Farnes Trip 1st June to 4th June 2021 inclusive. Author Helen Jones
After what felt like a very long wait, lockdown restrictions were eased enough to permit 13 members to participate in the club’s first trip of 2021 – the Farne Islands in Northumberland. Split between 2 groups, group 1 Mon/Tue and group 2 Wed/Thur (to comply with social distance requirements on-board the ‘Farnes Diver’), each group enjoyed 2 night’s stay and completed 4 dives each.
Despite group 1’s first day being extremely cold with very thick fog, they all managed a decent morning dive, playing with seals in the kelp Northside of Big Harcar at around 14 metres, and a shallower 8 metre wall dive in the afternoon at Meg Stone. Today saw 2 of the divers successfully complete their first ever sea dives. The local ‘Craster Arms’ provided a well-earned dinner for the hungry divers as well as some much-needed warmth.
Day 2 for group 1 was much sunnier with calmer waters and it certainly made the seals more curious Southside of Harcar (15 metres). In fact, one particular seal was playing a little too hard, not only biting fins but pulling at hoods, masks and hoses; it even managed to pull off the Velcro strap around a cylinder – some of which is captured on the Go Prop footage on the trip video!(available to view on the club Facebook page) The second dive was a slight drift dive around the Coryton Wreck just off Ross Sands near Holy Island (now partially buried and at a shallow 7.5 metres). This was a wheat cargo ship (with a crew of 40) which was machine gunned and attacked by German Bombers in 1941 – all but the captain survived, he chose to stay with his ship (the other 39 were rescued by Holy Island and North Sunderland lifeboats). Here our diving team explored what little now remains of the wreck and caught 4 lobsters which were later released back into the sea after a quick photo shoot.
Group 2’s 1st day was also lovely and sunny, providing perfect conditions for another 3 club members to enjoy their first ever sea dives too. Northside of Big Harcar again provided an ideal location for close encounters with the seals at depths of around 10 metres. Meg Stone in the afternoon had decent visibility of around 3 metres and the divers saw several starfish, jelly fish and crabs on this wall dive. The evening was rounded off in excellent company at the local ‘Craster Arms’.
The last day for group 2 took them for a slight drift dive to explore the remains of the Coryton Wreck at 7.5 metres – much of the structure is now beneath the seabed, but beneath a light kelp covering the toilets, winches, boiler and prop-shaft are still identifiable. A natural home to crabs and lobsters, group 2 were also able to bring a few lobsters to the surface for some ‘selfies’ before again releasing them back onto the wreck. Their final dive was back to Northside of Big Harcar for ideal tide conditions to enjoy some more fun playing with the seals. The last day was rounded off in perfect style with an early fish/chip supper at ‘Neptunes’ before the long drive home.
A superb few days with some gentle shallow sea diving to ease everyone back into it after such a long lockdown period. It was great to be out doing what we all love, with our fellow dive-family – here’s to the next one!
