Farne Islands

• Date: 24th and 25th of July
• Organiser: David smith
• Location: North of England
• Space available

People

1. Dave Smith
2. Chris Scott
3. Amanda Karaman
4. Phil Clegg
5. Bill Mansfield
6. Sally Carroll
7. Sam Wenham
8. Ben Pemberton
9. Mike Few
10. Franck Mesirard
11. Tristan Tyrrell
12. Neil Hooper
13. Tim Forster
14. Pete Flack (Non diver)
15. Jane Few (Non diver)

Description

Chris will send a £100 deposit to book the Lodge for accommodation. This has 5 rooms which can accommodate 2 persons per room. Rooms 1 to 4 have 1 double & 1 single bed, room 5 has 4 bunk beds but is only really comfortable for 2. They can put 2 more people in a guest house next door.

Links

Accommodation: http://www.thelodgeseahouses.co.uk/index.html

Extra information / Trip summary

CAMBSAC to The Farnes Trip – 24 & 25 July 2010

Following a successful trip to the Farnes in July 2009, Dave Smith and I decided it would be nice to go there again this year. The selected date was the first weekend of the school holidays, so travel was potentially busy.

We had a total party of 15 people, with 13 divers and 2 non-diving partners. With a journey of just under 300 miles taking just over 5 hours, we all hoped for limited travel delays! Several groups travelled during Friday whilst some travelled after work and made it in time for a quick beer before turning in for an early start.

Most people were in the bunk house at The Lodge in Seahouses, whilst others were next door at Wyndgrove House.

We were up at 7:30am for breakfast, most people eating cereal and the Full English! Sally was impressed by her vegetarian breakfast at Wyndgrove House. We headed off soon after 8:30am to go to Beadnell, to meet the RIB and skipper in the beach car park. The boat was Ocean Explorer, a 10 metre Humber RIB with a large helm, and twin 200 hp outboards, and launched by tractor.

We launched at 9:30am and headed to Blue Caps.and we started diving about 10:15am. Relatively shallow dive (13 metre) with lots of seals around, so many people were in for up to an hour. After tea and coffee we stayed and watched the seals on the surface then headed to the second site on The Pinnicles for the wreck of The Andrea. It got overcast whilst waiting between dives, but no rain. The Andrea is well broken up and has permanent shot leading down to the boilers. The prop shaft is also to be seen. There is a lot of life on the wreck and also on the vertical reef adjacent to the wreck.

We returned to Beadnell about 2:30pm and RIB taken out by tractor. We removed cylinders for refilling and were able to leave other gear on board overnight as the RIB is stored in a locked compound away from the site.

Cylinder filling took ages as it was a busy day with several other dive boats in the area.

For convenience, we had a meal together in the Lodge in the evening.

Sunday morning was overcast, with breakfast at 7:30am. Not so many people had Full English today! We headed to Beadnell for 9am so we could get kitted up in a good position to launch the large boat. We waited at the car park before launching to reduce waiting time for slack at the dive site. This dive was the wreck of The Somali.

Shot was dropped on the boilers, and there was plenty to see, although the overcast sky meant lower light levels. Several people brought up cosmetic jars of Ponds Cold Cream, and Silvikrin hair oil. A Diver magazine wreck report is available at - http://www.divernet.com/Wrecks/wreck_tours/159465/wreck_tour_13_the_somali.html

Between dives we had drinks and watched seals in the water and shags on the rocks, near The Crumstone. Franck and Sam snorkelled with the seals, to pass time. We dropped down shot for this reef dive with large vertical wall running east/west. No seals on this dive but lots of soft corals, and lots of fish. Franck and I found a huge anchor about 1.5 metre long, and badly corroded .

On returning to the RIB, the weather brightened up. Back at Beadnell the tractor recovered the RIB and we dekitted, then had the long dive home in about 5 and a half hours.

Diving was £40 per person per day, the same as in 2009. The charter was with Billy Shiel M.B.E. see http://www.farne-islands.com/diving/

Chris Scott

Some pictures

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