Our first club dive off the season off the Farne Islands. As usual we were diving with William Shiel, off Glad Tidings 7 with Michael at the helm. The weather was a bit overcast, but not too cold. The sea state was a bit swirly, but as always we were able to find some shelter behind the islands.
First dive was Longstone End, one of my favourite dives as this is quite a high energy site and so has lots of lovely marine life. I wasn’t carrying my big camera this time, but my mobile phone and housing. Not a bad set up, but a photographer is never happy with their photos!
Just a select group diving today, Nic, Richard, Catherine, Jay and our guest diver Alison. We all kitted up for the first dive and jumped in…. that’s when things didn’t go as planned!
Nic was diving with Alison and had done up her dry suit zip, but on jumping in the water, Alison got a huge flush of water in to her dry suit. Not realising what had happened, Alison surfaced and returned to the boat where they told her the zip wasn’t closed. Nic carried on diving…. surfacing 45 minutes later wondering what had happened… How can the zip not have been closed properly? Nic must have closed 1000s in her time. Who knows, but months later, she still feels guilty!
Catherine too has an aborted dive. Her weight wasn’t right, so she returned to the surface, while Richard and Jay continued their dive. The visibility wasn’t great, about 2-3 metres, but the marine life on the cliffs as usual was excellent.
After a cup of tea, some amazing flapjacks from the other group on the boat, we were ready for the next dive.
The next dive saw Alison remaining on the boat, trying to keep warm, so Richard dived with Jay and Nic with Catherine. Second dive was Grace’s Hole. Not known for its marine line, but it is a sheltered spot when the wind is north easterly.
We all jumped in and immediately realised that the visibility was not very good, down to about 1-2 metres. This site can be a bit like diving a sealoch, with quite a bit of silt in the water and covering the rocks. After about 15 minutes Nic and Catherine had had enough, so returned to the surface. Richard and Jay however managed a full 40 minutes. They seemed very happy on their return, but no one is quite sure what they actually saw!!
All safe and sound, we returned back to port, Nic still wondering how she could possibly not have closed Alison’s zip fully!
