the price, you can book as I did as a sole diver or as a group. Something other skippers need to do.

Today I have tried to get a dive from the farnes and as I’m on my own nobody wants to know. I can’t get a boat unless I pay for 12 divers and charter the whole boat. I understand that they have to make a profit and it’s not worth sending a boat out to make a loss but not one boat can be booked the way that I booked out of St Abb’s i.e. per diver, surely it would be in someone’s interest to operate that way.

Tomorrow I’m heading for Lossiemouth in the hope of diving the Moray Firth later in the week. It appears that the boat is full there also but I can get a fill of O2 and hope that someone cancels.

Thanks to Jules, Dave, Josie, Colin, and Helen for being buddies and Paul for being a “Topline” skipper.

If anyone wants to meet up then get in touch, I’m heading for Scapa Next week and will be at Lossiemouth from Wednesday.

Update......

I'm now in the liabrary in Elgin and have made contact with "Col" who has arranged diving for tomorrow, we're diving the "Verona" so that will be my UK wreak cherry gone!

[Helen F H]

Glad you enjoyed it sweetie

[Simon TW]

The drive from St Abbs to Lossiemouth took longer than expected. I had managed to get a Caravan site at a place called Findochty but soon found out that it was pronounced Fin-ecty. I heard several reasons why and all differed apart from it was the fault of the English.

When I arrived at Findochty I was surprised to find such a nice place, and it looked as if you could just walk right in and dive. In fact you could. The whole region of the Moray Firth is ripe for diving but there just aren’t enough Divers to make a diving operation worthwhile. There is one boat from Lossiemouth called “Top Cat” and he was full and it appears that he is full quite a lot of the time. The whole coast is littered with little villages all with harbours suitable for dive boats.

I had been contacted on YD in my looking for buddies thread http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/fo...ad.php?t=24592 by Col. Col is a member of a Burghead BSAC and he offered to sort out some diving from the Club RHIB. He also asked around and on the Saturday we were four. The plan was to dive the Verona, http://www.divernet.com/wrecks/wtour710105.shtml At 43 metres it was to be my first UK wreak (not counting blockships at Scapa or sunken to order boats in inland quarries) the plan was to have a bottom time of 28mins and total dive one hour. This was Col’s plan as he was on mix, I knew that my deco would be much shorter on the box but I was happy with his plan as time in the water all counts towards the hours.

I have been travelling with a 12ltr of o2 and a 15 of air and decanting to the inspiration and although I had plenty of gas I would have to start topping after each dive so I thought that as I was around the area a trip to Aberdeen to get some o2 boosted would be in order. The problem with this is that Aberdeen; British capital of Commie diving only had one place that could boost o2 although there were two places that I could get a mini sub from. Aberdeen Watersports had a Haskell but they didn’t have any o2. What! Yep no o2 but they offered to boost the gas in the 12 to the 3 litre on the box, so that would have to do.

On arriving at Aberdeen Watersports they explained that they had just sent a trip of for mix diving at Scapa and used all the o2 and were awaiting a delivery. On checking the J’s there were some dregs in and it took a long time but they did manage to get the dregs out of the J’s and fill my 3 and 12 to 200 bar. In the meantime Jules had been trying to convince a nice chap with loads of o2 at the Hyperbaric place to let me have some. So a big THANKS to Jules and the guy at the hyperbaric place for trying and another big thanks to Gary Aberdeen Watersports for boosting what they had.

I met Col on the Saturday morning as arranged and he had told me about the wreak of the Verona being in “Diver” mag but had forgot the copy so we went back to his house to get it. (If you PM your address Col I promise to return it) Having seen the picture I was to get an idea of what I was diving on even if I couldn’t see it. The other guy’s were waiting at the Harbour and we launched the boat and blasted across a flat calm sea. Col and I went in second and we had been told that the viz was not so good but on dropping down the shot I could see about 3 metres, I’m used to diving wreaks where you can see the whole boat in one go so this was a new experience a bit a t a time. My torch didn’t at first want to work so I had my back up on. This was going to be fun 3 metre viz and a backup torch so I had another play and the thing sprung to life. HID rules! Well it does in 3 metres.

The wreak was quite interesting and as it’s a war grave it’s not been picked clean a lot of interesting stuff to see, especially the sanitryware. I couldn’t believe it when Col signalled 5 mins before we ascend. 28 mins bottomtime were over just to quickly and we started the assent and began the stops.

On the Sunday we again met at Burghead but it was to be just Col and me with Charlie as a cox. The dive was to be the Santee (I think that’s how it is spelt) I would like to tell you more about it but I don’t know anything. I have a book that took some time to find it is called Dive Scotland vol III and it’s crap. This wreak isn’t even in it. However it is a bid ship broken in two and lies in 28 to 38 metres. On this dive it was to be the torch of buddy Col that was to refuse to work but his backup was more than up to the job. Again Col had planned the dive so I just dived his plan and hung around whilst he did deco.

For those of you who haven’t dived the Moray Firth, and I know that there will be many. It’s a really lovely place to visit I was very reluctant to leave not just because of the night dive on Tuesday but because the diving is good and the countryside is beautiful it’s the people, they make you feel so welcome.

I would really like to thank Col for ensuring that I got to dive here, without him it would not have been possible without waiting around for a week. A top guy who went well out of his way for me. Thanks!

I left the Moray Firth on Monday and made my way up to the north coast and took the ferry to the Orkneys. It was dark when I arrived at Stromness Caravan park but I knew that it was right on the Flow. This morning I couldn’t believe it not just right on the Flow but on two sides. The Caravan is two metres from the water. I couldn’t be nearer if I was on a livaboard. Today I’m off to get net access to post this and to see Sarah and Ben (Scapa Scuba YD name and dive centre name, I did my drysuit course with them and adventure diver) then to hopefully catch Hazel (Divebiatch YD name) when her boat comes in.

The plan at Scapa is to dive the German High Seas Fleet, I’m not really interested in the other wreaks but you never know. Then it’s off along the north coast and down the west coast. If anyone knows anywhere worth a dive then get in touch, likewise if you get some free time and want to meet up and dive the feel free to Phone.

I've written a little about Scapa Flow here http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/fo...631#post309631

[dave archer]

Simon, enjoying reading your report by installments mate, can't green you again so have a virtual one

Dave.