Thursday lunchtime and I was off! I had 5 hours to get to Darlington station to pick up John before continuing north to Seahouses (nearly Edinburgh for those who didn’t know!) So off I went with a full tank of petrol, sunglasses, lots of cd’s and a big bag of jelly babies. I made it on time despite the overturned beer lorry, it’s a pity the train was late. We met the rest of the crew in the lodge pub, no surprises there and were re-introduced to the Douglas family who would be looking after us, they are all extremely friendly and made us feel at home. This where we met the skipper Bud (with 4 paws and a tail) and his first mate Andrew, the one who actually drives the boat and doesn’t bark!

A good large breakfast was served at 8am and we eagerly set off for the quay side. Everyone was enthusiastic so the boat was loaded in no time, we were all ready to go when there was a slight change of plans. Due to the inclement seas we would now be departing at 1pm. This put a slight dampener on the morning but not to be put off we decided to go and do the cultural thing and set off in convoy to the holy island of Lindisfarne. Luckily the causeway was dry so while the rest of us just walked around the outside of the castle Gordon and Moira made good use of their national trust membership and went inside for the tour. The rest of us wondered across the cliffs for a great view down on the priory. Then it was time to dash back to Seahouses to set off for the dive. Despite the rather bumpy crossing to the islands we managed to find shelter and off we went to meet the seals. John and I found the same gully we had such a great dive in last year and just sat on the bottom and the seals took it in turns to swoop down and come and investigate these noisy creatures who had invaded the peace. It was fantastic, some seals just lay on the bottom and ignored us whilst a couple of others came to investigate my strobe with their teeth, a bit scary as seals have very big teeth but they were just being curious. We got a little chilly so came out of our gully and swam about for a bit with yet more seals, some of whom were brave enough to sneak up on us and tug on our fins with their teeth! Everyone came up from that dive with tales to tell of close encounters with the seals, except Robin and Kevin who had found an octopus so were raving about that instead! After that dive we bobbed about for a bit in the boat whilst everyone de-kitted ready for the journey back, we then waited for the skipper to take us back, only to find he was waiting a decent surface interval before putting us in again! By then it was getting a bit late so we decided to go back for an early dinner rather than do a second dive.

A slightly more civilised hour of 9am for breakfast, and we eagerly set off to the boat only to find that the sea was just as inclement as the previous day so again we had the morning off. John and I set off with Wadders and Sue to the impressive looking Bamburgh castle for more culture, a cup of tea and a sticky bun! The coastline here is very impressive, especially with huge waves rolling in (not so impressive if you intend to go diving!) The first dive was the wreck of the Chris Christianson rather a flat wreck, not surprising with the huge waves we had been seeing! So we pottered around the wreckage for a while before setting off over some amazing brittle star beds for more seal encounters in the shelter of the island. The second dive was along a wall covered in white and orange dead mans fingers, I had the camera so spent the dive happily photographing the crabs and lobsters that had found shelter in the crevasses in the rock. We got as far as a corner in the wall and hit swell so decided to quit whilst we were still enjoying the dive!

This was our last day so we wanted an early start as most of us had long journeys home (Even though Sam had only just arrived!) So we set off for the quay side as before, the sea state looked about the same as before too! Off we went, it was a little lumpy but not too bad. Our destination was the Somalia, a fairly modern wreck with a modern cargo including bags of cement, cosmetics, shoes, batteries and fire extinguishers. It was a bit dark on the way down and the visibility which had been getting steadily worse over the weekend wasn’t great but we had a potter over the wreckage. This was a 30m dive but even at that depth there was a huge swell, one minute you were zooming at high speed over the wreck, the next you were travelling just as rapidly in the other direction, not good if you were prone to seasickness! We gave up in the end as the motion was distinctly unpleasant and we weren’t having a lot of fun, although I have to say that’s the first time I have experienced a swell that bad at such a depth in this country! Back on the surface and the news wasn’t good, another boat had been in amongst the islands looking for a dive site and reported that the swell there was so big that they were seeing rocks exposed that had never been seen before! The skipper then decided that any diving there would be dangerous so he cancelled the second dive. So we sailed back in with no wind and fantastic blue sky, really unfair! Although there were huge breakers crashing over the sea wall. We moored up next to the slipway and started to unload the boat when the swell hit and she broke her moorings (and a piece of the boat!) so Andrew took her around and moored further along the sea wall, with a huge drop down into the boat, the only way up was by ladder and there was still loads of kit left on board, hmm. They had obviously met this situation before as there was a pulley system by the boat so everything was hoisted up on the end of a piece of rope, including the cylinders! Oh well, with the cars packed and the diving cancelled we sat on the pier by the boat in the sun and ate the lunch that lunch monitor Dirk had brought to eat on the first day and brought back to eat on the second day. After that we said our farewells to Andrew, and Bud the skipper, and threatened to return next year as despite the inclement weather we had been very well looked after and had a great weekend.

Johno de Lara
Cathy de Lara
Robin Adams
Kevin Gamble
Keith McDean
Ian Roberts
Gordon Simpson
Moira Simpson
Phil Wadders
Sue Wadders (non diver)
Sam Warwick
Derek Wright