Mid Lancs Sub Aqua

We started the year battling the snow to head to Capernwray, where the half dozen or so who braved the elements were rewarded with an excellent dive with 15m visibility, but found themselves questioning their sanity for breaking though the ice to diving in water that was only 2 degrees ’C’. Marvellous.

A week or so later, we headed over to The Rez; a disused underground pumping station that has found a new lease of life as a very specialised dive centre. Again we battled through the snow and ice to get there, and with the air temperature around -6 we were all expecting the worst when we entered the water.

How wrong could we be, the temperature in the Rez was a balmy 8 degrees and as Martin the owner had recently changed the water in the Rez (tell me another site that can do that…) and had also replaced Bonies Trail, we had a unique diving environment, great viz, puzzles to test even the most experienced diver, and more importantly, some fantastic homely cooking from the café at half time.

It was however a unique experience having to pour hot water onto our frozen equipment at the end of the day just so we could pack it all away.

Following that, we have had a few outings to the Blue Lagoon, Capernwray, Ecclestone Delph & Coniston; all being great days out with some good company and a bit of diving as well… But when would the water warm up ?

For us Easter heralded the return to sea diving with what has become an annual visit to Lochcarron. It seems to take an eternity to get there, but it is worth every minute of the 9 hours of towing Little Mo from Wigan to Lochcarron.

The first day, was spent diving around Cuddies Point and the Avalanche Shelter, but what was the icing on the cake on a day were we had; flat calm seas, 10m+ underwater visibility, warmth…, amazing dive sites were the wild dolphins (nick-named Gin & Tonic by the locals) that are resident in the Loch coming to interact with us.

G&T spent time riding in the bow wave created by Little Mo and actually playing with the divers underwater for well over two hours, how good was that.

On the second day we sailed Little Mo down to the Kyle of Lochalsh, where we all dived the wreck of the Port Napier, a Royal Navy mine layer that caught fire. Again the diving was fantastic, unfortunately no dolphins this time, but still a fantastic wreck.

The only slight downer on the day was the ejit who runs a glass bottomed tour boat around the Port Napier, not listening to the my repeated calls on the VHF radio or understanding the meaning of an A-Flag.

I suspect he understands now after being ‘re-educated’ by the port authorities…

The sail back to Lochcarron could only be described as exciting, as at least 6 out of the 18miles of the journey were straight into the jaws of a ‘gentle’ force 5 breeze with an average wave height of around 1.5m. Interesting.

The last day we undertook a drift dive, with dives starting from the shore on the old ferry slip, and being picked up in Strome Narrows after passing over a sea bed carpeted in marine life for around a mile or so.

Largs came next, and once again we were blessed with flat clam seas, blue skies, good visibility and after the long hall the month previous to Lochcarron, the 4 hours to Largs seemed like nipping down to the local shops.

The first day was spent diving around Trail Island and the Lady Isabella, which because of the surface conditions and lack of rain, underwater could only be described as fantastic; great vis, with an abundance of colourful and interesting marine life.

Locating the Lady Isabella proved to be more by luck than good judgement as I had the wrong co-ordinates in the GPS… oops.

On the Sunday we headed up to one of my old favourites, the Akka, which depending on the visibility can be amazing or abysmal with no real middle ground. Thankfully today it turned out to be a great dive, with plenty of light, reasonable visibility and now the Brittle Stars are starting to die off, the colours are returning to the wreck.

Next up was the remains of the Catalina Flying boat. I must admit I even amazed myself by finding it on the depth sounder, as there are only a few pieces of her left.

Next up was a day dash to Anglesey, and with it some of our newer members learning that the only cure for sea sickness is to sit under a tree…

It was a good day out despite the weather making the day somewhat of a challenge, but the underwater visibility and marine life soon made up for that, especially as an army of Spider Crabs have taken up residency and seem to act like sentries guarding the wreck from intruders.

As we head into the latter part of the year, we still have what should be varied dive programme to come, with our return visit to Gigha (nicknamed Operation Sunrise II) were we will revisit some of the sites from our original expedition, exploring new sites and hopefully diving on the German U-boat we still believe to in the area; the U-482. Watch this space for updates.

As well as this, we also have a couple more day dashes with Little Mo planned, and ventures to NDAC, Stoney Cove, Capenwray & Ecclestone Delph to name but a few.

Happy Days.

Andy