Met 9am Whitehead - BFST HW 1130 springs so high water slack 10am on the Chirripo

Lovely sunny day - flat calm. Good vis - 2nd best I have seen on the Chirripo 6m or so

7 in boat - Eddie (Dive Marshall/Boat Handler; Mark Palmer, Jack McClelland, Brian McIlroy, Brian Ogle, Andy Wilson and Richard Crothers

No faffing about and dive over by 10.30. Went for a trip down to Port Muck in the boat to explore cliffs. Back to Whitehead for a fry up and home for lunch time.

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Met at Groomsport @ 8:30am and kicked of about 9:10am, the weather was ideal for the 22 mile crossing to the coast of Scotland; almost flat calm all the way there and back

We put the shot on the wreck Halaberry the first time and waited for slack water.

A fixer line was attached to the wreck and the grapple bagged off. Mark Devereux and myself descended onto the wreck, the vis was superb 8-10m couldn't believe it, lots of jelly fish on the way down. We went of in a northerly direction inside a piece of the wreck as you could see through to the opening some distance away. She was in 48m of water, we got 45m recorded. We worked our way along the outside of the wreck and back up to the shot line. Lots of shoals of fish, a few large crabs and some wrasse. Back onboard we decided to go to Portpatrick for lunch, it was very busy today being Father's Day lots of ribs and cruisers in the harbour and Harley Davidsons cruised the small harbour road all afternoon. The pics will tell no lies that we all enjoyed ourselves today. Thanks to Mark for getting the drinks in and good luck on the rest of your instructors coarse and thanks to George for doing boat cover a nice smooth ride all the way. Once again thanks Brian for a great days diving, can't wait till the next one.

SUNDAY 22 JUNE - BELFAST LOUGH (Report by Marie Wallace)

All three Club boats were out today, launching from Groomsport.  The Viking was marshalled by Brian Hayes

The Club was joined on the dive by members of Trinity SAC, who had brought their own boat.  The Humber and Tempress were marshalled by Mark Palmer.  Boat handlers were Brian McIlroy, Mark McKeag and Sabine Ponater.  Divers were Mark Palmer, Brian McIlroy, Mark McKeag, Sabine Ponater, Marie Wallace, Richard Crothers, Davey Bird and Liam Doherty.  Met at 9.00 at Groomsport, and headed across Belfast Lough for the Chirripo at Blackhead.  Sea conditions were excellent for the crossing.  Divers in the water by 10.30 am.  Water temperature 11°C, slack water.  Viz excellent.  Back to Groomsport for 1.00 pm, followed by usual "Big Fry". 

SATURDAY 28 JUNE - GUNS ISLAND (Report by Marie Wallace)

Met at Strangford at 9.30 am.  Dive was marshalled by Mark McKeag, Brian McIlroy was assistant marshal.  Two boats, the Humber (boat handler, Brian McIlroy) and the Tempress (boat handler, Eddie Matchett.  Ten divers, 6 in Tempress and 4 in Humber.  Weather and tides were excellent to do the Bangor and Gun's Island.  Frank Patterson, Mark Devereux, Alan Cunningham, Mark McKeag and Brian McIlroy dived the Bangor and reported excellent visibility.  Guns Island was dived by Marie Wallace, Richard Crothers, Geoff McCartney, Mark McKeag, Alan Cunningham, Brian McVeigh.  Excellent dive, good visibility, shoals of fish.  Back to Strangford for approx 1.00 pm.

Diving trip to Downings, Co. Donegal, 22 – 24 August 2003 (pics in September 2003)

The Irish Coastline, over 3,000 miles long, is washed by some of the clearest seas in Europe. Donegal has some of the most varied. You will find many miles of beaches and their arresting contrast of blue, white surf and pale sands. Downings on Sheephaven Bay is a fine example of this.

FRIDAY

After a quiet night we had breakfast and made our way down to the slip in Downings. We launched Eric and had look around the bay for some of the dive sites we had been told about by the local divers, including the 100m cavern at Horn Head, here we snorkelled with a Sunfish for 30 minutes; he was huge, very friendly and over 1m in height. They can grow over 4m and weigh up to a tonne. So ours was a wee one.

Why do we find species like the sunfish in Donegal waters? Well, Ireland's climate may give mixed summer weather, but because the sea on the west coast, benefits from the warming influence of the North Atlantic Drift, unusual warm-water species like the sunfish often turn up. But Ireland's shores are near the divide between the cooler north Atlantic waters and the southern influence and they accommodate many cold water species also. In all, over 80 species can be seen in the waters off Donegal. One good reason to dive here.   After our encounter Brian fished for mackerel until we caught enough for the BBQ.

