10 Things I Learnt In The Farne Islands
18 September 2005
Trip report by Hannah Bleakley
First published in London Diver, November 2005
As a relatively new member of the club I found that the trip to the Farnes was the perfect place to learn about the club and diving, as well as somewhere to do some fantastic diving, so instead of the usual trip reports I decided to pass on my new found knowledge.
1. SMBs
You can never have enough practise with an SMB. Possibly one of the first things I learnt (having found out what one was in Plymouth) as, after a dive to settle into the conditions (and the cold), I was handed an SMB and reel to look after. I also learnt that there is no way to get out of this duty until you are diving with a less experienced diver and can ask the famous question "Have you ever used an SMB before?".
There is no answer you can give to this to avoid being the SMB bearer. Not even snapping a supposedly indestructible reel will get you out of this duty, as I found, I was just handed a new reel a the beginning of the next dive.
2. Food
One of the most important land based activities is eating. It ranged from the daily all day breakfast, the perfect way to warm up between dives, to the fantastic lobster feast prepared by Nigel and Dave (with all their helpers) one night. It was the biggest and oldest lobster I have ever seen (apparently about 50 years old) and had to be de-clawed before cooking in a bucket. That was probably the first time I have seen my dinner merrily boiling away in a bucket. Staying in the same house as Keith I also learnt how to get all the meat out of a crab, as every day there would be more crabs he had caught or acquired from fishermen to be cooked in a variety of pans, the baking tray being the most imaginative and interesting as the crab kept trying to escape along the work surface!
3. Drink
The other important land based activity and a pleasant way to the pass the evening was sampling the local tipple (Farne Islands Bitter) in the best pubs Seahouses and Beadnell had to offer. Special mention has to be given to Paul at this point who looked after the kitty all week and made sure that our glasses were always full so thank you from everyone for this service!
4. There is no dignity in diving
As we all have to find out at some point, whether it is being bent over so someone can put your weight belt on because you have forgotten to, diving in your waterproof having forgotten to take it off before kitting up, trying to haul yourself into the RIB, spitting into your mask, trying to get in and out of a wet wetsuit in a car park or going out in the boat for the ride wearing possibly the least effective lifejacket in the world.
5. Seals
The main reason for diving in the Farnes is surely to "play" with the seals. We were luck enough to have them on at least three dives where they did everything from just swimming past and showing off their underwater skills to nibbling and playing with our fins and SMBs. It made those dives just magical, although they didn't like being looked at for some reason so you had to watch what was happening to your buddy. The juveniles were particularly playful, a big fan of fin eating and showing off their acrobatics.
It is only seeing them so close you realise what skilful and fast swimmers they are, as well as realising how big they actually are, slightly scary when they get territorial and have a quick bite of your arm or leg. Luckily, they are scared of one thing, torchlight, as Joe demonstrated with the light sabre on his dives (mind you most things were scared of that).
6. Other sealife
There is lots more to the Farnes than seals as we saw on some of the other dives when we were not quite so distracted. We saw lots of crabs, some of which were edible ones and so went straight into the goodie bags along with a few lobsters. Richard and Nigel even managed to catch a flatfish in Richard's BC pocket! We didn't catch all of the sealife though, and left plenty of sea urchins, starfish, sprats, wrasse and even a few octopi for everyone else to look at.
7. Weather
All diving is dictated by the weather as we all know and apparently the likelihood of being blown out in the Farnes was very high. We were very lucky to get in five good days of diving before the inevitable happened on Friday and the wind changed to blow onshore. We dived in the rain, sun and wind and even saw a sunrise one morning thanks to Morgan's dive planning. Luckily, the dive was excellent and justified the early start, although it did meant that the breakfast/lunch venue had to be changed as we were too early for our regular haunt!
8. Getting to know people
There is no better way to get to know the people in the club than to go on a trip, and if that is a week long trip, so much the better. Of course some people you will get to know better than others, and I now feel like I know Claire very well having shared a bed with her for a week and given and received a fair amount of cuddles in the middle of the night (sorry Claire!).
9. UK diving
This trip was only the second time I have dived in the UK, having learnt in a nice tropical place and I was very surprised by how good UK diving is. There is so much to see, not just the seaweed and occasional fish through the murk I had envisioned. The only thing I still have to get used to is the cold. The North Sea in September did not seem very attractive and I was ridiculed at work for even contemplating it but it was slightly warmer than I expected. Now I just have to get used to having a dive dictated by whether you are shivering yet rather than how much air you have left.
After that (and having to struggle in to a very wet and cold wetsuit most mornings) the drysuit has quickly made the top of my "kit to buy" list.
10. Communication
This is vital whether you are trying to signal something to your buddy underwater or deciding whether the early morning dive will take place. However, all communication can very quickly fail. The mobile phone signal is Seahouses is pretty much non-existent so at least one person had to leave their bed to find out whether the morning dive was actually taking place and then tell everyone else what the plan was. Also buddy signals tend to fall apart underwater if you are not careful, it is no good getting excited over something and trying to show them if your buddy has no idea what you mean (as we all found at some point).
We did learn some new signals on the surface, but knowing all the signals for different types of sharks was not that useful in the Farne Islands. Seal was usually just signalled by wide eyes and excited pointing, unless it was a baby seal in which case a mime of clubbing a baby seal was used by some people (no names mentioned!).
The Farnes was definitely a memorable trip for me and I am just sorry that the season is over so soon, but at least it ended on a high with lots of brilliant diving and on land experiences to rival those in the sea. Hopefully some of my new found knowledge will be put into use soon…
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Labels: farne islands, photos, trip report
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