Sal's Not St Kilda Trip - report

apologies to anyone who already saw this else where but Tim asked me to post a trip report so here goes

Well a few months ago Sal mentioned getting a group together to try to get to st kilda and i jumped at the chance. I love the bits of west coast scotland that i have dived and I was keen not just to get to st kilda but to dive other places outside of the sound of Mull.

We set off at a comfortable time of 10:00 having offered a lift to Lyv (puddlediver) who had bravely decided to join us despite knowing no-one. Such is the joy of t'internet diving. As custom demands we stopped at tebay services for Tea and food and again at the green welly stop. We were making good time for the meet at Fort William which is where we always meet up with george for trips these days. As it happens George was waiting for us in Oban, another classic of communication. Luckily the first to arrive worked this out and so we ended up taking the caost road back to Oban and hence Lyv, Phil and I arrived at the boat first.

Eventually everyone caught up and made introductions with those we didn't know and a few beers were had.

The forecast wasn't great but it seemd that we might make it out to st kilda about monday or tuesday.

Georges new boat , renamed Gemini Storm, was a class 7 life boat and makes an excellent dive platform, being very steady in rough seas.




Sal' trips alway work because they are populated by a good bunch of people personally invited by Sal. Also sal and George (the skipper) plan the dives and route according the best conditions so even if the plan changes you end up getting a good dive.

so the dives were all excellent except the 13th of the week which several people were wise enough to skip.

Saturday 25/8/07
Calve Island (33m 47 minutes)
Phil and I dropped in and descended to 32 m in excellent viz . Loads of life and I notice lots of basket stars feeding. The usual range of Crabs, lobsters , squatties etc



We met up with Ros half way through the dive who had foud a mop and was doing things with it... shudder... Playing Quidditch apparently.

Very nice shake out dive.

Hispania (27m 36 minutes)
Second dive on saturday was the Hispania in even better viz than ever. it's amazing just how stunning this wreck is in decent viz and it's chock full of life. we did a quick tour of the outside then descended into the holds. we them came up a level and ... at this point I should say that Phil and I are still sorting out our underwater communication and so when he disappeared into a hole I waited outside, and waited. I ok- ed him with my torch a few times but eventually I could no longer see his torch. Just as I was about to go in and look for him he reappeared. Apparently there is a swimthough and I was supposed to know about it ... hmmm


The picture shows how good the viz was, this is Roz on the stern.

We stayed overnight in Tobermoray

Sunday
The Rondo. (48m 45 minutes)
I dont really like this wreck but I always seem to end up diving it. We went to the bottom and found a 48m but then made our way up and went for long "kelp bimble" off the side. Kelp bimbling is fast becoming my preferred deco station. Why hang on the blobby in the green when you can pretend to be David Belamy romping through the undergrowth? Didn't take my camera as its only rated to 40m and i dont have much luck with cameras.

Tapti
Second dive was one of my favourite wrecks, the Tapti , which looked completely different from the last time I dived it. We got a detailed brief from the skipper so that we could end the dive at the place where he could pick us up well away from the rocks. Phil was leading and some very dodgy navigation resulted in us losing the wreck. Oh well, we did see some seals though. And then got lots of lovelyexercise doing a long surface swim

We stayed overnight moored at Coll.

Monday 27/8/07
The Hurleford.
Apparently ther is wreck here but we didn't find any evidence of it. Saw lots of wildlife, a conger in hole (the first time I ever seen one that didn't have howard prodding it) We saw loads of tiny shrimps and planty of scallops which all seemed to be dancing. I got a huge fit of giggles .



Second dive of monday was site called Yellow brick Road.
This is a simply stunning scenic dive , so called because everywhere there are yellow anemones




absolutely gorgeous and we spotted some lovely nudibranchs too, which phil kindly let me have first go at photographing


we stayed overnight at Canna and became aquainted with the scottish midge! grrrrr

If we were going t oget to St kilda then tuesday was the day but the weather just wasn't good enough and we decided to go for a chance of diving rather than being very sick. LAter in the week we met up with a boat who had chanced their luck on Tuesday and ended up turning back after a pretty rough journey, so the skipper made the right call.

Instead we dived Seal Rock or SGEIR A PHUIRT.
I think again we suffered with dodgy navigation and ended up going the wrong way and did a sea bed dive. It was nice though and saw some of the biggest crabs I have ever seen


we found the wall in the end and it was covered with pink Hydroids. we had to get out because phil was suffering from "out of bladder capacity" but not before we did our deco in another kelp forest. Kelp bimbling is certaintly fun and full of life once you start looking.
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