Largs June 12th n 13th
Mark and Janine travelled Friday and met Nigel and Paula on the road in their new motor home, so after we found out the M73 was closed and their sat nav couldn’t work out which way to go we arrived in the car park at Largs following the old fashioned method of map reading.
Largs
The wind was howling through the riggings and the four of us wondered if the diving would be blown out as we sat having a cup of tea before settling down for the night.
John, Mike and Christine had arrived earlier in the evening and settled in a pub to watch football………..wot no diving DVD’s!
We had booked or trip as usual with Flying Eagle Charters.
Owned and operated by John and Linda Teevan, "Flying Eagle Charters" has been providing a service to divers since 1997. Linda deals with bookings and enquiries, while John, a qualified RYA Coastal Skipper with First Aid and Oxygen administration certificates is the skipper. Although no longer an active diver John still takes a great interest in all things new in diving.
Saturday turned out to be a nice morning, the wind had dropped to between a force 3 to 4 and John Teevan assured us that he could find some sheltered waters to dive in.
On the way to Millport for our usual Cumbrae pasties Porpoise were spotted playing around the boat for a short while.
Dive 1 was Trail Island Wall off Wee Cumbrae, lots of soft corals; anemone’s and the usual hidden squatties in crevices, very scenic. Also some very beautiful lampshade jellyfish were floating around at safety stop depth which passed the time on playing “duck the stings”.
The pasty shop!!!!
After lunch John took us back to Trail Island Wall for us to dive the southern aspect.
While kitting up the usual banter was passing around but all went quiet as Christine asked Nigel the origin of his mask, enquiring if it was of sentimental value of a prescription mask for a frog!!!! He’s now scouting for a new club to join but we told him he may as well stick with us for insults.
Lots of scallops were hand picked and a large crab hand picked Mark so it became the focus of knife and fork attention while we all ate them for tea sat in the car park in the battle bus.
Plenty here for everyone
Then it was off into town to support our country at football, sadly the Scots (Porridge Wogs, Jocks, Sweaty Socks)all found it too hard to cheer for England. We got our own back as Christine and Mike gave their loud rendition of Sweet Child of Mine, that old Guns N Roses karaoke favourite. So after a few beers (only 2 pints honest JC) we wound our ways to bed.
We woke to rain and fog Sunday morning but had heard that the weather was going to improve slowly. We all met up in the car park and compared illnesses, 1 sore head; 1 sore throat; 1 case of bad guts and 1 sore finger (all self inflicted apart from the finger) but OK to dive, so we loaded the cylinders up and got underway. The rain had stopped as we were kitting up and the sun was out as we surfaced after the first dive.
The sea was quite choppy so we headed for the shelter of Wee Cumbrae again. Both dives were on walls at various levels to satisfy all abilities. There were lots to see including wrasse; conger; different anemones of various sizes shapes and colour; squat lobsters; velvet swimming crabs; edible crabs and a huge lobster that couldn’t be teased out of his home.
More scallops were picked by out resident hunter gatherers, Christine and Mike. Visibility ranged between 4 to 6 meters, typically a bit murky shallow and darker at depth but all enjoyed their diving and a good weekend were had by all.
Many thanks to John Teevan of the Flying Eagle for many years of tea and Tunnocks. Sadly this will be the last year for us to dive with him as he is selling the boat and retiring in March next year.
Sláinte John, happy retirement. With thanks Selby Aquanauts.
Another great weekend with thanks to John Hewitt for arranging the trip and all who attended.
Random Pictures
The one on the left forgot her dive gear!!!!!
Does my bum look big in this?
Misc pictures
Mike takes over from Steve as club sleeper!!!