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. […]
Gun Rocks – Finding new cannon Read More »
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
Whirl Rock – hunting the jewels Read More »
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
St Abb’s MV Pathfinder dive Read More »
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
Easter Trip to Loch Fyne Read More »
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,
Ellerton Training Dive Read More »
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
Fair Isle Expedition 2016 Read More »
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 »
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 »
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 »
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 »
