OBAN - SOUND OF MULL

In some respects this is my year end dive trip. I continue diving all year round but I always feel that this marks the end of the year.

Diving with my friends from TSAC is always a pleasure and the dive sites up and down the Sound of Mull added to the beautiful scenery always make for a great weekends diving.
We meet in Oban on the Friday night and load up our kit onto the Gaelic Rose (http://www.gaelicrose.com/) then head to a pub for a few beers.

By the time most people are up Bob has the boat heading towards the first dive site.
Breakfast is porridge and toast and then cups of tea while setting up kit. The beauty of the Gaelic Rose is that he has his own cylinders and once kit is set up that's it for the weekend, all that needs to be done at the end of the dive is unhitching of the first stage so that the cylinder can be refilled.

View from the bow of the Gaelic Rose

Usual discussions start about which wreck/wall and when we will do them. We finally settled on the Shuna followed by the Hispania two fantastic wrecks. The Shuna (http://www.jlunderwater.co.uk/old_site/photoix/shuna/index.htm link to John Liddiard's description) a great first dive with plenty of life on board. Getting down first enabled us to avoid the scramble down the shot line and the potential loss of visibility that a comes with a large number of divers (another boat was about to dive the Shuna) as this is a very silty site. Following this we headed off at a gentle pace to the Hispania as it can really only be easily dived at slack. We were within site when Bob shouted down that instead of a relaxed 45 minutes the slack was upon us and we had 15 minutes to be ready in and descending. A relaxed preparation was changed and within those fifteen minutes we were in the water and descending to the Hispania.

Full rainbow looking south from Tobermory



Rainbow through the kit

(http://www.jlunderwater.co.uk/old_site/photoix/hispania/index.htm link to John Liddiard's description) Once again a wonderful dive full of marine life and the chance of some wreck penetration through the corridors of this wonderful dive site. Returning to the surface we the tide began to run and by the time we reached the safety stop it was time to do three minutes while flag poling. It was good to see that our non-diver had awoken and joined us on deck for a while.

All back on board we headed up the Sound towards our overnight berth in Tobermory and a few beers at the Mishnish.

Tobermory harbour looking at the Mishnish

The next morning we headed out early for our first dive. Today was a day of walls with the second dive including a scallop hunt. The scenery was stunning. A flat calm sea, snow capped mountains, a rainbow in the distance and a clear blue sky. It couldn't be better for diving and after a large fry up for breakfast we were ready for our first dive.

One of out standard views throughout the weekend.

We headed south from Tobermory down to a small cove with a waterfall running into the bay. Leaping into the water I descended to about 20 meters and allowed the current to take me on a drift gradually ascending. My torch picked out the stunning colours of the anemones and followed the small fish into their alcoves. Hiding away were large crabs and coming out for a look were the inquisitive Wrasse. At about 10 meters I looked into a large gap and was met by the staring eyes of a large grey Ling. Eventually I surfaced next to shore and happily made my way back to the boat.

The final dive was at Ardtolich bay and was planned as a scallop dive. We descended to the sea bed and quickly filled the grab bag. From this point we allowed ourselves to drift over at he sea bed and then worked our way back towards the wall and upwards. The scallop dive turned into a wonderful wall and drift dive completed by surfacing to stunning views of snow capped mountains.

A wonderful weekend, some great dives and a good bunch of friends to share the time.