[John Gulliver]

Imported post

I'm trying to plan a one-week trip in the middle of September for a group of friends from Sweden to dive the Farnes and St Abbs. The numbers are very uncertain at the moment but it looks as though we may be 9 in the Swedish group. The ferry arrives in Newcastle mid-morning every Friday and the plan is to go direct to Seahouses, if possible do a Farnes dive Friday afternoon or early evening, 2 dives each day Saturday and Sunday and move on to St Abbs after the second dive on Sunday. We would want to do 2 dives a day Monday to Thursday in St Abbs and leave on the ferry sailing from Newcastle Friday afternoon. Hopefully, Lou, Caroline and Matt will join us in Seahouses and possibly also for  a day or so in St Abbs, making a group of 12 for part of the time. I've done a web search and found 2 dive operations in Seahouses – Farne Diving Services and Dawson at Seahouses. Do any of you locals have any opinions on them or alternative suggestions? As regards accommodation, I have been looking at the Tackroom Bunkhouse at Annstead Holiday Cottages. Again, do you have any comments or alternative suggestions? As the cost of bringing the cars over on the ferry is fairly high, we don't want to spend too much on accommodation and would therefore prefer self-catering. The Tackroom Bunkhouse costs £8.50 per person per night, which is about what we want to pay.
Diver's small ads are full of ads for dive-boats and B &B in St Abbs but none of them seem to be on the web, so I would again be grateful for any suggestions (dive-boats and self-catering accommodation, preferably not camping). Finally, some of us will need to fill air to 300 bar. Is that available in Seahouses and St Abbs?

 

[Mr T.]

Imported post

Here ya go John, fill yer boots mate:

http://www.farne-islands.com/boat-trips/

http://www.bishopaucklandsubaquaclub.co.uk/bluecaps.htm

http://www.sportextreme.com/phdilo13490/

http://www.sportextreme.com/phdiar26/

http://dreamwater.org/seac3027/Farne.htm

http://www.divernet.com/travel/0902farne.htm

http://www.divernet.com/travel/supp100/farnes.htm

http://www.3routes.com/europe/uk/eng/ne/3107.html

http://www.dcordes.freeuk.com/farnes.htm

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PROPERTYID=180


And as for St Abbs, we can not recommend Billy's hard-boat and bunkhouse too highly - right on the Harbour and boat at £7.50 per person oer day!!!! Here the skinny:

http://www.divecentrestabbs.com/

http://www.stabbs.com/diving/

Should be something to go for there mate. Hope it helps. Ans yes, this has got to be built into the YD Dive Calendar. Enjoy it mate and look forward to either meeeting if you do go on the trip or reading your dive report after the trip.

Cheers,

 

[parahandy]

Imported post

John
Used Jonathan Dawsons boats at Seahouses many times,never had any complaints, Good skipper good local knowledge.
Regarding StAbbs Billys boats already been mentioned "excellent".
Accomodation at St Abbs since youre not going for the camping option, perhaps a self catering caravan's a compromise keeping the cost down. Available at Scoutscroft(Coldingham) theres also the added bonus of a bar and food on site which saves messing.  

 

[John Gulliver]

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Thanks guys. I'll look at the links and get back to you if needed.

 

[Richard Greenwood]

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John, another couple of links for you for Seahouses:

Sovereign Diving - Charter boats & air fills to 300 bar and nitrox

<a href="http://www.sovereigndiving.co.uk

Also" target="_blank">http://www.sovereigndiving.co.uk

Also</a> Stan Hall

http://www.farnedivingservices.co.uk

Hope these help.

 

[John Gulliver]

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Many thanks Richard. It obviously won't be any problem to fill nitrox or air to 300 bar in Seahouses.

 

[Gavin Yates]

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John - you might struggle with Air/nitrox to 300 bar at Abbs. The compressor at Southcroft is buggered at the moment and another is being replaced - the idea I believe was to fit a new all-singing-dancing 300 bar model that accomodates nitrox too.

There is still the mini-compressor at the harbourside. When I find out more info I'll post here.

 

[John Gulliver]

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Thanks, Gavin! 300 bar is a must and nitrox would obviously be good.

 

[Diving Dude]

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Hi John
Dived with Ian Douglass of Sovereign diving and stayed in his b & b the first week in Sept 2002, We would highly reccomend him, unfortunatly his and his sons boat are booked for the time we want to go this year so we are trying Dawsons.

We are only diving two days Monday 18th Aug and Tuesday 19th (on way back from Scapa) and there is plenty of room on the boat for any mid-weekers.

 

[John Gulliver]

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Thanks Howard. All info' is gratefully received. Sovereign seems to be the place for air/nitrox fills, even if we don't dive and stay with them. Any idea of what they charge?