2010 UK DIVE TRIPS

Here are the dates for the 2010 UK boat dives and trips.  If you would like to book or would like any further information please contact Paul on 0845 838 7785 or send an email to info@deepbluescuba.co.uk

St. Abb’s
St. Abb’s Marine Reserve is an outstanding dive location, which we are lucky to have only 1.5 hours down the east coast. The dives are numerous and boast some amazingly diverse marine life; pipe fish, wrasse, octopus, wolf fish…the list goes on. The topography is also outstanding, with large kelp forests and walls encrusted in anemones and soft corals. Almost everyone that visits St. Abb’s goes back.

On Tuesdays and Fridays we complete one evening dive at a cost of £18.50 (plus equipment hire as needed).

On Saturdays, Sundays and bank holiday Mondays we complete two dives, during the day, at a cost of £37 (plus equipment hire as needed).

Lochaline – Sound of Mull
The waters around Lochaline offer some of the best wreck and scenic diving around. The wreck of the Thesis is considered, by many, to be one of the nicest wrecks in Scotland. With the bow in 12 metres and the stern in 30 metres she offers an ideal dive for everyone. She sank in 1891 but is still relatively intact, although some of the ribs are now exposed offering open swim troughs.

The scenic diving is also outstanding, with dives on sites such as Calve Island, Pennygown Quarry and Gray Wall, a site we started diving this year. The life is abundant on these sites as it is throughout the area.

This is where the staff go on holiday, which indicates how good it is!

We travel to Lochaline on Friday evening and complete up to 3 boat dives per day on Saturday and Sunday, before returning home on Sunday evening.

The trip costs £220, per person, which includes: accommodation, all meals, diving and air fills.

Small Isles
Canna, Rum, Eigg, Sanday and Muck offer superb scenic diving, off the west of Scotland. There is a wealth of spectacular diving here, characterised by walls that start shallow and bottom out in deep water. This means that you can tailor the dive to your experience and interests, by choosing your depth. The walls are topped by kelp forests, which disappear as the wall deepens and give way to sponges, anemones and soft corals.

Sgeir a Phuirt is easily one of the best scenic dives I have ever done. The plumose anemones are massive and extend far off the surface of the rock, in sheets as far as the eye can see. Moving along the reef these anemones gave way to another encrusting life like jewel anemone and patchwork quilts of orange, red, purple, white and pink anemones. The life is so abundant that at many points you can not see the wall. Peppered amongst this colourful background you will see numerous crustaceans and fish life.

We travel from Lochaline on Friday morning, completing up to 3 dives en route.  We then dive the islands on Saturday and Sunday before returning to Lochaline, again diving en route, on Monday.

The trip costs £395, per person, which includes: accommodation, all meals, diving and air fills.

PLEASE NOTE: BOOKING ONTO BOAT TRIPS

To confirm your place on trips to Lochaline a £100 deposit and on trips to Garvellachs & locale, Small Isles and Skye a £150 deposit will be required, per person. The balance of the trip will be required 6 weeks prior to the trip. If the balance payment is not received by 4 weeks prior to the trip your place will be re-advertised.

To confirm your place on a St. Abb's trip full payment will be required 3 weeks prior to the trip. If you book your place more that 3 weeks before the trip your place will be held, without deposit, however if we do not receive your payment when it becomes due we will have to offer your place to another diver.

Everyone going on a boat will be required to either have a computer or plan their dives with the RDP and have a dive watch. Similarly all buddy pairs will be required to have an SMB, which can be purchased from Edinburgh Diving Centre or via Deep Blue Scuba. We will teach anyone who purchases an SMB how to use it for FREE!

All payments are non-refundable and non-exchangeable.

If you would like more information on any of the trips or to book your place please contact Paul on 0845 838 7785 or email info@deepbluescuba.co.uk.

PAST AND FUTURE LOCATIONS - if you would be interested in future trips to the following locations please let us know.

Skye
There are many spectacular dive-sites with awesome scenic diving, historic wreck diving, large underwater pinnacles and small caves. Typical of the west coast the sites are a mass of vibrant encrusting life but there is also an abundance of crustaceans and fish life. The visibility is often excellent, due to the high-energy tidal waters.

One of the real stars of Skye are the cetaceans and basking sharks that often swim around the boat. On our last Skye trip we saw porpoise, whale and 14 basking sharks, in a single day. If you are lucky you can snorkel with the basking sharks, often getting close enough that you could touch them.

Scapa Flow

During armistice negotiations, at the end of the First World War, the German Fleet was held in Scapa Flow. However on 21 June 1919 the entire fleet was scuttled, to avoid the ships falling into Allied hands. At the end of the war a salvage operation raised the majority of the 74 warships, leaving just 8. Although a number of the ships were salvaged those that remain offer some superb diving. For example the Kronprinz Wilhelm is an awesome sight. At 177m long and in a relatively intact state it is a sight to behold, indeed the large guns still remain as a reminder of its original purpose.

Scapa Flow is a real diver's play ground, with too many exciting dives to mention here. The visibility is often excellent and the marine life is most abundant, with encrusting life, numerous fish species, conger eels and nudibranch, amongst others.

Garvellachs and the locale

The Garvellachs are a group of small islands in the same locale as Jura, Colonsay and the sea lochs of Melford and Gilped.