Manta Abroad - The Galápagos Islands
Curacao: the perfect diving spot for family men…and family women
L’Estartit - Land of the Octopus!!
A Fistful Of Rashers… Plymouth 11/12 MAY 2002
Thames Rib Trip 22/23rd Feb 03
Take half day off work and meet the gang at Heathrow. Paul late, much nashing of teeth. Leave his ticket at the Air Malta counter. Terminal 4 is not the largest of Duty Free shopping areas, but there's just enough time to grab beer and Nachos.
Air Malta... hmmm. Apparently somebody complained about the lads reading Maxim, and a air-steward said the the mag' could be confiscated in Malta cos of the naughty pictures. Heavy stuff! Food was average, and God's Teeth, they allow smoking on board!
Nice of them to give a bus for the 50 yard walk off the runway. Paul gets stopped by customs. Turn right and go straight to bar. Just enough time for a couple of beers, and time to run next door to check in the bags for the helicopter ride.
The helicopter had been chartered especially for us. Good job too, it meant less delay. George met us with his truck and 2 jeeps at the heliport. Fifteen minutes later we were unloading gear and finding our rooms.
Breakfast at the pavement cafe. (It's cheaper than self-catering, and nicer.)
In pole position; Flat 3
Cloning their Manta-Gozo T-shirts, Flat 5 take second place.
Setting a trend for the whole holiday, Flat 7 are late.
12 clock: Time to sort out diving permits. Trainee divers and above have to have a permit (Maltese £2) if they dive without an instructor. Permits require a medical certificate. Instructors can buy a permit for £4. So, don't sign up those qualification books until after the trip.
We managed 2 dives; the western jetty in Marsalforn Bay ,and Xwieni Bay .
Settling into our routine. Flat 7 are late.
0915 - collect cylinders, 0930 - load gear, 0945 - install breakfast. But in the end, we're so late getting underway that we have only enough time to dive the Blue Hole before cylinders have to be returned.
So, it's 17 divers, one passenger, 34 cylinders and a whole load of dive gear... where we going to put it?
Check out the route to the Inland Sea, grab an ice cream, and head back to Marsalforn. It's time we introduced the novices to night diving.
1700hrs: Auntie Donna gets us all organised by changing the plan a couple of times, and wakes me up to say so. I go see if I can change the plan again. I can't. Too many women involved and all the blokes have given up.
2000hrs: We're on the quay waiting to get in the water. I discover that if you park on the quay, you can climb over the harbour wall via some steps and enter the water easily next to a ladder which can be used for getting out too. (I'm lying. I discovered it 11 years ago.)
Very weedy dive. Forgot to charge torch (240v, UK style 3-pin plugs). I recall a rectangular navigation exercise I did in 1987, and now I repeat it with 3 other divers. "Can't fault your navigation! Absolutely spot on. How do you do it?" hmmm...
First of 3 days on the boat. The plan is to load up in the harbour, meanwhile the shoppers collect breakfast which we will eat on the boat. BUT... the weather has blown up. A northerly wind knocks out most of the dives in the north and west of the island. The skipper has departed for the south already. Panic! Time to change the plan (we're good at that bit) and luckily spot our Maltese man as we drive out towards Mgarr. He's just finished moving the boat and wants his breakfast. He'll meet us at the ferry port at 10:00 - 10:30 ish.
This a prime opportunity for plan changing. Flat 5 did the shopping, Flat 7 still aren't awake, and Flat 3 opt for the cafe. This latter action is the equivalent of hitting an anti-personnel mine with a hammer.
Small explosions and aftershocks are heard for the next 30 minutes.
1030: We're at the boat, but the skipper is late. He arrives. We load the food, we load the cylinders, we load the gear, we're missing the bog roll. The toilets at the Mgarr ferry terminal are very clean and tidy. Probably due to the lack of bog roll.
