Farne Islands - 24th/25th Sept 2005:

Once again the club enjoyed perfect weather conditions late in the season off the Northumberland coast for an excellent weekends diving with Stan Hall's Farne Diving operation.

For those who stuck the course and ventured up on Saturday morning, plus our ever faithful John Cook who appears on all club dives, seemingly out of nowhere, we boarded the Hope of Life and soon set sail on calm water for a dive on the Hoppen. This site is a very scenic wall at the far end of the Farnes, a 19 meter vertical wall sloping down to 20+ meters, and well decorated with underwater flora, and attracts many fish and seals during the dive. Three groups of divers enjoyed a 40+ minute dive in clear, calm waters. playful seals lurked close by, whilst Dave perfected his hypnotic skills on many un-suspecting wrass. An excellent dive.

After lunch whereby the wind had woken up we ventured to the sheltered north side, and avoided the mass of hard boats and ribs on the Knifestone and undertook a pleasant dive on the Northern Hares. Mick, Lee and John enjoyed a close encounter with especially friendly seals, Mick in his smooth and sleek black dry-suit attracting the most attention by an overtly friendly female seal. The post dive brief revealed that the most favourable conditions were below the kelp line, along a set of short, scenic attractive walls here.

Sunday saw a change of divers, with Nick out of action flying off to the Red Sea, but being ably replaced with local divers to make up numbers and boat charges. Despite strong winds and choppy seas the team undertook two dives on the Sunday back on the Hares and Harker which went well.

Nick Leathley.