Words and images by Richard Booth Tyneside 114 has a long history of diving in the Shetlands dating back to the early 1970’s when club members first ventured to these remote Islands in search of Viking long ships! Still ever optimistic, this latest Shetland expedition had the ambitious aim of travelling out to the remote […]

The second Spellbinder trip of the year, this one with Richard Moss as the dive manager, in order to work towards gaining his Dive Leader Qualification. Give him his due, he had arranged good weather, sunshine and some good visibility!! The first dive was on the Lonclara, just off the mouth of the Wear (Sunderland).

Bill Cooper kindly organised this day of diving, but could not participate, so Dave Woodward took over the organising. The diving was off Pathfinder, running out of St Abbs with Paul O’Callaghan and his big yellow catamaran. The divers on board were: Nic, Dave W, Nick , Maurice, Dave (a guest of Dave W), Ray

Each year Simon organises a Tyneside 114 trip to the Sound of Mull. Always a firm favourite with our club members, it generally books up at least six months in advance. Guests are welcomed too; this year we had visitors from Poseidon  and one from South Bay Scuba.  After a long drive up to Lochaline

Club dive from Spellbinder, off the mouth of the Tyne. The weather was sunny and relatively calm which was nice. We had four visitors for this dive: Zoe and Mike from Yorkshire, who have dived with us before, and Stuart and Chris, two local divers both of whom I have dived with at St Abbs.

Three whole days of diving organised for the late May bank holiday, with at least one dive a day on Gun Rocks. Time to get the new marker buoy in, to remap the cannon, and, if time permits, to start the photogrammetry of the cannon left to do…. Saturday 27th dawned so bright and sunny.

This trip had been a few months in the planning, essentially picking a weekend when the tides were right so that we could get a nice long slack on Whirl Rocks. Also using a hard boat meant that everyone on board could have the full slack window diving the reef, rather than just half of

Words and images by Richard Booth With a mixed group of varied experience, including some for whom this was their first sea dive in open waters, it made sense to opt for two relatively shallow dives in sheltered water, especially so early in the season. First site selected by Paul O’Callaghan, the skipper of the

Three days of diving up on Loch Fyne out of Tarbert onboard Big Blue, with Malcolm the Skipper – Fyne Diving. The journey up was quite straight forward for most people to get to the log cabins at West Loch Shores, however, Sue and George managed to stop in the wrong Tarbet. Many phone conversations

Early season dive at Ellerton Water Park, principally organised as training for our two newly pool qualified Ocean Diver trainees who were heading out in to open water for the first time. A number of other people came too to test our kit and shake down after a dry winter. The two ocean divers Josh,

The last time I saw Fair Isle, I was in an air ambulance being flown down to the hyperbaric chamber in Aberdeen at the time, but that is a different story! And can be read on a different blog here… It only took seven years to visit the island by boat. Our group met up

Flowers and Rust, diving the Chris Christensen and the Fang wall at the Farne Islands. September 2016. Report and images by Richard Booth The original plan was to dive the SS Somali on slack water. Initially the weather was kind to us, so prior to the Somali dive and with a flooding tide we took

(May  2016) By Nic Faulks The boat was full, everyone had paid, all the paper work complete, we even had a guest from the south coast, but alas, the weather gods were at it again – this time fog. The weather forecast had looked brilliant, light winds, calm seas and an early mist burning off,

Lochaline – Sound of Mull – Wrecks wrecks and more wrecks! (July 2016) By Nic Faulks After last year’s trip of sunshine and calm seas, we had high hopes for 2016, so Simon Smith organised another trip. The Lochaline Dive Centre is now under new management (accommodation, food and booking – not the boats). So

Diving for fun on the St André and the Hopper. July 2016. Text and images by Richard Booth. During the Club’s 4 day re-survey of the cannons on Gun Rocks we had the perfect opportunity to show Peta, our visiting nautical archaeologist, that the Farne isles has more to offer than measuring the bores of

(July 2016) By Nic Faulks The four days of diving on Gun Rocks had been in the planning for some time, and finally it looked as if the weather gods were in a happy mood. Day one dawned calm and sunny, with Richard Booth, David Lindsay, Simon Smith and Peta Knott (Wessex Archaeology – but

Crumstone and Hopper seal dives. Report and images by Richard Booth First site of the day was on the Crumstone wall. This site offers a fantastic scenic dive, with the wall starting at around 10 metres and dropping down in places to 30 metres. On the Ebb tide it catches the full force of current

Rust extravaganza on the Knivestone and the North Goldstone reef. July 2016. Report and photography by Richard Booth First dive of the day was out on the Knivestone reef. Here we drifted along the reef exploring the wreckage that litters the seabed in this area. We passed over an old iron propeller and on over

Knivestone and the wreck of the SS Britannia revisited. June 2016. (Report and images by Richard Booth) The Knivestone reef can usually be guaranteed to provide an interesting dive and so it proved on this occasion. Dropping over the wall we explored the plateau until we came across the large iron propeller. From here we

St Abbs on a North Easterly wind! (June 2016) By Nic Faulks Well, it seems that everyone but Simon and I had read the weather forecast. We advertised the trip on Whatsapp, email, Facebook and verbally, but no one else wanted to come….. I now know why! It was billed as the Glanmire trip, but

April 2016 Report and images by Richard Booth One of the great things about BSAC is that being a member of such a large organisation often opens up opportunities to dive with other BSAC club’s. So it was that 4 members of Tyneside 114 found themselves heading up to Lochaline as part of a Durham

Early season hard boat to the Farne Islands (April 2016) By Nic Faulks For many this was the first dive of their season, so it was great that the day dawned nice and sunny with calm seas. We numbered about 18 people which is a great show for an early season dive, some were seasearchers,

Report and Images by Richard Booth. A hardy team of Tyneside members assembled at Coldingham Caravan Park with the aim of diving out of St Abbs over the Easter weekend. The weather forecast however was not brilliant and the following morning we assembled at St Abbs harbour to load our kit aboard the MV Shorediver.

Loch Fyne Winter Warmer (March 2016) By Nic Faulks Since the January winter warmer was cancelled due to high winds, lashing rain and hail, we were all hoping that this weekend would actually see some sun… We all arrived at the cottage on the Friday night to find the heating on and wifi, which was