“Feeling quietly confident” by Phil Leigh
Looking forward to a great weekend Dave and I made good speed up to Glasgow and then down the “A” roads to Oban. We set off at 5:00PM and arrived at 10:30PM to unload our kit onto The Gaelic Rose and then had a few pints at the Oban Inn where we met up with the rest of the club.
A few more pints later we made our way onto the boat, or was it jumped our way onto the boat. Ged, Colm, and Rob were up for a curry or a burger from a van in town. Whilst searching round they found themselves lost in what appeared to be a gay bar. A quick pint later they decided to leave and upon doing so got chatting with a Girl/Boy. Ged seemed keen and made a remark about where they were staying, which was a bad idea as all weekend Ged was renamed Geraldine, and we were all hoping that we had no “visit in the night” from anyone…… .
After a good sleep we were given the days agenda and started to get kitted up for out first dive of the weekend. A small delay before we departed Oban, as a service on a boat next to us was being held for a local dive-skipper who had sadly died. Bob had joined in the service and we all looked on as the bagpiper played as they set off from the pier for the last time for the skipper. .
At the first dive of the day, Dave, Ged and myself got ready to dive on “The Breda” wreck. It was abit rough as Bob told us to jump in and swim to the shot-line where we met up with Rachael and Mark. Marks mask strap had snapped and he was in abit of trouble so he decided to get back on board and try later. Dave gave us the OK and thumbs down and we descended onto the top deck of the wreck. Viz was OK but we all stayed close to Dave.
Peter Johnson and Neil Smitham at the shot on The Breda
A few minutes into the dive and Ged swam up to us, his mask strap had also broken, but lucky for him (and having heard a few stories from JU) he had a spare mask in his stab pocket. Geds not only happy with just diving, he wants to do mask clearing drills all the time as well, which he did very well. Can see why we do all the training now.
Panic over and after touring through the wreck we made our way back to the shotline to make our way back up and to the ladder of the boat. You need to be pretty fit to pull yourself back on board, or it must have been the smell of breakfast and a hot cup of tea that Nicki had waiting for us after the first dive.
Ian had a problem with his neck seal on his drysuit and needed some hasty repairs, that or share Carols drysuit all weekend, but that was abit tight for him. A few hours rest allowed repairs to take place, breakfast to go down and allow our surface interval time to increase as we crossed over and up The Sound of Mull. .
Second dive and same buddies. Diving a wall near Loch Ailine we descended to 25m and followed Dave along the wall. The viz was not too good and we turned to go with the drift. I took the lead, or more like I ended up in front. Dave indicated he wanted me to fin harder, which I did. I looked round again and both Ged and Dave gave me some other hand signal (this one not in the training manual !). I got the gist of this one, what Dave was saying was don’t fin, just let the drift take you. Sorry boys!
That was the first day over and after Bob had moored up to a tanker ship at Loch Ailine sand pier we had our evening meal and made our way to the local social club. With TSAC and the locals there we had a party. Well not quite. After a few more pints and a friendly game of pool we made our way back to The Gaelic Rose. Cheese and biscuits were waiting for us and also a little copper pipe. This had a little fan built into it and the idea was to blow into the pipe and make the fan go round or get covered in talc. Mark was up for being first to suceed – seven blows later and looking like a snowman he had mastered the art of the pipe.
Mark Saleh trying the talc pipe
Marks brother Steff was then keen to master the pipe, quoting, “I feel quietly confident” – but not that time mate !! Blinded by the talc, but smelling rather nice thought Ged – what !! What a laugh, even the past master Dave got caught out and Neil tried to suck it, bad idea Neil. We retired for the night leaving a thick deposit of talc in the galley and most of the new divers with sore eyes but smelling better than they did before.
Sunday morning started with a bang ! Several in fact. The tanker ship we were moored next to was loading sand and the top covers were being removed to load the cargo. Well it got us up anyway for an early morning dive on “The Rondo”. By 09:30 that morning we were down onto the stern of “The Rondo” at 6 metres. Descending to 29 metres, viz was pretty good and there was plenty of marine life on view. Met up with a 2nd diving party and we threaded our way round their dive line and moved into clearer waters. From the prop shaft we ascended up the line to meet with Bobs boat. We boarded the boat for a welcome cup of tea and and a bacon butty.
Steff came aboard after his dive and removed his kit and mask. Two lines of white talc were still finding their way out of eyes ! The previous evening will be remebered for some time.
After a short trip back down The Sound of Mull we arrived for our final dive of the weekend. The task was to find some scallops. Dave told me what they looked like and we jumped overboard with our goody bags. At 15 meters we arrived at the sandy plains of our hunting ground. Dave pointed to what we were looking for and after 20 minutes and alot of hard work for Dave pulling the bag around we arranged our ascent. I sent up my delayed SMB but things went wrong and I sent it up without holding the dive reel….oops. Dave sent his up and promptly handed over our swag bag to me to lift up.
Colm, eager to try out a Scallop
Great end to a brilliant well organised weekend. My thanks go out to Rachael for organising the trip, Dave for driving and diving with me and to Bob and Nicki for doing a good job and having a brilliant boat.
Just before we left and said our good-byes, we needed a quick visit to the toilets on the pier. This meant Ged was last to leave and so gave us one last jibe about meeting up with his girl/boy….never mind, you’ll get your own back one day.
Some of the weekends divers
Many thanks to TSAC for making it a great year to remember for all the new divers.
Phil Leigh
