Trip Report to the Farne Islands by Junior member Isaac. (October 2021)
On the 26th of October, the trip to the Farnes started off with a long 4-hour car journey with a short McDonald’s stop in the middle. Once we arrived, we got unpacked and waited around for everyone else to arrive. Then we went into Seahouses and had fish and chips for dinner.
Helen, our resident photographer.
The next day was when things really started happening. Everyone started the day off by putting thermals on under their normal clothes and having some of Ricardas’ pastries and cakes. Then we had a quick drive down to Seahouses where we bought lunch and put on our dry suits, we handed over our kit to the skipper while getting onto the boat before we started our first voyage on the Farne Diver II. We kitted up and got ready for the first dive of the day and my first sea dive. We had the dive brief then buddies plunged in one by one into the cold salt water. The water was much colder than I had dived in previously – even compared to Stoney Cove and Gildenburgh! The first dive was mainly exploring and getting me accustomed to diving in the sea. On the dive we saw a few lobsters and crabs, and many a sea urchin but no seals. The time in between dives was extremely cold. The second dive was like the first and we were only able to see a single seal from a few metres away but we did do some training with the DSMB. After the diving we headed back to land. Much of the afternoon was spent relaxing, socialising, and telling each other of our discoveries. Then, we all went to the pub to eat.
The second day was quite similar to the first: the morning went mostly the same (except for the fact we did not have to arrive as early so we could sleep in a little longer). The first dive was on a different side of the same island. It was not very eventful, but we did see some more seals from a distance. We spent many minutes searching for the area where it dropped off slightly where there would be more lobsters and crabs, but we could not find it. Once again, I got very cold after the first dive but once we got into the second one, I felt fine. The second dive was around about the place we were diving the previous day, but we did see some more seals this time around but unfortunately none came over very close to me.
The following day I had to travel home although some of our other members stayed an extra day. It was a great first experience of diving in the sea.
From top left to right: Morgan (jnr member), Ricardas, Isaac (jnr member)
Dave H, Dave E, Katerina
Anielis (jnr member) Graham, Paul.
Photos courtesy of our resident photographer Helen.
