Scilly's Islands

Date: 17-26 September 2010
Organiser: Dave Williams
Location:South West of England

People

David Williams
Bill Mansfield
Dave Smith
Sam Wenham
Franck Mesirard
Chris Scott
Mike McLaren
Phil Clegg
Neil Hooper
Tim Foster

Description

Dates

The diving is from Sunday 19^th September to Friday 24^th September (six days diving, 2 dives per day so a total of 12 dives) we are diving on the Dave McBride ’s boat the Tiburon his website is http://www.divescilly.com/

The ferry leaves from Penzance at 09:15 on Saturday 18^th and we have a container for the dive gear. If anybody does not want to go across on the ferry and wants to fly or whatever please let me know. We need to be at the docks between 8:00 and 8:30 for loading the container. More info on http://www.islesofscilly-travel.co.uk/

I imagine that most people will travel down the night before and stay over but a number of people have suggested they’ll be driving down overnight so I have not arranged any accommodation in Penzance for Friday night – I’ll leave that up to individuals. (there are a number of B&Bs and a Travelodge etc nearby).

The ferry is foot passenger only so we’ll have to leave cars at Penzance – there is secure parking which can be booked at various costs and locations http://www.islesofscillyparking.co.uk/ http://www.penzanceparking.co.uk/ and http://www.scillyparking.co.uk/ what need to book will depend on who/how many of us are driving.

Return is on 16:30 from St. Mary’s on Saturday 25^th September the ferry gets in about 7:15ish so again some people may stay over others may want to get straight back.

Accommodation is booked for Saturday night to Saturday morning (7 nights)

Diving/Air Fills –

Everyone will need two Cylinders for diving as we go out in the morning and don’t come back until after the second dive. Air fills will cost £3 per fill (£1 for Pony’s) and cylinders are collected for the quay in a trailer for £8 per day which comes to about £4 a day. Twin set divers – your set up will dictate how you want to do it (third tank or whatever). Please note there is no Nitrox available. I’ll collect money at the end of the weeks diving for this once we know what we’ve used.

Accommodation

I’ve not divided up houses yet as I’m having a bit of an discussion with one of them but once that’s sorted I’ll send you all links to your houses.

Scillonian Club

I understand the tradition is to have a meal at the Scillonian Club on the first night – does everyone want me to book this?

Costs

The rest of the payment is due fairly soon and covers Dive Boat, Ferry, Container & Accommodation. It comes to a total of £525 minus deposit of £125 = £400 owing.

Some pictures

Trip Report

An elite bunch of 10 macho bloke divers headed for Penzance, some travelling on the Friday and staying in B&B, some travelling into the small hours and sleeping rough. Neil H. spent a memorable night in a bivvy bag next to his car, waking up having rolled under it - still, he was able to check the underside for corrosion thus saving himself a job in the future.

The logistics were well handled, with diving kit and luggage going in separate containers. This left the travellers hands free to enjoy some pint lifting while en route.

Once in Hugh town, St. Mary’s, the crew split into a 3 (Spanish Ledges SC) and a 7 (Silver street + annex SC) An equitable distribution of snorers was thus arrived at with no side being unfairly advantaged.

Our boat was the Tiburon – quite compact but fine for the job - skippered by the glamorous Dave McBride – he had a unique habit of lunchtime diving – while the dive team was fizzing off, he would don his own SCUBA kit, and grabbing one of his expensive cameras would disappear overboard for 45 minutes, entrusting his boat to us (what was he thinking?), returning with a big grin to rave about the quality of the images just shot.

First dive was that welcome “shakedown”, where forgotten kit was recalled (too late) and it was realised that various hoses and masks were not on the boat – but somehow we coped. We were treated to a scenic dive with lots of jewel anemones.

Also on the first day we were driven past a seal colony, where the skipper told us with a slightly embarrassed grin that the animals were very friendly due to it being mating season. He showed us some of his video footage later in the week and we had to agree the seals were making their own entertainment down there. This sometimes involved us. I feared for Frank personally, who has the unfortunate habit of hanging around for hours in the water with them in a hugely inflated drysuit looking like a rival beachmaster. Somehow, he got away with it though.

A good mix of wrecks was seen – including the Plympton/Hathor, the Italia, the Cita, and the Fireband (a fireship from the Association fleet). Depths ranged from just a few metres to around 45 meters.

On the last day a stiff force 6 was blowing into Hugh town harbour, yet the Tiburon still made it out and onto the back of the island – hence every day was dived.

There was a fantastic party on the last night in the Mermaid pub which several of us attended. We have no idea whose party it was, but if the lady in question is reading this, thanks from BSAC 240.

Memorable moments:

Frank representing his country by flying his national flag from his DSMB. Luckily he couldn’t hear the abuse on the surface!

Chris (Scott of the Deep) maintaining his hard won nickname, seen disappearing into the abyss again.

Phil swimming from the boat at lunchtime, jumping in quick before he got pushed.

Bill with his shorts, monopod and huge lens roaming the island scouting for “birds”

Sam and Tim finning to an uninhabited island to retrieve some scary looking electronic equipment the tide had washed up – then Neil taking it to bits on the boat deck.

Tim practising church bell ringing movements when he should have been decompressing – much to the amusement of the guys above him. We were treated once back in the boat to that rarest of creatures, a scout master with tourettes syndrome - what a day!

Mike McLaren ’s lunchtime standup act.

Such is the popularity of this venue we can’t rebook until 2012 – put your name down now! A big thanks to Dave Williams for doing the organising for us.

Phil Clegg

Written long after the event – sorry