Harlow 141’ers Go Up North

Thanks to some fine planning by Stuart Crump (your new Equipment Officer – whoo whoo) the following 141’ers ventured to the Farnes for 3 days diving aboard Farne Diver skippered by Lee Hall – and it wasn’t without incident or good humour.

Jim Ridings, Lynda Westall, Stuart, Tracy and Lorna Crump, Roy White, Alan Harman, Steve and Shelley Mortimer, Monika Krojenska, Chris Shorter, Mal Yeldham and Angela Shaw.

After a 5 hour drive many of the 141’ers reached parts of the country previously unchartered where ferrets, flatcaps, pigeons and seals abound, arriving at the welcoming Craster Arms and rooms at Hall Towers.  On signing in Monika had to explain that she wasn’t dyslexic and that being Polish it is normal for your surname to be a random jumble of letters.  Tracy still had dribble on her face following her long sleep.

Day 1 got off to a fine start with the 141’ers staring at their black pudding in St Abba’s house and looking forward to dives on Blue Caps and the fine wreck of the Somali.   Blue Caps proved to be the ideal shake down dive with Lynda experiencing the sea for the first time on her rebreather.  Ange had become bored with her mask and threw it over the side at the earliest opportunity  - perhaps with the events that followed she would have been better hanging on to it.   An afternoon dive on the Somali (at 29m) was the first deepish wreck dive for some as the fairly dark descent gave way to reasonable 5m vis.   On seeing the cooling unit, Roy shivered at the thought of days gone by and his “Corky White” award.  The “rummagers” came up with bottles and jars (Tracy thought about cleaning her own finds but didn’t recognise the washing up brush) while the “tourers” like me explored the wreck and saw the gun.  Unfortunately two “corkers” came up so quickly that deco stops were missed, the O2 was out and the coastguard called – their diving was over and a helicopter flight, deco chamber and a train ride took the place.  All turned out well but many lessons were learned.  Back at the Craster Arms we were treated to an escapologist from “Britain’s Got Talent” – he was obviously an early casualty of the voting system but at least he was entertaining.   The last time I saw an escapologist in was Dublin and his skeleton has recently been uncovered from a locked box

Day 2 started with a sail North to the wreck of the Acclivity (more room on the boat today), a small tanker lying in ~30m close to Craster.  A very scenic dive and good vis made it a pleasant dive.   The wreck novices had learned from Day 1 and although Lorna kept holding Roy’s hand she was gaining in confidence.   Chris and Steve had bonded and were sharing the experience, Alan was getting a tune out of our Monika, Lynda and Jim were rebreathing together, Stuart and Tracy were looking crump’led and Shelly was at Banborough (never was good with a compass).    Dive 2 took us to South Crump’stone (previously Crumbstone) for interaction with the seals – I sat this one out as the rebreather became allergic to the thought of being bitten by a seal and flooded itself.   Stuart was sure he had seen a letter “C” on the backside of one of the seals – perhaps it was a ‘C’rump sighting.   The 141’ers were in their element diving with the natives. Back at the Craster Arms Chris had been reunited with Mal (Steve having returned to Shelly).  Their friendship was clear to see and the ordering of Ginger Sponge for desert sets tongues a wagging but talk of breasts, syrups and private parts soon took over as sides began to split with laughter.   Streak was eaten by most.  Apparently one of the waitresses asked Stuart if he was Sir Loin but it was only a hanky in his pocket.  

Day 3 saw us on Longstone Rock (with the lighthouse) and what fantastic scenery. White plumose anemones and yellow sponges carpeted everywhere and schools of small herring were everywhere.   It was like fantasy world – a bit like this report.   Roy came back with a big crab (and Lorna), Chris came back with a big lummox, Alan came back with our Monika smiling from ear to ear, Jim and Lynda were still rebreathing (same old air from Friday – like Robinson’s Crusoe’s pubes) and the crumps had a pet (no not crumpet – a small lobster !).  Back to Crumpstone for dive 2 then kit away and the journey home. 

Thanks again to Stuart for a great trip

All the best

Jim R