Club trip to Oban Waiting for the Farnes seals
Ah , the club owns a boat then ?
The club has two boats : a Delta X-patrol RIB with an inboard diesel engine and a small Seasearch SIB with a 20hp outboard engine .
What other resources does the club have ?
There are four sets of dedicated pooltraining gear and four more sets of openwater equipment , plus drysuits of various sizes to help our trainees . We hire the local leisure centre pool for an hour each Tuesday evening for try dives , training and recreational swimming . We have a storage facility come boat house within Barrow Port Authority ’ s secure compound , which we rent from the local council . We store our emergency equipment , training kit , compressors and boats there .
So , you are based by the water , do you get to dive there ?
Following several years of lobbying Associated British Ports , the owners of Barrow docks , we have finally been granted permission to dive in an area of the dock system again , in a controlled manner . This has also paved the way for us to carry out Seasearch surveys to evaluate the native and invasive species that inhabit this area .
I hear that the docks have been in the news as a result …
Yes , when we finally got to dive in the docks in April , we were pleased to see the amount and diversity of life in there . Locals were astounded at our photos , which were published by local news outlet The Mail .
Where else does the club dive ?
We are spoilt for choice really . Our base is less than half an hour from most of the English Lakes so members regularly dive in Coniston Water , Windermere , Wastwater Ullswater and Crummock . We can dive in the sea locally , but conditions and visibility are not often the best . Loch Long and Loch Fyne are the nearest sea lochs and we go there to dive on the odd weekend along with visits to Eyemouth and St Abbs . We are not far from Capenwray , which is excellent for training .
What type of diving goes on ?
Mostly we do shore dives on walls and reefs . We occasionally dive from our RIBs , but it is a long way to travel to good diving areas and we find it difficult to find people willing and able to tow the boats , so we tend to have at least one week-long hard boat charter plus a couple of ( long ) weekend charters generally in Scotland . In recent years we have been to Orkney , Mull and Skye . We booked a week ’ s charter around Shetland in 2023 , as well as a long weekend cruising around Mull .
What about diving with a purpose ?
Generally , the club supports recreational diving and Diving For All ; we are always advertising opportunities to dive through our try dive scheme . We have run a number of Seasearch courses and now have a number of qualified Observers and Surveyors . Others support the work of Ghost Fishing UK and Project Sea Grass . We also have a number of trained Marine Life Medics . One or two individuals take part in more technical diving , undertaking serious expeditions that last year included the discovery of HMS Jason off the west coast of Scotland almost 105 years to the day it sank .
28
A journey to Egypt ’ s Deep South
Shane King , 13 , at his first open water dive at Bayliff Wood , Coniston