Isle of Man – July 2011 - The Lighthouse Family

Wendy Northway

I’ve been looking forward to this weekend since we stepped off the Mananan last year. I reckon Manx waters have to be the best in the world so nothing was going to stop me from going this year. The ferry out of Liverpool was bang on time and we loaded up Paul’s in flight catering trolley. Paul volunteered to supply half board for the party and as he loaded up Ariel’s car, I worried if we had room for the dive kit. How much can 8 divers eat?

Saturday was an early start – The Burroo. This is one of my favourite dives and I wasn’t disappointed. We landed on a rocky reef covered with oaten pipe hydroids which provided perfect food for the many nudibranchs – flabellina pedata, polycera quadrilinata – a truly wonderful array of colour! I dived with Ariel and both of us had cameras in macro mode – the smaller the species, the more interesting! Suddenly I looked up and realised we were surrounded by fish of all description – cuckoo wrasse characterised by their splendid blue and orange colouring, ballan wrasse with their distinctive white marking along their body and cat shark doing that swervy curvy swimming thing that only cat shark do! Getting back on the boat we heard tales of a friendly seal going from buddy pair to buddy pair. He probably visited us along with that passing basking shark but we had our noses pressed to the smallest of critters!

Back to the harbour for lunch on the beach. Paul quickly went to the galley and provided an incredible spread as the rest of us reclined in the warmth of the July sun. Ernie had delegated the task of ordering the weather to DaveG who did his job well. Lunch was a leisurely affair as we didn’t need to be out again until later as slack on the Lighthouse was late afternoon.

After lunch we reboarded and headed off for Chicken Rock. This is the lighthouse at the southern most tip on the Calf of Man consequently a very tidal spot rich in nutrient and profuse in life. The rock is also deep. Depth is quite a feature of the diving around here. Such is the clarity of the waters, the sunlight penetrates further than North Wales thus kelp is seen at up to 20m and we had to go below this to get out of the great forests. The terrain dropped away deceptively easily. Fantastic sea bed, very similar to this morning’s dive with fields of hydroids, walls of jewel anemones and large lobsters strutting their stuff out in the open. Once again a fine site to dive and Ernie racked up another Lighthouse to add to his collection.

The lateness of slack resulted in an even later finish and we still had to empty the boat. We were told that this was owing to the requests we had made and the timings of slack water meant that we weren’t diving until the following afternoon. We believe however, that the skipper was cashing in an extra fishing trip to add to his takings. Still this meant that we could enjoy a late night. The party split, the main group went to the Indian, well tried to. As they were a tad late, their table hadn’t been held and went off to the Cookery School instead. They enjoyed a truly scrumptious meal, all washed down with fine wine. Me and Ariel went to visit my Uncle where my cousin ‘Russelled’ up a fine bolognaise!

Sunday morning was a rare lie in for a dive weekend followed by brunch at the dive lodge courtesy of head chef Paul then a leisurely stroll to the boat for 2pm. First dive of the day was the Clan MacMaster, the ‘sewing machine’ wreck. This went down in 1923 with no loss of life. It was carrying a cargo of, amongst other items, sewing machines. Many a household on the island managed to acquire such a machine! For those that stayed on the wreck, they were treated to magnificent beams covered in deadmen’s fingers. The light infiltration was at it’s best as looking up provided optimum photographic opportunities. The rest of us were treated to a drift through the sound of Calf over the usual suspects –kelp, hydroids and lobster.

The final dive was planned to be North Stack but conditions were not ideal so we went round the corner from the Burroo, and dived The Puddle. This was again a stunning dive. Dropping down onto kelp covered rock which gave way to cluster anemones, then field upon field of plumose anemones. Once again I had my macro lens on the video but there was little opportunity to pull up and park as a gentle drift took us out in the Burroo itself. I wasn’t complaining as delicate sargatia troglodytes, actinothoe sphyrodeta and jewel anemones came into sight. No stop time limited out dive and thus we were up. It was very late now so we quickly packed up our kit, showered and headed off to Port Erin for a relaxing meal. Again we’ve experienced a magnificent weekend’s diving with great company, spectacular weather and enough food to fuel the 5000!

Rhoscolyn July 2011 – 30th anniversary celebrations

Wendy Northway

As dawn arrived on Saturday morning, VRSAC were working hard in the car park at Rhoscolyn, prepping the 2 boats in glorious sunshine. Neptune must have been looking down on us as we anticipated a weekend’s diving to mark the Branch’s 30th anniversary celebrations. 1st boat out was to an old favourite – The Beacons. Lots of specific dives were requested this w/end and Dive Manager Stella strived to achieve all wishes. First down was Paul’s final drill for Sport’s Diver – SMB use. There was no shortage of instructors to coach him in this. Alan had his first boat dive in the UK as did Jamie. Visibilty was exceptional, particularly as when the poor weather we have experienced this year, was taken into consideration. I estimated about 10m – everyone concur? The current had picked up when me and Alan dropped in which took us on a mighty fine drift from the nearside of the Beacons to the Lookout! Unfortunately we quickly fell of the reef, but were whisked over large sand ripples, taking in spider crabs, sand eels and whole caravans of hermit crabs on the move. Others were treated to the delights of octopus, lobster, cat shark plus a lovely tapestry that made the background of hydroids, bryozoans and crustaceans.

As we arrived back, the Barbie was being lit and John A swapped his aqualung for a spatula. Jane and Val did us proud providing all with delicious delights of chicken, sausages and veggie burgers with copius quantities of crisp salads, buns and cheeses. Whilst this was going on, the 3 of the 4 junior Farnworths, did their 1st open water sea dive in Silver Sands Bay. A resounding thumbs up from all involved!

The afternoon saw the tide turn and thus we went over to conger alley which was rather depleted of congers, but crabs, wrasse, nudibranchs were abundant! The reef itself comprised a fabulous carpet of spiral bryozoans, elephant hide sponges and massive yellow boring sponges, which are really quite interesting.

The boat was quickly taken out of the water so we could get to the Valley in time for the meal. I suffered from the effects of the sun and unfortunately couldn’t join you but a good time was had by all.

Sunday morning and we were several divers down so we only took the one boat. First dive was a proper boat dive for the clan Farnworth, back on the Beacons. One by one they all expertly tumbled over the back of the RIB and descended to the delights of octopus, dahlia anemones, hornwrack and seasquirts! I dived with Andy Shenstone, who was really getting into the swing of boat diving and had probably the best dive on The Beacons in a long time. Conger, snakelocks anemones and pollack were plentiful.

A quick spot of lunch then we were out again. The final dive of the day and it was the hardy divers left as most had gone home. I was buddied with Ariel and on our initial attempt to dive we got swept away on a bearing for Isle of Man – no thank you, that’s next week’s plan! A quick scuttle into the boat we were dropped back on the reef and had a very pleasant dive, watching Pollack hunt sand eels. Dave and Steve persevered with their drift dive and were rewarded with a large ray.

Finally we hauled the boat out and packed up. A lovely w/e was had with good company, excellent weather and superior diving. Roll on the next 30 years!