Oban: 18 – 21st October 2003

On board the JaneR - Skipper Gordon Wadsworth

Friday
Ryan came and picked me up at about 8:30 Friday morning. His people wagon was already full of his casually thrown in kit and a bit of repacking was necessary to fit in even my kit. This was done easily then it was off to collect Ian. At Ian’s house we quickly took all our stuff out before Ian could see how we’d badly packed everything. Once everything was out Ian set about packing it properly, while Ryan and I watched. Whenever we tried to help Ian would remove whatever we’d added and put it back where he thought it ought to have gone.
We left Ian’s at about ten, Ryan driving.
First stop was at Oxford as Ian needed a wee. Ryan didn’t approve of having to stop so quickly, but didn’t want a mess in his nice van so stopped for him.
Next stop was on to Tebay services on the M6 near the Lakes. We tried to meet Jane-Marie here but she was having a mare of a baby-food day and couldn’t make it. I think she was just too embarrassed to show us her less than sexy new car. We had some food and met up with Jeremy briefly anyway, before he had to dash off to meet Jo and Elaine.
After an hours stop we were off again – it was 1530 by this time. We heard reports or Chris racing the Serious Burns Unit some couple of hours further North from where we were.
Ryan was still driving and was quite enjoying himself until we hit Glasgow. It was now full-on rush hour and it took about an hour to crawl around the city. After Glasgow it eased up and we got on to the slower roads on the way to Oban. The last stretch of road we were stuck behind a lorry with “J.Anderson” written in large letters on the back which gave us something to focus our hatred upon.
We got to Oban just after eight.
On board we met up with Andy who was still on board crewing for Gordon from when we were on in Norway earlier. Kit was loaded on and then it was off to the Oban Inn for some food and drink and to meet up with Chris, Tess, Ricky and Andy.
About an hour after we got there Jeremy, Jo and Elaine arrived too which just left Adrian and James. They’d been to work Friday and so were barely North of Winchester at this point.

Saturday
A late start – up for nine. This was just as well for Adrian and James who’d only arrived at the boat at 5:30. Apparently as they unloaded their kit there was much clattering and banging followed by overloud “shhhhhhh”ing. I heard none of this – I was happy off in the land of earplugs.
Porage and toast (as you’d expect) then it was in on the Breda.
The viz wasn’t brilliant, a few metres only. It was nice to float around the bow and then we did a couple of lengths of the wreck before returning up the shot line.
It was an absolutely clear sky on surfacing. Very little wind and very bright. We hung around on the foredeck (as you do on the JaneR) and we motored up the Sound of Mull before anchoring for lunch. A pleasant few hours were spent in the sunshine before we continued up the Sound and dived the John Preston. I’d never dived this before and so was a new experience. The wreck itself was well broken, with lots and lots of slates lying around. Just off the wreck there was a nice drop-off so Ian and I (followed by Chris and Tess) went over this to 30m and followed this around. It was quite a nice drop-off – Ian was happily looking at various squidgies in the crevices while I floated off and enjoyed the scenery. We returned to the wreck and then surfaced after a good hour-long dive.
We then motored towards Tobermory. The sun was starting to set and it was turning bitterly cold under the clear sky. Before getting into Tobermory however we stopped at the drop-off by Calve Island and four of us (Adrian, Ian, Elaine and me) went in for a night dive. This was a very pleasant bimble.
In to Tobermory we went, a gorgeous dinner of Salmon was produced by Andy and then it was, of course, off to the Mishnish. Where else can you go on a Saturday night in Tobermory?
Curiously, there was a Dutch folk band in there. The place was packed. We got some beer and then tucked ourselves into the snug for the evening.

Sunday
Awakening Sunday morning it was obvious that the calm weather had gone. Lying in the bunk you could feel the boat rocking and swaying in what had to be a fairly stiff breeze. At about eight the engines started and we motored off to Coll, a good couple of hours steaming away. It was overcast with a strong wind, but we were going with the wind so it wasn’t a bad crossing.
We arrived at the Tapti for about 11 and most of us jumped in. “Make sure you go North” where Gordon’s last words: “there’s reefs the other way and I won’t be able to pick you up”.
We sank into 22m of water and promptly went off Northwards, as there was no wreck. There was a gentle but persistent current trying to take us the other way. We swam for 30 minutes before binning the dive, without having found the wreck at all. We didn’t hang around on the ascent as we didn’t want the current taking us any further South than absolutely necessary.
On the surface it was quite a chop running and it was a bit of a roller-coaster ride to swim out so Gordon could pick us up.
Meanwhile, the other pairs surfaced and were picked up, except when it came to Ricky and Adrian who spent ages beneath their blob and got taken South over the reefs. When they finally surfaced they were way beyond where we could collect them and they didn’t seem to want to swim back to the boat, so eventually someone swam a line off the JaneR to them and we all got towed back to safety.
We then motored round to a sheltered Bay off Coll where we anchored and we sat around the deck chatting. The sun came out, but there was still a vicious wind blowing.
After lunch we went around to dive the legendary Jo’s Rock, upon which Jo had impaled the MV Faithful the year before. We all knew of the VR3 that had been lost over the side during that incident and some serious searching was going to take place :o)
Gordon, for some strange reason, insisted we get kitted up while we were still anchored. We did so, and that had to wait in full kit for 30 minutes while he then got us to the rock.
Eventually we jumped in and had a pleasant 45 minutes searching on and around the rock. There was much kelp and crevices and the chances of finding anything were obviously pretty slim; but we all looked anyway. I spent some time down under the kelp swimming along the cracks and of course lost my buddy in doing so. Oops.
On surfacing the wind was still blowing pretty hard and so we decided to head back to Tobermory rather than risk getting caught out at Coll, which is pretty exposed. This time we were against the wind and the crossing was a bit bouncier!
We arrived in Tobermory and moored alongside Salutay. It was good to chat with Al and Freda again. After dinner there was the obligatory trip to the Mishnish again. The same Dutch group was still playing there.

