Farne Islands Aug 8th to 10th 2003

Newsflash: "No missed dives on UKRS trip" 

It’s true, we put every diver in the water on each of the 6 dives that we did. It may not be a first, but certainly a rarity on trip in the past couple of years. 

This trip was originally arranged by Neil Weller, but he had to pull out do to an imminent increase in the size of his family, so the admin duties were taken over by Chris Bell. The full compliment of divers were: Chris Bell, Louise Thompson, Steve Jones, Adrian Smith, Daniel Taylor, Trevor Robertson, Digs, Rob Hampton, Rachel Lundy Emma Davies, (on her first UKRS trip) and finally Nicholas Woolaway and Brian Kipps from South Africa. Long way to come to see some seals. 

We were Diving with Sovereign Divers and staying at their place called the Lodge. The boat was Sovereign 3, skippered by Andrew Douglas, and crewed by his manic dog who would remain very placid until any diver sat on the side ready to roll in, at which point he saw it as his duty to act like a mad dog and try any prevent the poor unfortunate diver from falling into the water. 

Dive 1: Crumstone, Max depth 29 metres, Run time 50 minutes, Viz 10-15 metres

The Crumstone is the most southerly of the Farnes, a group of rocks which have a colony of grey seals living there. Also in evidence are cormorant and shag. You just can’t beat a nice….cormorant can you!!.

I was diving with Adrian this weekend. He is now becoming (in)famous as the person who has made his own video camera housing.

We dropped into crystal clear waters, well almost, and dropped to 20 metres where everything is covered in white and yellow dead mens fingers. What else was there, oh yes!! Seals!!! It was amazing to dive with them, a first for me. How can something so bloated and cumbersome on the surface (no, not Daniel), be so graceful underwater (certainly not Daniel). We needed to get a reasonable depth as the afternoon dive was to be to 30 metres. So we followed the reef down a gently sloping bottom to 29 metres poking around in holes etc and finding a nice scorpion fish, lots of small eels, a number of lobster and shrimp and sun stars. At one point I felt a tug on one of my fins, turning quickly expecting to see another seal (getting a load of water into my neck seal in the process) saw only Digs, by now laughing into her rebreather mouthpiece. So I gave the appropriate PADI signal, (well I must have learned that sign somewhere) to indicate that I had seen her, and continued with the dive.

When we surfaced we were all surprised to see that the nice sunshine had given way to a sea mist which drastically reduced the visibility. This mist proved to be a feature throughout the weekend. 

Dive 2: Somali, Max depth 29.6 metres, Run time 58 minutes, Viz 8-10 metres

The Somali was a cargo ship of some 6,809 tons, 459 feet long and 61 feet wide. She was en route to Hong Kong carrying general cargo when she was bombed by some Heinkel 111 aircraft in March 1941.

Certainly a big wreck although considerably broken up. It seems that there were 5 boilers on this ship, each standing well proud of the seabed. Lots of twisted metal made most of the area look like a scrapyard rather than something resembling a ship. We spent most of the dive being accompanied by a very inquisitive cuckoo wrasse, as we poked around the various holes and plates. After Adrian bagged off I stayed down longer and found a large anchor, which looked about 2 to 3 metres wide, and 3 metres long. This was the only dive of the weekend where I didn’t see a seal. 

Dive 3: Chris Christensen, Max depth 31.7 metres, Run time 39 mins, Viz 12 metres

The Chris Christensen was a Danish steamer 1,491 tons, 250 feet long and 37 feet wide. She came to grief in 1915 when she ran aground on the Longstone Reef.

The plan on this dive was to spend some time on the wreck itself then come up the sloping reef, again covered in dead mens fingers.

The wreck itself is well broken up, although there are 2 large boilers in evidence and we also saw the steering wheel, there is also other debris scattered on the sloping reef as you ascend. There are a lot of feather stars on the wreck and on the reef but not that many fish. 

Dive 4: Whirl Rocks, Max depth 30.0 metres, Run time 54 minutes, Viz 12-15 metres

Whirl rocks are submerged at all times and have fast currents running over them making them very hazardous for shipping. The shot was dropped into some wreckage on a 24 metre bottom, where we were to spend some time before coming back up the reef. However as the current was running quite strong for the first 2 metres it had been pulled off the wreckage and when we descended (we were able to release the shot after about 8 metres as the viz was so good) we found ourselves on the bottom doing a 30 metre gentle drift dive with the shot gentle bumping along the bottom. We headed back in the direction that the shot had apparently come from seeing lots of sun stars and feather stars on the way, and eventually came across an assortment of wreckage which kept us occupied for some time, including 2 large boilers, and other pieces of machinery including what looked to be a huge belt driven wheel. This wreckage is probably an accumulation of many different shipwrecks as there seemed to be no defined pattern to the layout of the various pieces on metal. We finished the dive in the usual way by ascending the reef and offgassing in the shallows watching, wait for it, ….seals. 

Dive 5: Britannia, Max depth 25.3 metres, Run time 52 minutes, Viz 10 metres

The Britannia was a 740 ton steamship that sank after running into The Crumstone in 1915. It is rumoured that many of the local inhabitants benefited from the cargo although as the person packing the cargo had packed army boots with the left and right feet in separate crates many people had salvaged pairs which only contained either one or the other.

We dropped onto the bows, again no real need for a shot line due to the excellent viz. Wreckage is well scattered and after a fairly short look around we came up the sloping reef, where there was again wreckage scattered, including 2 boilers. Then when we got to 10 metres the reef levelled off and we were in kelp. From here we found our way into one of the gullies, about 3 feet wide, where we were entertained by seals diving into the gullies to investigate the intruders. 

Dive 6: Crumstone, Max depth 24.1 metres, Dive time 55 minutes, Viz 12 - 15 metres

Another visit to the Crumstone, albeit a different part. I went in by myself for this one and as soon as I dropped in I was joined by a seal who followed me to the bottom of a 16 metre gully. Then after getting bored with watching another air breather trying to look at home in an alien environment it quickly got fed up and went off in search of something more interesting. As I worked my way down the gently sloping gully to 24 metres several other seals interrupted me looking at the reef which was totally covered in dead mens fingers, both yellow and white. There were lots of nooks and crannies containing crabs and lobsters. 

For another report on this weekend and some pics, see Chris' web page