George, Nicola, Brian, Kai and I gathered a around the BBQ, helping our selves to the mackerel, some salad and baked potatoes. Roger Frew and Brian McVeigh just arrived with the curry for the evening and the meat for the BBQ on Sunday night. After most people arrived we made our way to the Harbour Bar, a traditional pub with decked terrace over looking the bay. Mark palmer and John Chambers then joined us..

SATURDAY

Brian McVeigh is the chef in the kitchen and everyone else is mucking in. Within 20 minutes everyone’s queuing up with their plastic plates for a fry to die for, what a way to start the day. Neville, Jenny, Alan and Mark Dev have arrived ready for a great days diving. We rustled up a load of sandwiches and fruit for the boats to keep us going for the day.

Nev, Mark Palmer, John Chambers, Mark Dev, Alan and Brian Hayes as boat cover on Eric. Everyone had a great dive on the bow towards midships where the gun is, the wreck was teaming with fish life and 20m viz.

An impressive cavern from the surface, the rock was polished along the sides; the bottom had boulders and stones with a few fish around, a lobster and a nice reef with lots of life below the kelp.

Roger, Kai, Brian McVeigh, myself and George as boat cover on the Tempress make our way to Frenchman’s Rock to dive the Caliope a Greek ship, which was torpedoed by a submarine in 1943. We dropped in to 20 m and made our way along the reef down to 28m the wreck is spread out; this dive is teaming with life and 15 m viz. Lots of jewel anemones, dead men’s fingers, plumose anemones, sea squirts, cuckoo wrasse, ballan wrasse, pollock in shoals. In the crevices scorpion fish lie still and few lobsters in the cavities between boulders.

In the dive interval we snorkelled in the cove with a hidden beach on the west side of Horn Head, Brian and I recovered a few hard buoys from the beach. We shared sandwiches for lunch before making way to the cavern for the afternoon dive.

Roger, Brian and I dropped into 18m and finned for about 7 mins into the cavern until the boulder coke at the end. The rock was polished along the sides; the bottom had boulders and stones with a few fish around.

After the dive we fished for a while, after catching a few mackerel we made our way back to the pier. The pier was so busy we had to queue to get the trailer down the slip to retrieve the boat. Roger and I collected all the bottles for Sunday’s dives and returned to Downings to wait for Kevin the local guy who operates the compressor. Everyone was sharing stories from the days diving. We made our way to Sheephaven sub aqua club to pump cylinders from the air bank for the 1.5 hours. Back at the house the curry was being served up with rice and Nan bread buffet style and the rest of the crew arrived back with sunburnt faces. The food was great and a few of us walked down to the shore at the end of the lane to watch the sunset. The rest of the evening was filled with diver videos projected onto the wall and another visit to the Harbour Bar for an evening of music sessions, hen parties and crack.

Sunday

Judy and Nicola are in the around the cooker with 12 divers in undersuits running around. After a large breakfast we made a few sandwiches for the days diving. Sabine and Geoff just arrived ready for a great days diving, the weather is perfect and glorious bright day. Sabine, Geoff, Nev and I are in Eric. On the way out of the bay we see more Sunfish, but no friendly ones.

Nev and Geoff had a great dive with a good bottom time decompressing on Nitrox. Sabine and I had a non stop dive for 12 mins. A great dive with 20m viz lots of fish, bow section, midships, large gun and another Sunfish above my head halfway through the dive.

Everyone dropped into 20m and made our way into the cavern, 10 mins to reach the end, about 15m vis, couple of lobsters, but well protected within the boulders.

Brian, Roger and George as boat cover made their way out with us to dive a wreck in 20m of rocks Tranarossan bay.

Roger, Brian and I dropped into 20m and finned for about 10 mins into the cavern until the boulder coke at the end. The rock was polished along the sides; the bottom had boulders, two lobsters and plenty of fish around.

Sunday night

Tonight is BBQ night; we have guests arriving to join us. Michael McVeigh the local skipper local diving/ fishing charter who has B&B, cottages 100 yards down the road. Dave Rigg established technical diver from the north of England, Kim Cox and family and two friends I am sailing with tomorrow. Good food, more diving videos and another stunning sunset.

Judy and I would like to thank LSAC for joining us on our first weekend and making the adventure bigger and better. The weather was superb, with calm seas. We had 28 guests over 5 days and most stayed, everyone seemed to have a great time.