November 2015 Words by Richard Booth Photography by Richard Booth and Richard Moss This year’s annual pilgrimage to the blue waters of Malta took place a little earlier than previous years trips, in the hope of encountering better weather. We were rewarded for our efforts by a week of blue skies, sunshine and clear water. […]
Tyneside 114 Malta Winter Warmer Read More »
2nd August 2015 Words and photography by Richard Booth With an ebbing tide and the Knivestone reef nicely exposed providing good shelter from the retreating tide, it was a good time for a bit more exploratory diving on this remote reef We started off on the main area of wreckage with both pairs of divers
A Drift in Pipers Gut – 2nd August 2015 Read More »
August 2015 by Richard Booth The week prior to the planned day on Spellbinder started very promisingly with light winds for the majority of the remaining week. Hope continued to rise throughout the week, but then the heavens opened and Tyneside was awash with flash flooding with the resulting water running off into the Tyne.
The Hunt for Clear Water – wrecks of the SS Ferryhill and the Pandora Read More »
April 2015 by Nicola Faulks After weather watching all week, the Seasearch dives are definitely on! Good news, but the weather was a 3-4 North Easterly, so there would be limited places to hide from the swell. Although these were seasearch dives, we did have 4 Tyneside 114 members on board. Richard Moss our newest
Early Season Diving on the Farnes Read More »
Sunny, sunny, Scotland and the Sound of Mull. By Nic Faulks A few weeks have passed since we did this trip, so I am sitting here on a drizzly day catching up on trip reports. One thing that strikes me about the dive logs for this weekend of diving, in the Sound of Mull, are
19th July 1015 By Richard Booth The seaward side of the Knivestone reef usually offers some shelter from the ebbing tide, particularly when much of the reef is exposed above the surface and there is no swell crashing on to the rocks. It is therefore not surprising that when conditions are good, it is a
More tales from the Knivestone Reef Read More »
Back in May of this year I was asked by a friend at Northumberland Wildlife Trust (NWT) if I would be interested in taking an artist diving. Of course I replied, if I can spread the love of diving and the knowledge of the amazing life under the waves, then I am happy to. I
Filming Countryfile with the BBC Read More »
5th June 2015 by Nicola Faulks Typically Friday 5th June was a calm day with blue skies….. The diving was organised for the Saturday, which in true British summer fashion dawned windy, dark and not very summery. The forecast was for westerly winds of up to 80kmph. However a phone call to Allan returned the
Oslofjord Diving in a Force 8! Read More »
24th May 2015 by Nicola Faulks The late May bank holiday weekend 24th May 2015, perfect time for a dive? Simon and I had run the rhib engine back in April, so we knew it would start. We had also pumped up the tubes and checked the electrics. So we had faith that the boat’s
First Farnes Rhib Dive of 2015 Read More »
25th-26th April 2015 by Richard Booth One of the joys of membership of the BSAC is the opportunity to dive with other branches. In this case three members of Tyneside 114 joined a Durham Divers trip to Lochaline on the Sound of Mull. So it was that the party assembled at the Morvern Dive lodge
April 4th-5th 2015 written by Richard Booth photography by Richard Booth, Tiago Moreira and Nicola Faulks The forecast earlier in the week was poor, with strong winds and rough seas predicted. Nicola however promised to do her mysterious weather dance, and as the week progressed and as anxious eyes scoured magicseaweed.com, the first glimmer of hope
St Abbs’s Easter weekend 2015 Read More »
16th March 2015 by Richard Booth Over 70 past, present Tyneside members and other guests attended the Gun Rocks presentation evening at the Ravensworth Arms. Indeed a number of attendee’s had travelled considerable distances for the event with Nic and Linda Ashmore driving up from Weymouth and Andy Hunt from the Isle of Wight. The
31st January – 1st February 2015 by Nicola Faulks The first club diving of 2015 – organised by Si as a “winter warmer” (?!) on board Fyne Pioneer with Simon Exley. Too be honest the trip, when advertised back in September the trip filled up very quickly with 10 brave souls. Sadly at the last
Fyne Weather for Winter Diving Read More »
26th October 2014 by Richard Booth With lots of the Tyneside members away in the warm clear blue waters of the Red Sea, others had to make do with the cooler green waters off the East coast of the UK. Strong autumn winds limited available dive sites, although the steep high cliffs off St Abbs
Autumn Diving – St Abbs Read More »
19th October 2014 by Richard Booth With the original weekend plan of a trip to St Abbs cancelled due to the dodgy weather forecast, a small band of Tyneside ‘divehards’ still determined to get wet, made the long journey over the Pennines and down the M6 to Capenwray. On arrival kit was quickly unloaded and
20th September 2014 by Richard Booth After last weeks ‘discovery’ of two wrecks on Knivestone reef, the plan was to return the following weekend and explore them further. Things were looking up with relatively calm conditions during the week, but with a deteriorating forecast for the weekend, dive plans had to be rapidly re-drawn on
St Andre and the Bush – Farne Islands Read More »
14th September 2014 by Richard Booth With big spring tides forecast for the weekend, the force of the water movement around the Farnes would inevitably limit dive sites out side of the slack water window. First dive selected was Hopper Rock off the Longstone Wall. Here Tony and Susan Horsefall, along with Richard Booth and
Knivestone – Wreck Graveyard of the Farnes Read More »
30th August 2014 by Richard Booth It’s been a while since the club last organised a dive off the Tyne. An earlier attempt in the season had to be abandoned after fog rolled in off the North Sea. Indeed the run up to this latest weekend was not particularly good until the winds started to
Spellbinding Diving Out of the Tyne Read More »
August 2014 by Nicola Faulks I learned to dive back in 1995 at university and never really thought about diving on anything other than open circuit. Then 3 years ago Simon got a re-breather. It beeped a lot. But he seemed to enjoy it. Being economical on air, I thought that I wouldn’t hold back
Re-breather Training Read More »
27th July 2014 by Richard Booth After yesterdays fantastic diving in superb visibility a flat seas the temptation to go diving the following day proved too strong. If anything the sea proved even calmer than the day before as the club rib powered its way across the glassy water towards the Farnes. With the
Rust, Fur, Claws and Teeth – Farne Islands Read More »
26th July 2014 by Nicola Faulks The weather looks great this weekend, lets dive both days! So we did…. Saturday dawned with blue sky, flat calm sea and the expectation that there would be great visibility below the now non-existent waves. We launched the boat and all jumped in: Si, Brian, Sue, Tony and me.
Farne Island Diving – The Weather God’s Smiling Read More »
26th July 2014 by Richard Booth This particular weekend saw unprecedented numbers of Tyneside 114 members diving across the region with two individuals diving the wreck of HMS Pathfinder out of Eyemouth, as well as others, seasearch diving off the Durham Heritage Coast. Most however were keen to dive the Farnes given the calm sea
The Somali and the Fang Read More »
In 2009 members of Tyneside 114 travelled to SW Mull with the two club ribs with the intention of venturing out to the Toren Rocks and searching for the wrecks of the DS Nyland and the SS Cathcartpark. On that particular expedition we were dogged by strong winds and big seas which made travelling out
South West Mull: Tyneside 114 Returns Read More »
14th June 2014 by Richard Booth After recent reports of excellent visibility on the wreck of the SS Chris Christenson, combined with a further week of settled weather and calm seas, it appeared that we had been offered the promise of some excellent diving on this site. The only possible drawback was the big spring
Strong Tides and Anchor Hunting, Farne Islands Read More »
