Author: Anthony D Makin

As the older diving members of this club will be aware, I’ve been connected with or a member of several different branches. I’ve been a member of Hyndburn longer than any other BSAC club and almost as long as my membership of the Cave Diving Group. One branch I was connected with used to call me Captain Nemo because of the length of time I’d been around. I still retain contact with several branches and go diving with them.

I see most dives as falling into certain categories: 

• Technical dives, for me, cave or mine diving, (I took two Hyndburn members down Holme Bank Chert Mine. See page. 37, Sept, Dive). 
• Hunter/gatherer lobster, crab and scallop dives, 
• Wrecking for copper pipe, portholes etc, 
• Marine adventure, my personal preference, which is why I’m going on a live aboard trip to St Kilda with Darwen Branch, next year. (See Page 16, Sept Dive).

Two of my recent trips may be of interest to the members and perhaps stimulate similar outings within this branch. 

Lochaline 

The most recent was with Willy King at the Lochaline Centre in the Sound of Mull. This was for an underwater archaeology outing in the Sound . After a drive up there, which coincided with rush hour in Glasgow, we made the Corran Ferry and found Lochaline. The club by the harbour had a very noisy band on in the lounge and so we stayed in the bar room. After breakfast, the weekend was explained to us and then down to the harbour and the best diver hard boat I’ve ever been on. The skipper was an ex-professional who lived in Ballachulish and commuted down to his boat to take parties out. We sailed to the site of the John Preston, which was well marked out by tapes. It was an introduction to surveying techniques and after lunch we sailed to Duart Castle and our first protected wreck dive of the weekend. This was the remains of a vessel from a six-strong Cromwellian Fleet sent to quell the Jacobite rebellion. After suppressing the McLeans of Duart a violent storm brought about the shipwreck of half of the fleet. Since 1992, 13 years after its discovery by someone looking for lobsters, professional marine archaeologists have been working on this site. (See the site plan.) The BBC made a film shortly before my visit, which will be shown next April. After the dive, I unzipped my suite whilst waiting for the others to surface. A marker buoy surfaced unattached and was carried on to the rocks. The skipper asked me to retrieve it, so I jumped in and soon got wet. After retrieving the buoy I sulked whilst waiting to go round the castle. The tide was out so we had to swim ashore from the boat and one of the party sank because he was carrying a bag containing dry clothes. I went to his rescue but he lost his glasses in the sea. After an interesting trip round the castle, I went for a search with him for his glasses. The least said is the best approach but after an hour the skipper put his suite on and found them quite quickly. For the rest of the weekend this gentleman was persona non grata but at least Willy bought him a pint when he came in the club house. It was almost empty in there it must have been too noisy there for the locals when the band was on.

Cannon Site at Duart Castle

The following day we dived first on the Shuna, which had an interesting dark hold to explore, after dinner, we went on the Thesis, which I thought was brilliant. There was lots of fish life to see and a nice intact propeller. The boat was tilted with the bow closest to the surface and the prop at 33. 3 metres. We then sailed to the Dartmouth, another protected wreck sunk in 1690 on a mission to once again quell the Jacobites. It lies on an outcrop of rocks known as Ruhaba an Ridire and sank, according to legend by a storm raised by witches. It lay there until its discovery in 1973 by members of Bristol Undersea Archeology Branch of BSAC. I enjoyed this site because Willy and me found a cannon that was not recorded on the chart. We spotted bubbles coming through the Kelp and on removing it discovered the cannon. It was very close to the shore and the wake of a passing boat spun me over as I was exploring the mouth of the cannon. The weekend was excellent and I would highly recommend it.

Torran Rocks

Three weeks before I went up with Darwen Branch to dive around Torran Rocks and the Garvellachs. Dave Ainsley, the owner of Porpoise Dive Charters, planned the sessions. He is a BSAC First Class Diver and Advanced Instructor and he was diving on Nitrox and had the time to explain to me what this entailed and showed me how he mixed the gases for his two tanks. We were all either Dive Leaders or Advanced Divers and he chooses the dives according to the skills of the participants. The two dives at the Torrans were Wall and Gully dives and the visibility was only eight to ten metres because of a bloom of algae. There was plenty of varied fish life to see and lots of soft corals. After another pleasant evening in the Oban Inn, we set off next day, for the Garvellachs. The first objective was the Little Corryvrecan. After an experience whirling around, carried in the hard boat, we went to one of the outfalls, the Grey Dogs Race. This involves a six-Knot current at slack and is an excellent drift dive and involves something called the Ski Jump, in which you are thrown through the air and dropped down a cliff. At the end of the dive with the boat a long way off, a Surface Marker Buoy showed its value in enabling the skipper to find us. After this we went fishing for some food to feed some Congers with and to fizz off before our second dive. In feeding them it was amazing how they came out from their lair and took fish from your hand without harming you. It was a truly awesome experience and one I would recommend to anyone.

Tony Makin.