A few pictures from our recent trip to the Garvellachs. Words to follow. 
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Pictures courtesy of Kev and Mark.
After some dives with, ahem, less than ideal viz earlier in the season, the weather has been improving a bit recently and the viz with it. Charlotte gives us the low down on a recent Sunday’s diving: -
Catterline, Sunday 16th May 2010.
On Friday 14th the forecast wasn’t good, and by Saturday lunchtime numbers were still thin, but Roddy told us to meet for 11 am Sunday for a single dive. By 8.20 pm numbers had climbed to 13, with several more boat-handlers in the mix, and there was a good final turnout on Sunday morning with all three inflatables launched. Helen came along to watch and was given a lifejacket and a place in a boat and the whole party set out for Todhead; the novice party anchored in the bay while the orange boat went round the point. Visibility was excellent, for a change, at around 6-10 metres.
Stovies and Louise set off to swim the channel and join the party from the orange boat. Barrie and Charlie were next off the grey boats, swimming through the tunnel and then back against the current; they looked understandably weary by the time they climbed back into the boat. Roddy and Alex, Val and Charlotte dropped in next and after a controlled buoyant lift session swam with the current through the channel between the mainland and the island. What a buzz! Whisked past all sorts of wildlife, past the girder and horn of the old foghorn, we surfaced the seaward side of the island exhilarated and slightly breathless.
A visit to Oban at the beginning of May has traditionally been the club’s first trip of the season where the novices get an opportunity to experience some diving on the West coast. We’ve been a bit unlucky with the weather the past two years, but this year the weather gods took pity on us and we had lots of lovely sunshine! Our new resident wordsmith Charlotte gives her impression of Oban 2010 :-
Oban club trip, May 7-9 2010 – a novice’s view
I reached Puffin with Colin Cunningham on Friday afternoon, just as the boat was unloading all the lucky people who’d gone down on Thursday evening. Barry, Roddy, Val and Kev kindly piled their kit back into the boat while we changed and grabbed our stuff from the car, and we set off to Heather Island and my first experience of good viz. Well, any viz, really. We spent an entrancing 25 minutes or so diving the west side of the island; Kev looked for scallops and I just looked. I’ve never thought of seaweed as beautiful before, but then I’ve only ever seen it lying about on the beach. I did take my mask off and put it back on – it had to be done sometime – but mainly I just looked around and marvelled.
Google’s brilliant Streetview has recently been updated to cover a lot of areas that had previously been left out. One of these is Catterline, our base for Wednesday evening/Sunday morning dives during the summer months. Given that british summer time is starting soon, it won’t be long until we’re back down there looking off the end of the pier to see what sort of viz lies in store for us. Looks like it was a fairly breezy day when the Google Streetview car visited :-
: Thank you so much for letting me and Si dive with you on Sunday - we had 2 brilliant dives and enjoyed the company!!
: Thanks to Al for all his hard work on the Regional O2 and PRM courses. Look forward to diving with you again sometime soon!
: I can't believe I waited 'til I was in my 50s to start diving - what a waste of time!
: glad to be part of the club cant wait to get my own gear .