Isle of Man 2005 - Newbury Invades.

Listening to Radio 4 one wet Sunday morning in winter a description of sightings of up to 70 basking sharks at a time inspired a club holiday to the Isle of Man.  Sheilah put together a plan for up to 10 people to rent accommodation between Port Erin & Port St. Mary and to dive from Mike Keggan’s boat for a week.  Anthony put together a plan for a night on the town in Blackpool before catching the ferry and for a visit to the Submarine Museum at Ellesmere Port on the way home.

 The ferry crossing was as inspiring as these things usually are, 4 hours of time only well spent by Anthony (swotting for his dive leader exam).  Arriving on a wet Isle of Man didn’t bode well for the holiday and only Martin. Sheilah and Nick remembering to say Hello to the Fairies at the Fairy Bridge on their way south was another bad omen.  Arriving at the accommodation was a pleasant surprise, the house slept 10 people comfortably (2 to a room) with a spacious lounge, comfortable dining room and well equipped kitchen.  If we couldn’t dive we could watch the DVD’s & Videos provided for us.

The first day (Thursday) was the Fairies revenge, white horses on the waves, rain - perfect day to do some sightseeing.  A couple of people needed to get some cash so they drove into Port Erin to find a bank, here they encountered rush hour – all 3 cars!   Douglas the capital city with its horse drawn trams, quaint streets and rain,  The Lady Isabella, a fine example of industrial history, the weaving sheds of the Isle of Man Tartan and the not to be missed King Orry’s Grave.  This time as we passed over the Fairy Bridge we all paid our respects to the Fairies!!!!!!

The Second day (Friday) was much better, there was a wind from the east so Mike took the boat to Port Erin so that we could dive in the lee of the island.  The plan was the SS Citrine in the morning & Stack Fine in the afternoon.  Sheilah was marshalling the week so she took the opportunity to dive with one of her favourite buddies – Nick.  When those two get together they both enjoy their dives, but comparing what they saw to what everyone else saw one would think it was a completely different site!  The SS Citrine, they didn’t even see the wreck, Nick took 78 pictures and noted over 100 different species, Sheilah got all excited about the critters she saw, but everyone else saw boilers & a broken wreck with pretty scenery around it.

Stack fine was beautiful, a high energy site with colourful plumose & jewel anemones.  As Martin surfaced Mike told him to keep his fins on & his mask & snorkel handy as a basking shark was in the vicinity, “Sheilah will never believe this!” he remarked.  Sure enough as she surfaced Mike told her there was an orca around, she replied she knew, the mermaid had told her.  As she was the last to surface everyone was telling her there was a basking shark “And the Red Arrows flew over!” she replied.  Sitting at the back of the boat resolutely refusing to be wound up about this fictional basking shark she slowly realised that indeed there was a basking shark & Mike was gently easing the boat to where TWO basking sharks were swimming just outside the bay – ever felt stupid?

The fun was not over, Mike had taken a group of people from the Marine Conservation Society to Stack Fine, one of the party had lost his camera, Martin had found it on this dive.  With the camera safely hidden in Mike’s pocket Martin took the wrist strap to the group and asked if anyone recognised it.  One man was speechless, his partner asked if he had the camera “That depends on how much Beer it’s worth.” replied Martin; with the owner still speechless his partner offered “Enough to get you drunk!” – She obviously didn’t know Martin.

 That evening after a cottage pie supper cooked by Simon a group of us trundled to the pub where beer was duly bought, Nick had a chance to chat with the lady organising his trip to New Zealand and Sheilah had a long chat with Maura Mitchell co-author of Dive Isle of Man.

Day three (Saturday).  Mike had something special for us today, the morning dive was Spanish Rock, so called because 2 ships from the Armada are reputed to have been wrecked here and the Barroo (pronounced borough). 

Black Head to Spanish Head was a lovely dive, colourful, huge house sized boulders covered in life, brittle stars, cushion stars a drift dive at its best. As we headed out to the dive Mike stopped the boat suddenly as a basking shark surfaced in front of us, but she didn’t come further in to watch us.  She did, however stimulate speculation, if a basking shark swallows a jellyfish is it the equivalent of a human eating a chilli?