Auntie Donna has bought a book about Maltese dive sites, as featured in Diver magazine. (Great pictures and detailed explanation, shame about the accuracy.) We choose a dive we've never heard of before and ended up having a very long swim. Lantern Point
One of the most memorable things about the Easter 98 trip to Looe was the weather. Throughout the weekend it either rained a gale, blew a blizzard or snowed a storm. Now and then, we had glorious sunshine and blue sky.
Another factor we won't forget was the traffic. It took 3 hours to drive from Balham to Didcot and another 5 hours to get to Looe. This should be a 4-hour journey. At least the bar was still open when we got there!
The most notable event of the weekend was the first non-trial (by a few minutes) open sea use of a rebreather by a club member. We learned just how long it takes to put the Atlantis together (complete with deco and bailout cylinders), and how unpleasant a caustic cocktail tastes!
We dived the James Egan Layne, the Rosehill, Rayne Head, the Mew Stone, Udder Rock and the Kanton.
James Egan Layne (23m-6m)
The JEL is not the wreck it used to be. Much of the hull has collapsed on top of the cargo and effectively hidden what is below. It is likely that the debris below is still unstable and it would be foolhardy to try to go deeper at this stage. The stern is continuing to open and reveal its structure making it a better dive. The stern can be found 10-20m WSW of the aft-most section of the hull. The bow still stands proud and is also exposing more of its interior. The midsection still has a few lofty ribs supporting the old decks beams, but these look very precarious. There are now areas which were not apparent previously, but on the whole the wreck is not as good as it was.
Rosehill (25m-20m)
A very flat wreck, the hull having collapsed inwards and covering the interior. Some railings still standing proud of the seabed mark the bow, the stern still lies on its side rising to a height of about 5m. Behind it lies the large rudder, and nearby a gun has fallen to the seabed. The skipper will normally shot the 2 large boilers which are home to conger eels.
The Grapevine: Good service and good food but a little pricey (£35 including wine).
The Cellar and Loft: Good food but poor service. But to be fair they are under new management and a man banged his head on the stairs.
The Golden Guinea: Good food and good service very well priced (£25 each including 96 Chateau Neuf du Pape)
We stayed at the Portbyham Hotel (£19.45 pp) which has the smallest lift in the world. If you don't know the other passenger intimately when you get into the lift, you will by the time you get out. There is a liberal scattering of model aircraft reminiscing about RAF days gone by.
Some rooms are a bit small with nowhere to put gear, but others OK. Our bed was comfy, but I can't vouch for the others. All rooms en-suite, but what they mean is that there is a walk-in wardrobe which has been converted to toilet and shower. In fact our Kiwi couple didn't find it for 2 days!
The hotel bar is a bit iffy; no real beers, lots of smoke, and the occasional Karaoke night or strange old geezer "on keyboard". Breakfast a bit mixed. No brown bread and cold hot cross buns. The hotel scores 7 on a "yes, OK, we'd go back but we don't mind looking elsewhere" basis.
The " Looe Divers " shop is friendly and eager to please. The boss does his best to encourage everybody to be where they should be as soon as possible, but his crew seems sadly lacking in co-operative skills. The Land Rover gets in the way of the Transit then the Transit gets in the way of the Rib trailer. Cylinders all attempt to get on the wrong vehicle and the kit gets parked as far from the boat as possible. Then everyone has a long conversation about it. Stray nitrox cylinders follow you around all weekend. All this confusion is achieved at a phenomenally slow rate earning the shop the Manta's highest merit award for Advanced Technical Faffing.
The shop is reasonably well equipped, especially on the technical front. Nitrox is virtually the norm. There are changing rooms, hot showers, and lock-up cages for storing gear overnight.
Parking in Looe is atrocious, and the marauding traffic wardens roam in packs of three. Parking can be achieved eventually, but once parked it is tempting to leave the car where it is and to walk to the dive shop.
