Doune Bay, Knoydart, Scotland

"Wot, No Whales?"

by Jules Kelley

Twelve intrepid members of Leamington and Warwick SAC met up on August 16th 2003, to spend a "sunny" weeks diving at Doune Bay in Scotland. Some were to be found enjoying their first pint in the Mariners Arms (that’s a pub by the way, not a Scottish trawlerman) while others had already over indulged the night before in Fort William. Our skipper Andy soon arrived alongside with dive boat "Mary Doune" and a large human chain was formed to get bottles, bags, boxes, boots and booze all safely aboard. And with the sun shining down on us things started as they meant to go on with Emma handing round tinnies of beer as we made the short 20-minute trip over to Doune Bay itself.

With all baggage transferred onto "Kermit", the amphibious version of a luggage trolley, we all settled into our "Big Brother" style house and adjusted to the no TV or mains electricity life. As the midges realised that fresh meat had arrived some hardened folks took to a swim in the sea while the smokers believed a haze of nicotine might keep them at bay!
We had all heard of the fine cuisine to be had while at Doune and Ashley took full advantage of every course, such was his keenness that he managed to scoff all of his first night pudding before the cream was served......ooops, he didn’t make that mistake again though.

Unfortunately all the fine weather we had been enjoying did not stay with us and we had a week of rainy showers and strong winds. The first day we ventured close to home in Loch Nevis and had a couple of nice easy shakedown dives and a chance to practice getting in the water from the boat, no easy task. Nick, Rose, Shaun and Ashley all proved the forward "Splat!" was not a good way to go, but Martin and David’s "Just fall in" approach seemed to work best.

Our surface interval was spent at Inverie Bay, this is a tiny little settlement but boasts Britain’s most remote pub, as certified by the Guinness Book of Records.

Day 2 and the weather again keeps us in the local vicinity of Loch Hourn but plenty of scenic diving to enjoy on the walls. As we headed for home the sea state had deteriorated as we left the shelter of the Loch, and a lumpy trip back was either endured or enjoyed depending on ones stomach! Back in the Big Brother house there was time to recover before dinner with a cold beer or glass of wine and a chance to write up the logs. Some of the girlies found solace in a jigsaw which Martin deemed impossible to finish before Friday......the gauntlet was down! Nick "The Builder" Pain spent his apre-diving time creating great stone cairns on the beach, damming up the burn and he even found a bucket and spade to make a succession of castles in the sand.

By Wednesday a small window of opportunity had appeared and we decided to make a dash for one of the Inner Isles. Everyone had hoped to be out on the likes of Muck, Eigg and Skye itself, but hey this is Scotland and you have to take what you get, so to Canna we braved as it has a sheltered harbour. The journey was fairly smooth and Carol was posted as official whale spotter, but only a few porpoises were seen. Martin's big selling point for the trip when recruiting wannabes was that this was whale watching and Basking Shark season. Fantastic opportunity we all thought and Marie was particularly excited about the chance of seeing some.

The carnivores in our group had happily collected crabs during their dives and we had enjoyed the fruit of our labours at the previous evening’s dinner. But scallops were also in abundance and our hungry team had accumulated a nice goody bag full. The next morning we arrived at the pier to meet the boat and Andy says he’s got some bad news for us waving a frayed piece of rope. We all look back at said rope rather puzzled......then the penny drops, "Oh no the scallops!!!!!" The strong wind in the night had worn through it on the edge of the boat and our feast was lost! But have no fear for Dave "Jackstay search" Bricknell seized the opportunity to brush up his teaching skills as he prepares for his Advanced Instructor exam.

So fresh back from a days diving the "willing" volunteers prepared for a third plunge and Dave guided his four man team on a huge and wobbly circular search in the vicinity of the boat's mooring line. Emma found the whole experience very hard work as she towed outside man Ashley round and round, and to no avail, the scallops could not be found. It took skipper Andy just five minutes later on that evening to pick them up and reunite them with us......well Dave had narrowed his search area down!!!!

The days passed by though and we had to settle for more loch dives, still no Sharks or Whales, plenty of wind and rain. Marie was getting ever more concerned and told Martin he would have to swim across the bay in the buff as a forfeit if she did not see any! Rose had cunningly taken the day off from diving too and finished the "impossible" jigsaw in good time, it was looking like a double forfeit for our intrepid Martin.

Friday came all too soon and the last two dives of the week. Some of us took the opportunity to do the "Kyle Rhea" drift on the Sound of Sleat: this was very exhilarating despite it running at about five knots instead of it’s usual eight! Then up to the new Skye bridge and the wreck of "Port Napier", this was superb and a nice dive to finish on.

Our final evening was spent with a bonfire on the beach, built by Nick of course, who scoured the shores for suitable combustibles, and then we awoke in the morning to crystal clear skies and the sea like glass......a sign we were heading home!

As Nick Bird put it in the visitors book... "Never, in the field of meteorology, has so much fun been had by so many, in so few hours of sunshine." Martin never did make that swim either...

Leamington and Warwick Sub Aqua Club


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