Monday
We were awoken early by the ferry (that we were parked alongside) wanting to leave. The engines were hastily started and we were off. We didn’t go far, though – just out into the bay were we picked up a mooring buoy and we went back to bed again.
We were up for nine properly and had porage as we motored gently over to Calve Island to dive the drop-off. The sun was shining but as the drop-off is North facing it was going to be pretty dark down there. I went in with James and we plummeted down the cliff. The gloom was made worse by the fact that my HID was failing to spark up and I was on my SL4 instead. At 40m the cliff turned into a gentle mud slope. Thinking that this was just a little ledge we swam out onto this. By 48m however we realised that it was in fact the bottom and we turned the dive. James afterwards thought I was narked as after giving the up signal I promptly went off to one side. I had to point out to him that we went to the side to avoid the huge cloud of silt that we’d stirred up behind us. On the way back up we bumped into Chris and Tess twice.
We then had kippers on deck after the dive. Jeremy particularly liked these!
After only a short break it was off to the Hispania. James and I dropped onto the deck in 20m, then disappeared off over the side to nearly 30m we went around to the bow where we met Ricky and Andy. We followed them up the bow and on to the deck. We then went into the holds and worked our way through the passages towards the stern. Once there we dropped down the rudder – James hung at about 25m while I dropped down onto the seabed and was greeted with a spectacular sight of the stern and rudder silhouetted with James floating off to one side of them. Very pretty. Back up on the deck I had a good laugh at Chris and Tess struggling to get through the passages there. Chris was making particularly hard going of it – his towel rail would keep jamming on wreckage.
We then worked our way back down the starboard side, looking at all the masts and debris hanging over it until we met Ryan and Ian back at the bow having a bit of a photo-session. James had racked up a few stops so we made for the shotline and ascended. As we did so we were amused to see Chris and Tess bagging off the wreck. They used the excuse that the current was too strong to go up the shot – however there was very little current and they took a while to drift out of sight.
Then it was time for chicken curry lunch and a short snooze before going to the Rondo.
The Rondo was as wonderful as ever. James and I descended down the wreck, it getting darker and darker as we went deeper and deeper. Eventually we got into the hold at the bottom; it was pitch black although the viz was pretty good. We were having a whale of a time; giggling away merrily to ourselves. We held our computers together and plunged them onto the bottom – as we did so I saw the magic 50.0m click over. Marvellous. We met Elaine at the bottom (although I didn’t know it was her at the time – all I could see was an HID bulb) and we exchanged “OK” light signals.
We made a gentle ascent back up the wreck, meeting most of the rest of our divers as we went. Ian was found weaving his way back and forth inside the wreck. We dropped over the side at 25m to do the mandatory swim beneath the wreck. It was then back to the shallows where we all eventually gathered to do our decompression. It was about this point that I realised that I’d missed the deep stops on my VR3. Oops. It was great to float around the Rondo’s rudder and watch the stream of bubbles rising from the pesky open-circuit types glistening in the sunshine.
Eventually we surfaced and we then steamed back to Lochaline where we moored at the sand jetty and we got served a superb meal of roast beef. The plates were piled up even more than usual – the reason for this became apparent when Gordon started taking photos of us “for me website”!
After tea it was off to Lochaline Social Club where we had a brilliant evening playing darts and pool and having a great time.

Tuesday
We were awoken this morning by an alarm going off. It was seven thirty so we gradually got up one by one as the alarm wasn’t going away. Apparently it was a bilge alarm (although I’d not heard Andy talking). Eventually Gordon awoke and we set off for the Rondo again – yippee!
I dove this with Tess and we had a good ascent down the wreck. Once again I was enjoying myself and started singing and chuckling. This was a mistake as by 47m she became far too worried about my mental state and she turned the dive. This was a bit of a shame – we can only have been a few metres from the end – however it was hardly a big deal. Back up we came, doing the obligatory swim beneath the wreck as we did so.
Back at the shallow section there was the normal tomfoolery as we did either real or safety stops. I’d been carefully monitoring my VR3 this time and it didn’t even try to give me any deep stops; presumably it assumed I’d just ignore them anyway :o)
Back on the surface and it was back to Lochaline so Gordon could pick up water, then on to the Thesis.
I can’t comment on this dive as I didn’t do it – I guess my age was catching up with me as I felt far too weary. I told Tess that it was because she wouldn’t let me get to the bottom anyway. Those that did the dive it said it was good enough.
Then it was back to Oban for Andy’s last fine lunch and it was time to go, boo :o(
Cars were packed, farewells were said and it was time for the long dreary drive home.
An excellent long weekend away. Well done Ricky for organising it.