Morning Glory (skipper Dave) is a largish offshore boat with plenty of deck space. It still rigged for fishing. Dave has been skippering divers since early 1997 and it still shows. Hot tea is a once a day rarity, and his site knowledge is a bit lacking. Nevertheless, he's a pleasant chap as yet ungrumbled by exposure to divers. The dive ladder bends in the middle to allow the boat to travel, but makes it insecure for climbing. It also needs a spine at the top so that the diver can support him/herself whilst swinging a leg into the boat. The boat rocks quite badly when beam-on to the sea, this lifts the ladder up and down quite violently.
Sea Urchin (skipper Malley) The boat has much less deck space but makes up for it with a warm cabin. Malley is an experienced dive skipper, with cheerful nature and eager attitude.
The tidal river restricts dive timings severely. This is a major disadvantage of diving from Looe. Planning of dive sites is critically important due to the short window during which the boats can return to their berths and the time of slack water. If the distance and dive duration are too great, then the boat must wait until the tide flows again and provides enough water to get back in. For example; we boarded by 0700, dived, and returned at1015. If we had tried to fit in another dive, we would have had to wait until 1615 to unload the boat.
Note that the boats berth on the east side of the river, but usually board divers on the west side. Meanwhile the tide is running out. On return, the boat may be forced to let the diver off on the east side. Guess where your car is?
Chris Owen
A 2-3 day trip to West Wales over the weekend of 26th/27th/28th April. Donna organised.
Well, this was a mixed bag indeed! Steve's Lewis's catamaran turned out to be a little bit bigger than a large RIB. You can fit 8 divers on board, but she sinks low in the water, can't get on the plane, and can submerge the stern (including outboard engines!) if you all stand at the back. It would be better to restrict this boat to 6 divers, which would make her safer and much much faster. Cabin space and shelter is limited, more like a double telephone box. No room for toilet, stove etc, so treat this like a RIB; kit up before you go, and take a flask with hot drink. She was a very new boat and Steve was still finding out what she can and cannot do. The whole back-board between the transoms lifts out to provide easy access, but the ladder is just a removable step and I suspect that a decent twinset and curry would soon rip it off.
Steve's a nice guy, but he misses some of the finer points of dive-skippering, he's too ready to sit and chat, and does not keep watch. Loading is just like a waterbourne RIB, wade in and throw it onboard. There is a floating jetty which should make it easier when it's in position. Steve can be reached on 01437 781569
Air supplies from either West Wales Divers or St Davids. We found WWD to be rude and unhelpful. (I think ownership has now changed). They could not fill our tanks until 1:30pm despite publishing and opening time of 10am. The owner wanted to use silicon grease on gear which had been O2 cleaned, and did not know what "clean" equipment means. The St Davids shop was helpful operation, but is a long drive through narrow country lanes. They stay open until 8pm and supply nitrox. I'm afraid I can't recommend their "restaurant" or their beer!
There's a good slipway where Steve loads the boat. Local accomodation is B&B at reasonable prices. No problems. Pubs are OK and food is available most of the time.
Day dive on hard-boat from Shoreham (sort of Brighton area). John Thomas organised.
An excellent trip for the novices! Two dives at 13m and 15m, first on the Miown, more like a skip and a pile of rubble than a wreck, but the VIZ! Wow! 15-20metres at least. Fleets of Bib swimming around us. Next we drifted down a rock-fault, about 3ft high with lots of holes for crabs and lobsters. Saw a really big lobby, must be 20years old at least.
The "Colgan" is an old 10.5m day-tripper with excellent cabin space and shelter. She may look a bit ragged, but she's a very good divers' boat. A locker for 2nd tanks, sun-deck on top of the cabin, wobbly spine ladder (to be fixed) and a diving platform on the stern. There's plenty of space, there's privacy in the foreward cabin, and a proper ships head (the loo). Spike, the skipper, says he will be replacing the engine this year to improve on his top wack 11 knots. He's a good skipper and controls the divers without being grumpy. Loading is difficult from the quay at Shoreham, with gear being lowered down on ropes. The tide varies 7m at worst, and the boat needs to load/unload about 1 hour either side of low water, or choose an even more difficult wharf. We found viz of 15-20m (!!!) 4miles off shore.
Last Edited 03/03/2003