I have a love hate relationship with the Farnes and diving. I love the area, the views are stunning, the company is good, where we stay is warm and comfortable, but the diving, well it has always been a bit hit and miss for me.
I hate getting on a boat and finding that people just want to sit and wait for seals at five meters. I know that’s a simplification but, I like to do something and visit a few different sites. It is difficult with the Farnes because the diving is about seals, that’s its USP, but I’ve found that seals will make their own minds up and come to you if you act calmly and just dive.
Fortunately, we had a group that was of the same mind set, so a surprised skipper started to find us some sites. His surprise was because, as he said, most divers just want to sit with seals at this time of year.
We headed off and ended up at a dive site called Blue Caps (1) (see the chart). The boat pulled up and we prepared to enter the water hoping for a good start but having been told we may not have great visibility, another of the reasons I am not always keen on the Farnes. Descending to about 15 meters we checked all was ok and the headed deeper exploring the rocks and wall as we went. Max depth was about 22 meters and the visibility turned out to be a good five meters. There were a lot of squat lobsters, one small lobster, several crabs and wrasse, with for me, the highlight being a grumpy ling trying it’s hardest to pretend it wasn’t there! Unusually there were large groupings of plumose anemones and dead man’s fingers on the rock walls. We glimpsed a couple of seals passing by in the distance but no close contact.
Our second dive was on Big Harker (2). This again was a wall dive; the next part is a message from Frank about his reaction to the dive.
‘Simon, Micky and I did our second dive of the Saturday which was a relaxed dive. A number of lobsters, however too small to be feasted on.
Oops! Did I properly attach my right fin? Checked it and all seemed ok?? — There it went again?? I looked around and nothing. Then I saw Mick signalling that a seal was the culprit. Sneaking in tugging my fin and receding into the background. I could see them darting around but not close by and so the dive progressed. Dive end signalled, SMB deployed and up we went for our three minute safety stop.
Here we were joined by two inquisitive and playful seal pups. Probably the same ones that were ghosting us on the dive. They seem to be attracted to Mick, the one diver who was ignoring them. One was all over his back and at one time seemed attracted to the noise emitting from his first stage valve. The other had his nose up his crutch, then nibbling his arms and demanding a little more attention from him.
Mick maintained his perfect 5m depth and as I frantically tried to alert him to his close encounter, I got the One Minute More Deco reply. Finally, he had to succumb to the scrutiny of his new pals.
What a dive’.
I totally agree with Frank, what a dive.
Having finished for the day we unloaded our cylinders and went to the Ship for the obligatory post dive beer. An excellent Farnes bitter and a chat about rugby and diving with the scot’s lads sitting next to us and then back to B&B. An excellent day was completed by watching England’s rugby team beating Australia and then a tasty relaxing meal in the local Italian restaurant.
The next day we were up and out quickly heading down for a 9am ropes to get to the San Andres wreck (3), sunk in the Pinnacles Haven. Several boats of divers headed out before us, but Toby (our skipper) assured us that we would be the only ones on that site as the others would be heading for seal sites.
On arrival at the site the swell had reduced, and the sun had come out. We opted to drop down the shot line to the first boiler and then head to the wall following the debris field. The boiler stands proud of the seabed and is surrounded by plates from the wreck. It has several gaping holes, and the skin is now showing signs of rusting away. There is plenty of life using it as a protective reef with a large Ling tucked away underneath. We headed out on a bearing of 240o following the strewn plates, spotting several lobsters, crabs and squat lobsters hiding out. Eventually we found ourselves by the propellor shaft. The blades of the prop have been removed but nonetheless it’s still impressive. This led us to the wall which was dotted with plumose anemones and many large and relatively intact lumps of ship. Once again, we spotted several seals as their ghostly forms swept past us.
During the surface interval the skipper announced that a Walrus had turned up in Seahouses harbour and showed us the video his brother had taken. This was the first time one had been seen this far South on the Eastern coast.
To finish we returned to Big Harker (4) but the far end of the island this time. We completed a wall dive in the company of a large wrasse and finally ended up face to face with two inquisitive seals who stayed with us for a few minutes and then swam off.
The skipper got us on board and quickly headed off to the harbour as the Walrus was still there. It was easy to spot, we followed the line of people who had made their way to see it. Our view was excellent, Toby came in close to the spot where it was sunning itself, this gave us an uncluttered view of this amazing mammal. What a great way to finish the weekend.
So, love or hate?
If all Farnes trips were like this it would be a definite love. No doubt I will be back.
