diving in the Farne Islands, 18-24.08.2015
M and i have just returned from 5 days diving in the Farne Islands (Northumbria, about 50 miles north of Newcastle. the Lindisfarne monastery belongs to this group of islands).
we drove up on Friday 17th, and that took about 6 hours :/ we stayed in Beadnell village, in a converted stables. there were 12 divers and two partners.
Saturday was too windy so although we loaded the boat (dive kit stays on the boat, cylinders come off every night for refilling) we decided not to dive. so we had a full day to ourselves! M & i, along with a couple of other people, drove over to Alnwick (pron Annick) Gardens which was a lovely afternoon, especially the guided tour of the Poison Garden (i was taking careful notes :D ).
we came back to a communal barbeque, and hung out with the other club members.
Sunday to Thursday, we managed to dive (at civilised times! breakfast was mostly at 8am!!) various sites although the weather & visibility still werent great. most of the diving we did was over a rocky/sandy floor and a rocky wall on one side. i had problems with my bouyancy for the first couple of days (underweighte/didnt account for the current) but M helped sort these.
we saw lots of small life and things in holes - this week was all about looking in holes - such as starfish, sunstars, sea urchins, lobsters and crabs, nudibranchs (small, colourful sea slugs) and corals (dead man's fingers, mostly. they were *everywhere*) & anemones.
we didnt see much fish, mostly balan wrasse (on the last dive we did, we had a balan wrasse following us for the entire dive. not sure if it wanted food, or was simply curious. perhaps it was trying to lead the dive!) although we saw a shoal of juvenile pollack on a couple of dives.
between dives, on the surface interval, we had 2-3 people fishing - they were catching mackerel like the fish were jumping onto the rods, a dozen in about 10 min. (mmmm fresh mackerel is lovely!) we had those and the lobsters & crabs people acquired for dinner a couple of nights. yum!
i hadnt realised but mackerel are beautiful fish, with brownish stripes on their sides and a lovely iridescent sheen to their bellies.
i also saw a scallop in the wild, for the first time, and at least 1 jellyfish per dive (usually more). for one dive, we saw a tiny tiny spider crab free-swimming in the water column! we also saw lots of hermit crabs and a few squat lobsters.
out of the water, we saw loads of different sea birds including terns, razorbills, guillemots and my favourite: puffins! in flight, puffins look like bumble bees with short round torpedo-like bodies and short wings that flapflapflapflap (rather than the more graceful glide of the gulls). they're also much smaller than i imagined - i thought they were penguin-size, but no, much smaller.
as i've finished my Sport Diver course (which i needed for this trip), i can now dive to 35m however depth progression is done in stages: 25m, 30m, 35m. M knew i needed these, so we found a sandy patch on Thurs, and i watched my dive computer ticking off the depth: 24m, 24.1, 24.,2, 24.3, .... annnnnd! HURRAH! 25.3m. M watched in amusement as i did a victory dance :D :D :D unfortunately, i didnt manage to find a 30m site - my deepest dive was 27.3m.
the main thing i wanted to see in the Farnes, apart from the puffins, was the seals and they obliged, coming to play during several dives :D they nibbled at both sets of fins and peered at us curiously - one was investigating M's strobe...with its' teeth! he got several really good photos and short video clips of the seals playing with our fins :D
we saw lots sunning themselves on rocks, and swimming in the water, looking at the boat. we also saw a couple playing with the DSMBs (long air-filled sausage shaped 'balloons' that divers send up as surface markers before they ascend).
on the Friday morning, before we started the drive home, we visited Bamburgh Castle which was good fun,
there were a couple of down sides to the trip: one buddy-pair was having problems, and the more experienced of the pair wasnt looking after his buddy as he should. we had longer surface intervals so we were returning to shore later than in the Scillies, and spending more time together/in the pub so i didnt see much of Seahouses/surrounding area. we didnt see any octopus this year. the weather/vis could have been better.
however, i'm glad i went.
we drove up on Friday 17th, and that took about 6 hours :/ we stayed in Beadnell village, in a converted stables. there were 12 divers and two partners.
Saturday was too windy so although we loaded the boat (dive kit stays on the boat, cylinders come off every night for refilling) we decided not to dive. so we had a full day to ourselves! M & i, along with a couple of other people, drove over to Alnwick (pron Annick) Gardens which was a lovely afternoon, especially the guided tour of the Poison Garden (i was taking careful notes :D ).
we came back to a communal barbeque, and hung out with the other club members.
Sunday to Thursday, we managed to dive (at civilised times! breakfast was mostly at 8am!!) various sites although the weather & visibility still werent great. most of the diving we did was over a rocky/sandy floor and a rocky wall on one side. i had problems with my bouyancy for the first couple of days (underweighte/didnt account for the current) but M helped sort these.
we saw lots of small life and things in holes - this week was all about looking in holes - such as starfish, sunstars, sea urchins, lobsters and crabs, nudibranchs (small, colourful sea slugs) and corals (dead man's fingers, mostly. they were *everywhere*) & anemones.
we didnt see much fish, mostly balan wrasse (on the last dive we did, we had a balan wrasse following us for the entire dive. not sure if it wanted food, or was simply curious. perhaps it was trying to lead the dive!) although we saw a shoal of juvenile pollack on a couple of dives.
between dives, on the surface interval, we had 2-3 people fishing - they were catching mackerel like the fish were jumping onto the rods, a dozen in about 10 min. (mmmm fresh mackerel is lovely!) we had those and the lobsters & crabs people acquired for dinner a couple of nights. yum!
i hadnt realised but mackerel are beautiful fish, with brownish stripes on their sides and a lovely iridescent sheen to their bellies.
i also saw a scallop in the wild, for the first time, and at least 1 jellyfish per dive (usually more). for one dive, we saw a tiny tiny spider crab free-swimming in the water column! we also saw lots of hermit crabs and a few squat lobsters.
out of the water, we saw loads of different sea birds including terns, razorbills, guillemots and my favourite: puffins! in flight, puffins look like bumble bees with short round torpedo-like bodies and short wings that flapflapflapflap (rather than the more graceful glide of the gulls). they're also much smaller than i imagined - i thought they were penguin-size, but no, much smaller.
as i've finished my Sport Diver course (which i needed for this trip), i can now dive to 35m however depth progression is done in stages: 25m, 30m, 35m. M knew i needed these, so we found a sandy patch on Thurs, and i watched my dive computer ticking off the depth: 24m, 24.1, 24.,2, 24.3, .... annnnnd! HURRAH! 25.3m. M watched in amusement as i did a victory dance :D :D :D unfortunately, i didnt manage to find a 30m site - my deepest dive was 27.3m.
the main thing i wanted to see in the Farnes, apart from the puffins, was the seals and they obliged, coming to play during several dives :D they nibbled at both sets of fins and peered at us curiously - one was investigating M's strobe...with its' teeth! he got several really good photos and short video clips of the seals playing with our fins :D
we saw lots sunning themselves on rocks, and swimming in the water, looking at the boat. we also saw a couple playing with the DSMBs (long air-filled sausage shaped 'balloons' that divers send up as surface markers before they ascend).
on the Friday morning, before we started the drive home, we visited Bamburgh Castle which was good fun,
there were a couple of down sides to the trip: one buddy-pair was having problems, and the more experienced of the pair wasnt looking after his buddy as he should. we had longer surface intervals so we were returning to shore later than in the Scillies, and spending more time together/in the pub so i didnt see much of Seahouses/surrounding area. we didnt see any octopus this year. the weather/vis could have been better.
however, i'm glad i went.