This month’s trip was to Oban on the West coast of Scotland arranged by John Carter. We dived with Porpoise diving based near Balvicar on the Isle of Seil.

The Atlantic Bridge to the Isle of Seil

10 members of the club booked onto the trip and plans were made for the weekend, including travel accommodation and diving plans. John supplied us with a comprehensive dive plan for the weekend and arrangements were made.

Mark and Janine set off on advance party on Thursday evening in the motor home so that by the time the first club members started arriving they had carried out a detailed reconnaissance on the area. By lunchtime on Friday, 5 of the club were already there and with the weather and sea conditions so good were all eager to have a shore dive (or two).

A suitable bay was found and Mark blew up his inflatable canoe to get an idea of depth. 7m in a sheltered bay with no current was ideal, with shore cover and sea cover in the canoe we kitted up. Not much to start with but a bit further out was plenty of kelp and growth to rummage around in brought the usual crabs and sea life including a dogfish that curled into a ball when you touched its tail!!!

Time was getting on and it was decided that as we needed air fills, Puffin divers at Oban would do the trick and also allow those who wished another shore dive. A nice easy entry down the slipway into the bay area with a maximum depth of around 10 metres, the area looked like it had been used as a dumping ground in some places and the vis was not great. We finished the dive but all agreed that we would not rush back.

Getting ready for the "Epic" Puffin Dive

Anyway, air fills sorted contact made with the others, all was going sweet.......we then got a call from Dave Shaw, his car had broken down, he still needed fills and the local garage was only open for a short time on the Saturday which could wreck his weekends diving.

We made our way to where he had broken down to find a man laying underneath Dave’s car.....luckily it had nothing to do with his driving but was the mechanic. After a game of kit offloading and loading again, we went to sort air fills and getting the car to the garage.

Luckliy it was a mechanic under Dave's car

As time was getting on we headed to where 6 of the club were staying in a bunkhouse, now the implications set in....1 car, 6 people plus diving kit......we have a problem. Luckily JCs car was a 7 seater and Marks Mobile home took all of the kit......nice one you two.

By now it was getting late and we thought we had best get to the local pub to get some food, on arrival we found out that local chefs do not like groups of 10 people turning up 10 minutes before food closing time wanting feeding. (He was heard to say “well they are not having starters”!!!!!!!!)
Anyway all sorted, a couple of beers and then ready for our two days of boat diving.

Tigh an Truish Inn

We all turned up the next day for diving on Porpoise II.
Launched for 2004, Porpoise II is one of the most powerful charter boats of its size ever built. The twin engines are efficiently silenced and soundproofed to avoid disturbance to wildlife and the boat offers a unique combination of speed, comfort and stability so that you spend less time travelling and have more time at the dive site. The boat had its own unique access ladder we later found out that it was constructed by the skipper, David Ainsley.

Check out that ladder!!!!

It works!!!!!!!

He explained we would be diving in the area of the Garvellachs. He then proceeded to give very detailed briefings on the area, safety and the dive sites. In fact they were so comprehensive Len had flashbacks to his time in the army listening to Rupert’s give briefings. David is extremely knowledgeable about the area and also the conservation going on.

The Garvellachs or Isles of the Sea form a small archipelago in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Part of the Argyll and Bute area, they lie west of Lunga and northwest of Scarba and have been uninhabited since World War II.
A good knowledge of the area is required, with weather conditions likely to change very quickly. Due to the array of separate tidal races produced by the underwater topography there are some treacherous stretches of water. These include the Grey Dogs and the Gulf of Corryvreckan, between Scarba and Jura in which is located the infamous Corryvreckan whirlpool, which is the third largest whirlpool in the world. It surrounds a pyramid-shaped Basalt Pinnacle, rising from a depth of 70 metres to 29 metres below sea level, at its rounded top. It is not unusual to find 9 metre high waves passing between the islands at high tide.

The Garvellachs

David took us out to the dive sites which catered for all levels of experience. This allowed the more experienced divers to dive deeper and those who wished to stay in areas they were comfortable with.
These dives had cracks and crevices at around 22m full of life, there were also scallops in the area and some of the team bagged a few for later. David had given a briefing (detailed) on sizes that could be bagged and before leaving the boat got his ruler out to confirm sizes.

That evening saw another social meal and couple of beers at the pub ready for Sundays diving.

David dropped us off at an ideal place to begin a dive along a fairly vertical wall which begins at around 8 m and drops down to 39m or so with patches of boulder/sandy slope heading off into the deep below it.
Swimming in a north westerly direction takes you out of the bay, over a short ledge and the wall quickly drops away beneath you with various ledges on the way down. The wall is covered in an abundance of life, dead men’s fingers and sponges adorn every surface, crabs and squat lobsters are tucked away in the crevices and a couple of fairly large dogfish on a dive here.

After the second dive of the day we then headed back into land and packed our kit ready for the 350 mile trip back to Yorkshire. A brilliant weekends diving, company and social entertainment left everyone in agreement that this should be one for the trips planned for 2011. A big thanks to everyone for making it so enjoyable and John for organising it.

Random selection of photograhs taken by the club members

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