2012 UK DIVE TRIPS

Here they are - dates for the 2012 UK boat dives and trips. Click on the destination for further information on the location and dive sites. If you would like to book or need any further information please contact Paul or Yvonne on 0845 838 7785 or send an email to info@deepbluescuba.co.uk

Lochaline / Sound of Mull

24 & 25 March

28 & 29 April

14 & 15 July

18 & 19 August

28 - 30 September - three day trip - perfect for combining a mini break with a PADI Speciality course!

27 & 28 October

New accommodation for 2012 - we'll be staying at Morvern Dive Lodge for all of our Lochaline trips!

All of our trips to the Sound of Mull and the Small Isles are run together with Lochaline Boat Charters. Check their website for a look at dive boats Brendan & Peregrine.

Small Isles

09 - 12 June

St Abbs

17 & 18 March 

21 & 22 April

19 & 20 May

TBC - June

28 & 29 July

25 & 26 August

22 & 23 September

All trip bookings require a deposit. Please click here for further information.

St. Abb’s
St. Abb’s Marine Reserve is an outstanding dive location, which we are lucky to have only 1 hour 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 kelp forests and walls encrusted in anemones and soft corals. Almost everyone that visits St. Abb’s goes back.

if you've just completed your Open Water Diver or Drysuit Diver course, this is the perfect place for fun dives.

We are considering re-instating weekday dives next year - please bear with us. Costs for one evening dive would be £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.

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

For the three-day trip we travel to Lochaline on Thursday evening and complete up to 3 boat dives per day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, before returning home on Sunday evening.

The three day trip costs £270, 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 Saturday morning, completing up to 3 dives en route.  We then dive the islands on Sunday and Monday before returning to Lochaline, again diving en route, on Tuesday.

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

BOOKING ONTO BOAT TRIPS - Deposits, terms & conditions

A non-refundable deposit is required to book a space on any Deep Blue Scuba trip. If you have not paid a deposit, no space will be held.

Deposit amounts vary by destination:

UK overnight trips

A £100 deposit per person per trip is required to confirm your booking.  The balance of the trip payment is payable two calendar weeks before the trip unless otherwise stated. 

St Abbs day boats

A £20 deposit per person per day is required to confirm your booking.  The balance of the boat fees and any kit hire fees is payable on the day of the dive. 

All trip bookings

Each person making a booking on behalf of another or a group confirms that he/she has the authority of all other parties and that all agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions. 

If, due to unforeseen circumstances, you wish to cancel all or part of your booking after the deposit has been paid, Deep Blue Scuba cannot (unless someone else is willing to take your place) refund your payment. 

If owing to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot provide the trips booked or a suitable alternative, we will refund all money paid to us, in full, and the diver shall have no further claim against us.

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 reserve the right to alter these terms and conditions at any time.  If you need any further clarification on these terms and conditions then please do not hesitate to contact us.

Click here for full terms and conditions.

PAST AND FUTURE LOCATIONS

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.

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.

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.