Oban & The Sound of
Mull, Nov' 2005, Julia Clark
Friday PM: We set off for Scotland. And managed
to successfully find the rush hour in Glasgow…
Again! Deco was complaining that
Lynn
normally feeds him liquorice allsorts but I only
had grapes so I fed him those instead. I managed
to get 8 in his mouth at once. He refused the
banana. We looked for a curry house in Glasgow
and never saw another one so decided to press on
and try to get to the Oban Inn to eat.
We arrived in good time, located the Loyal
Mediator, there was no-one else on board and so
we bunged our stuff on some bunks and met up
with the Heppies in the Oban Inn. Chilli, Rice
and several drinks ensued.
Saturday morning: Up bright and early for
brekkie (full English, bad idea!) and dive
briefing. First dive was to be the Hispania.
When we arrived we weren’t the only ones with
this plan, the Jane R and the Kylebarn were
both there too. Oh good; A wreck you can only
dive on slack and three sets on divers on it!
It wasn’t slack when we got in, George dropped
us up tide so we drifted onto the buoy. We set
off down the shot and straight into the holds
below for a look around. The viz wasn’t too bad
at this stage but got progressively worse. The
tide seemed to be running most of the time
during the dive. I tried to take a few pictures
but it was dark and the viz deteriorated with
the arrival of 36 divers on their first dive of
the weekend. At the far end I was on 100 bar so
indicated to Deco that we should make our way
back to the shot. The current was still strong
and getting stronger and we hung like flags on
the shot looking at the buoy which was now down
at 8m. Oh well, such is the joy of diving.
Lunch, home made soup, cheesy bread and cakes
A few snoozes were taken before we prepared for
dive two and it was getting dusk by the time we
got in. Not much choice of locations due to the
deteriorating weather, and the criteria of “near
to Tobermoray” meant that we dived a scenic wall
round the corner. This was also deemed suitable
for those people who wanted to pillage the sea
bed for scallops. George dropped us in over a
sandy area where there were loads of Squat
lobsters , none of whom were shy and they all
posed for photos. We found the edge of the wall
and dropped over the side to find much better
viz and a very pretty show of anemones, crabs,
and lots of little fish. When we came up it was
dark as night.
Dinner: steak Pie, potatoes and Peas, followed
cheese cake and Ice cream.
We took a post-dinner stroll as far as
Macgochlins , had a few there and then returned
to the Mishnish for a few more. I got chatted up
by one of the local nutters and it took Deco
quite a few minutes to understand my random hand
signals before he came over and rescued me. At
this point I decided that, being the official
lightweight of the drinking team, it was time
for bed. I sensibly refused Deco’s suggestion of
“just one more Drink” and made by way to the
door of the Mish stopping only to put the world
to rights with Gordon (skipper of the Jane R)
for a half hour or so. I returned to a boat in
darkness and found my way to my bunk using
brail.
In the morning I saw the victims of Deco’s “just
one more drink” scam and discovered that “just
one more” was probably multi-several and our
First Lady had to be assisted back onto the
boat.
Sunday: Brekkie was hot croissants, cereal and
gallons of tea accompanied by the usual
complaints about last night’s snoring. This time
it was Andy Briggs who was reported to be
“snoring like a herd of wilderbeast.” Brekkie
was followed by a scenic dive on Aliston point.
I am very happy to do scenic dives (“Veg dives”
as the wreckies insist on calling them) and this
weekend the weather was pretty crap limiting the
possibilities. George dropped us over the kelp
and it took me quite some time to get down to
10m due to problem with my ears. I should
mention that I was fighting off a cold all
weekend with liberal applications of Echinacea,
parcetamol, Olbas oil and alcohol. Once I got to
10 m my ears seemed to settle and we made our
way over the edge. The wall was pretty, not a
great deal of life on it at first glance but
when you looked into cracks in the rock they
were all occupied by small crabs, squatties,
shrimps and fish.
A freshly showered
Helen
Briggs helped us back onto the mediator having
had a somewhat short yet extremely wet dive
herself. You will have to ask her why, I will
just comment that she was known as Zippy for the
rest of the trip.
Lunch : Tortilla wrap with meat curry and
couscous and salad. Who says UK divers subsist
on pies then?
Again limited choice of sites for dive two due
to the prevailing weather so it was calf Island.
It was really quite dark before we got in so,
again, this really was a night dive. Two pairs,
Deco and I and the Hepworths, had opted for
“scenic wall” and every one else for a scallop
bash. The wall was supposed to be in 30m, but I
got to 30 and stopped and Deco went looking for
the bottom and didn’t find it at 40 either .
Deco returned and a pleasant Bimble was had.
Dinner: Chilli con carne, rice, pitta bread and
Raspberry pavlova.
I retired to the Mishnish for a lesson on how to
play pool very badly. Despite many free shots I
still proved that I have no natural talent at
this game. We then sat by the fire and got very
sleepy. We were earlier to bed because the
planned dive for the morning was the Hispania
again and slack was due at 08:30 , an invitation
to beat the club record for “bed to seabed” time
(apparently this is 9minutes held by Wing
Commander Cotton, so named because he crashed
and burned whilst out clubbing with Deco).
Monday: Awoke to Helen shouting “we’re diving in
ten get up”. So out of bed, weezle on and onto
the deck. It was colder and greyer than ever
before and some storm clouds loomed in the
distance. But an early start is worth it for the
Hispania. At this point we discovered that we
were already onto plan B. The Hispania had a
dredger on it and the viz would have been shot.
So we are now diving the Shuna! Ever dived the
Shuna? I have a few times and each time it has
been darker and siltier than the last. Let’s
face it, it’s a crap dive. There was no
permanent shot line on it so George shot and
sent down a sacrificial pair of divers to tie it
in. Meanwhile the storm clouds in the distance
caught up with us and there was lightening,
thunder, hail and that sideways rain for which
Scotland is famous. And we all sat there getting
colder and colder and wondering exactly why our
sleeping bags were empty at 08:30 in the
morning. We watched for the blob coming up
signalling that the shot was tied in and we
could all go diving. The blob didn’t arrive and
instead Jason’s head appeared with the news that
the shot was not on the wreck and it was like
the black hole of Culcutta down there. So,
George decided that the gods were against us
doing that particular dive and it was time for
plan C; the Rhondo 10 minutes away. We have all
done the Rhondo a zillion times and it’s not
brilliant but plan C was enacted with grace,
style and no ear problems. The viz was ok. Not
much life on the wreck and the bottom is still
47.9m because we popped down and checked. Down,
up and then across the wall to the left hand
side. You see, us Veg divers can find wildlife
even if it’s not on the wreck. There was a
lovely shoal of fish and some other stuff worth
a potter around. I didn’t take the camera as I
was expecting a different dive.
Breakfast: Crunchy nut cornflakes, muffin and
crumpets
Second dive: veg/scallop dive. After seeing
Dave’s video taken on last years trip I decided
to play with the video mode on my camera. Poor
Deco…. A bit of wildlife bothering, lots of
squatties, posing as ever, a few crabs, some
nice little fish. Usual veg dive fodder. We saw
loads of scallops like you always do when you
didn’t bring a goodie bag and hence left them
behind to go forth and multiple.
Lunch : Roast chicken and lots of gravy.
So that was it , frantic packing up and a
fantastic team effort to unload the boat despite
the low water, many thanks to the lads for their
help and team work. |
