Author name: Nic

Written by Andy Hunt Photography by Andy Hunt and Nic Faulkes After an excellent expedition the previous year which was organised by Dave Robson, it was decided to go again, to do dive some of the better sites we’d done last year, plus explore some new ones. The final expedition team comprised many members from […]

11th Aug 2009 Instead of the usual Tuesday night boats dive, a group of Tyneside members assembled on the road above Browns Bay before making the long descent down the steep path to the rocks beside the old swimming pool. From here it is a relatively simple entrance point into the water. When no swell

8th August 2009 With big spring tides, light SW winds and virtually no swell, we headed out to the Farnes with high expectations of some good diving. The clear water at Seahouses slip added to this expectation. Out at the Farnes and with a strong ebb tide running, we took shelter from the current on

2nd August 2009 With a brisk SW breeze and bright sunshine, club members enjoyed two separate organised dives this Sunday. One group, Mike, Maurice, Simon and Nicola opted for a shore dive off Howick. This exercise involved something of a hike carrying their dive equipment down to the shoreline, but had the advantage of a

01 Aug 2009 By Richard Booth With a sizable southerly swell running up the coast, any plans to dive to dive Bell rock was clearly a non starter. Instead a mixed group of divers from Tyneside 114, Bishop Auckland and Durham City divers assembled on the pontoons at Eyemouth harbour and loaded their kit aboard

25th July 2009 By Richard Booth Several years ago, Tyneside 114 use to dive its own secret wreck. Originally, Dave Simpson had discovered the site, whilst he was completing survey work for one of the local water companies. Trips were made in secret, to avoid other divers finding this wreck. Situated in 30 metres of

5th July 2009 by Richard Booth Conditions came together this weekend to dive one of the Farne islands most spectacular dives, Whirl Rocks. Situated some 200 metres east of the Knivestone reef, Whirl Rocks consists of a series of underwater pinnacles that rise up from 30 metres to within a few metres of the surface.

30th June 2009 By Richard Booth With many of the regular Tuesday night divers recovering from the weekend trip to Mull, numbers were down for this Tuesdays dive. In the end 7 turned up to be greeted by a smooth sea and slack water! In view of the smaller group, the decision was made to

14th June 2009 by Richard Booth It was an early start from Beadnel to reach the site of the Somali in order to catch slack water, but this effort turned out to be well worth the effort. Arriving on site it was evident that many other divers had had the same idea as we were

2nd June 2009     A Tuesday night dive on a familiar wreck off the Tyne but with a difference, namely for once excellent underwater visibility of around 10 metres… On arrival at the site the shot was dropped and anticipation grew as we watched the line streaming away down into the depths. We excitedly

December 2008 With a mixed weather forecast we loaded our dive kit aboard the in the Elizabeth G at Oban railway pier. Next morning with a freshening south easterly breeze the Elizabeth G headed up the Sound of Mull. It soon became evident however that the conditions were too rough to dive the wreck of

31st October – 2nd November 2008 by Nic Faulks A final check of the weather report on Friday 31 st October stated that the weather for the weekend on the west coast of Scotland would be calm, cool and clear. As we set off towing the boat up the A1 and into Scotland , we

18th October 2008 With a brisk westerly breeze blowing, both of the Tyneside RIBs motored out of Seahouses Harbour before turning North and opening up the throttles and speeding up the coast past Bamburgh Castle towards Lindisfarne. The aim of the days diving was to locate the wreck of the SS Coryton off Ross Sands

20th September 2008 The concrete slip at Eyemouth harbour is one that requires a degree of careful planning if the intention is to launch and recover the boat in the same day, for the end of the slip drops away to the harbour bottom in a series of short sharp steps, making the recovery of

26 Aug 2008 The Richard de Larrinaga, a 5358 ton steamship was attacked and severely damaged by German aircraft on the 12 th May 1941 whilst she was on passage from the Tyne for St Lawrence. She was subsequently beached and abandoned in 8 metres of water some 500 metres off Trow rocks apparently following

17th-22nd August 2008 Inspired by an article on diving the green waters of the Shetlands in DIVE magazine, eight intrepid members of Tyneside 114 set forth upon the five-hour drive to Aberdeen ferry port. On arrival, dive kit was quickly loaded aboard a pre-booked wheeled trolley before boarding the waiting ferry. It’s an all night

17th June 2008 We arrived at Seahouses having past a steady stream of towed RIBs heading south down the A1, no doubt on their way home after a great days diving at the Farnes. Boarding the MV Glad Tidings VII for some evening diving, we headed out to the Farnes in the smug knowledge that

17th June 2008 Despite a somewhat overcast evening with the odd spot of rain, we had a full turnout of 12 divers for the Tuesday evening dive from the MV Spellbinder. With a brisk South Westerly breeze but a relatively flat sea, Spellbinder headed up the coast towards Blyth to dive the wreck of the

10th June 2008 With a stiff northerly breeze blowing, dive sites off the Tyne were inevitably going to be limited. The huge granite piers at the Tyne entrance however do have the advantage of providing shelter to some of the dive sites that lay in the lee of the piers when the wind blows from

8th June 2008 With high spring tides and a calm mirror like sea, conditions were ideal to locate and dive the legendry North Goldstone reef. This large rock lies out in exposed open water, between Lindisfarne and the Farnes Islands. On low water slack this site is easily located as the jagged top of the

May 2008 by Andy Hunt After last year’s successful club expedition to Islay, the aim for the 2008 season was to find another remote area of the country where diving of a more exploratory and adventurous nature could be conducted. Like the earlier Islay trip of 2007, this latest expedition was to be a self

11th May 2008 by Richard Booth The weekend had commenced with glorious weather on the Saturday, with bright sunshine and a flat glass like sea. Hopes were therefore high for a similar day on the Sunday. We woke instead to a dull day with low cloud and misty conditions restricting surface visibility. Somewhat optimistically we

3rd May 2008 Conditions for the bank holiday weekend were not brilliant with brisk South Easterly winds predicted for most of the weekend. This proved to be the case for the Saturday when Seawitch was launched at Seahouses. The weather conditions inevitably greatly limited the possible dive sites that could be safely dived. This situation

28th April 2008 By Richard Booth At last a break in the recent weather which offered the realistic chance of getting out and diving the Farnes. With a stiff South Westerly breeze, we new that the choice of good dive sites would be limited, but nevertheless five club members headed up to Seahouses and launched