As we headed out to The Burroo Mike told us that if we were lucky we might see a dragon, 7 divers looked at Sheilah & said it was a certainty.  Burroo Rock looks like a dragon is drinking from the surrounding waters, & divers said it wasn’t really like Sheilah because it was drinking water!  This dive is probably the most colourful in the British Isles.  A high energy site with walls of colourful life, sponges, plumose anemones, jewel anemones, dahlia anemones, red fingers, oaten pipe hydroids, just a selection of the life on the walls, gullies with parts of shipwrecks (sadly no Armada ships) .  No photograph or description could do it justice highly recommended for any diver.

 George understands self catering, that evening we chose what we wanted ourselves & ordered it from the take away in port Erin!

Day four (Sunday) Today mike had a strange phenomenon for us to see.  He took us to the site of the Clan MacMaster.  This ship went down on Thousla rock in 1923 and donated her cargo of sewing machines to grateful islanders.  Thousla Rock is in Calf Sound which is the stretch of water between the Isle of Man and the smaller island called The Calf of Man, it is marked by a white tower navigation mark.  It’s a strange sight to see turbulent water flowing through the sound between 4 & 6 knots, but also to see calm water to the west of Thousla Rock, it was here we were to dive.

The wreck was well broken with paint cans scattered around, this was part of her cargo,  fish swam freely in the wreckage.  Seals are supposed to play in this area, but today they had gone on holiday much to Anthony’s disappointment.  When we surfaced the lifeboat rib came over to tell us that a couple of basking sharks were swimming close by, we felt it was bad form to ask them to wait for our divers whilst we went to look.  When Nick finally surfaced (strange how long five minutes can seem) we went to explore & sure enough a mother & calf were swimming quite happily, perhaps waiting for us to find them.

Over lunch the weather closed in, a pea souper of a mist so we headed back to the house to watch the fiasco of a grand prix in the USA.  Anthony cooked us a scrummy spaghetti bolognaise with extra chills for Martin.

Day five (Monday) Today was the day!  In planning the trip Martin had spotted a wreck called The Afton, he works for a company named after The Afton which is the highest mountain in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia USA.  Some photographs to show his colleagues were what he wanted, conditions had conspired to prevent us diving this wreck, but today was the day.

 First Mike took us to a site on the West side of the Calf of Man called the Amulty.  Nick was really excited about this site, he over shot his 45mins planned time and had to do 7 mins deco, he felt that even getting a telling off was worth it!  There was just so much life and the colours were outstanding, though not as stunning as the Burroo.  Simon & George managed to get lost so aborted their dive after 9 minutes.  Anthony was again disappointed because the seals which are supposed to abound on this site had again gone on holidayL  Sheilah was delighted because on the way back to Port St. Mary the basking sharks were out.

Mike drove his boat to a jetty opposite the airport & we boarded her there.  Whilst waiting for her a tourist convinced himself we were trying to blow up the airport, we had no idea we looked so sinister!  From there it was a short hop to the Afton and worth the trip.  At 25m down the water was crystal clear enough to take Martin’s Photo and some other shots to take to work.

In the evening we explored the night life in Port Erin and had a meal in the pub where we met a group of divers from Horwich (near Bolton) who had come over on a hard boat.

Day Six (Tuesday)  This was our last diving day, thankfully the Fairies were kind to us, but not kind enough for us to dive Sugarloaf caves, so we went to Garden Rock,  the fish here are very friendly especially when Anthony is breaking up sea urchins to feed them!  George uses a Sunto computer which asks for 3 mins deco at 6 meters, Sheilah was delighted to do this when she realised that she could photograph the jellyfish as they floated past.

The last dive was by general consensus a request dive.  We couldn’t resist a return to The Burroo, three basking sharks waited to say goodbye and the colours were every bit as good as we remembered.  Anyone going to dive the Isle of Man must make this a priority!

An evening of packing & a supper of fish & chips as we had to catch the ferry home at 7.30 the next morning and Anthony had arranged that visit to the submarine museum on the way home, but that’s his story………………………..

 Many thanks to Mike Keggan of Isle of Man Diving Holidays and to his family who played very important roles in making out stay so enjoyable.

WWW.IsleofManDivingHolidays.com

Full size photos can be found here...

Thanks to Sheilah for the pictures and Report.