Mull Revisited.

[Paul Sharman]

Thanks to the generosity of fellow YD Er SJRW, I became the owner of 5 days Diving up in Mull [Cheers stu!!] So added a couple to make a week of it and hit the road, or to be more precise the Train on the 31st.

By10.30 I was sat in me favorite corner of the Oban Inn with a foaming Pint and a small glass of amber liquid almost as old as me, Happy days!

Thursday [or just not my day]
Started the day by pouring 2 pints of milk over the kitchen floor, well the day can only improve!

Off for the first 2 dives. Dive 1 The Thesis. Budded up in a 3 with a chap from Essex and a chap from Cheshire. The Plan, Pause for a min or 2 at bottom of shot then to the bow and down through the inside to the stern hold and back up the Deck to the shot. In we go and down we go, Buddy no1 disappears down the shot like a free diver on a sled while no 2 has difficulty braking the surface! Grate! Make it to the bottom of the shot to find, No 1 calmly sitting on what used to be a plume of anomie's, Vis, Fantastic, Current, just about Nil. OK ill just take a pic or 2 while you guys get comfy. No I wont then [left the bloody lens cap on the 8080] We exchange OK Sig No 1 gets off his seat and we head for the bow. 2 Kicks later, hefty tug on right shoulder, Buddy no 2 signaling big stile Problem with one hand and up with the other. OK turn him round and back to the shot passing no 1 give no 1 the you, me and him point routine followed by UP with both hands. I get one of those, the lights are on but nobody home looks in return, Grate, Repeat double UP and get a nod, No 2 is now hauling himself up the shot hand over hand, Grate, Put a stop to that and look back for No 1 to see him heading for the bow, fantastic!
Back to the surface we go! Dive time 11 min!
No 1 was thankfully collected by the other pair in the water and surfaced some ten min after us. No 2 it transpired was diving a set of regs brought the week before of e bay for a ton and no service!! below 18 they were almost free flowing on him!

Dive 2 Back Island.
A very gentle drift along the wall and the ledge! Budded up with no 1
The Plan! Max Depth 18m Keep the wall on our left deploy an SMB after 5 min.
In we go and down Vis average current below 10 m gentle. I stop at 16 and Waite for my buddy to come back from 25. for 3 min we have a gentle drift along the wall with lots of life [things are looking up] I deploy me SMB and look round to where me Buddy was! GONE! Are there he is finning UP the wall in the opposite direction, Grate. He then fins down the wall to the ledge and heads off into the green! Fantastic! Thankfully after ten min of finning about in just about every direction other than the one the SMB wanted to go he was down to 60 bar so up we came and surfaced about mid way between Back island and Kerra. Dive time 19 min. 'how did we manage to get out here' says he. I spouted some bullshit about Scottish Currents and sulked until the boat turned up.

Friday [or Chalk and Cheese]

Again in a 3 with a local lad and a lady from Amsterdam
Dive 1 The Breada


Viz a misty 4 or 5 m Current Zero
Down the Stern shot and just pottered about looking at this and that.
We took so much time looking that ran out of time just forward of the engine room and made a bit of a sprint to the bow shot so as not to be late up!

Dive 2 Ard Na Culi Cliff


Drooped down on to the bolder slope and spent some time playing with the tame wrasse and then took a very gentle drift along the Cliff playing dodge the Lions mains.

All in 2 of the most relaxed dives i have ever don. Happy days again

Saturday
Dive 1 The Rondo


Diving with Emmy [Amsterdam] and a lad from Dundee.
Vis Fantastic Current on the ebb slight.
Down the Starboard side to 33m and worked our way back up to the rudder inside. The Conga had all gone out for the day but were replace with fish soup Pollock wras and mackerel for days. Used up the time and gas messing around on the stern and rudder post. Superber Dive.

Dive 2 Dunb Skiea



Vis a good 8 m Current enough to make it an armchair ride!
Another Lovely gentle drift along the wall which is covered in an abidance of life. With the top of the wall at around the 20m mark we only got around 2 thirds of the way before the computers were complaining of impending Deco. So it was back to the Sun!

Sunday [or time trials]

Diving with Emmy and a chap from Nottingham [i think]

Dive 1 Back to the Thesis


Bright Sunshine Vis Fantastic Current we hit Slack!
Down the shot and headed straight for the inside of the bow.
With the sun coming through the ribs the inside of the Thesis is just fantastic, could have spent the whole dive inside the bow. We didn't!
We did a whistle stop tour to the aft end of the engine room chasing a yellow pair of fins and then back to the bow, still chasing same! By which time yellow fins was down to 50bar so up he went, we stole another couple of minuets on the bow and joined him at 5m.

Dive 2
Back to the Breada
Vis Much better than last time Current Non.
After several subtle hints about the virtues of going slowly and a couple of thinly disguised threats yellow fins slowed up, a bit. We still made it to the bow with time to spar, fortunately also gas! So spent the last ten min admiring the Carpet of Dead mans Fingers on the Bow.

Monday [exploring]
Just me and an instructor from the centerer on the boat, so we headed for
Inch Island.


Dive 1
Went looking for the wreck of the Normal.
Vis 8m but dark current nearly non.

We completely failed to find the wreck, but did find some seriously impressive Drop offs and Gullies we gave up at 35 m with no end to either in sight and finished off messing about in the kelp Forrest.

Dive 2

A drift along the west side of the Island.
Vis 8m and much brighter. Current Emmy chair again.
The west side is completely exposed and must take a heck of a battering in the winter storms, below the kelp is a never ending bolder slope down to about 40 [according to the sonar] then straight down to 3 figures!
Very barren apart from a Huge Pollock who flatly refused to let me get close enough for o pic!

Tuesday [Oh yes and Oops NO]
Just Emmy and me on the boat so off we went for

Dive 1 The Shauna.


Vis superb [only boat there] Current gentle from the stern toward the bow.
Down the shot and headed toward the stern. Fish for days again, drooped down for a look at the rudder and then drifted back toward the bow with the compulsory drop into the Funnel. Ran out of No stop time just short of the bow but a super dive all the same.

Dive 2
Ballista Drift.


We are on the neaps so there wont be a lot of current round the point says the skipper!
Little old me sitting on the tube ready to role in looking at all the crinkly swirly bits over there on the water ain't convinced! But in we go.
Drop into the Kelp in 6m and as usual cant find any wreck! We mess about for 5 and stick our noses out over the edge of the wall.
The Skipper lied! We pop into a washing machine full of brown water and are squirted around the tip of the island and down to 19 m performing the odd somersault along the way! Once around the end things calm down to just quick ish so Mr instructor here puts up the SMB, manages to snag the line round his camera, frees that and completely fails to catch the real on its way past!!! Stunning! So Emmy deploys hers The real Locks up so SMB no 2 is off for a drift on its own! Oops! 2 suitably embarrassed diver surface after 20 min.

Wednesday.
Double dived the Breada with Emmy.
50 and 45 min just pottering around all of it Fantastic.
I have lost count of the number of dives on the Breada but never realized until dive 2 that the heap of wreckage on the sea bed off the port side of the bow contains an enormous ankor!

All in all a good weeks diving and defiantly not dull!

Pic from the weak are in the YD Gallery.
http://www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk/ga...bum.php?page=1

Thursday 2
The Tea on trains is Foul!!!!!!!!
Still Home by 5!

Cheers.
Paul.

[LHatton]

Sounds like a good week paul, shame I couldnt join you