The Sound of Mull
on Gaelic Rose
by Phil Leigh

Looking forward to a great weekend Dave and I made good speed up to Glasgow and then down the "A" roads to Oban. We set off at 5:00PM and arrived at 10:30PM to unload our kit onto The Gaelic Rose and then had a few pints at the Oban Inn where we met up with the rest of the club.
A few more pints later we made our way onto the boat, or was it jumped our way onto the boat. Ged, Colm, and Rob were up for a curry or a burger from a van in town.

After a good sleep we were given the days agenda and started to get kitted up for our first dive of the weekend. A small delay before we departed Oban, as a service was being held on a boat next to us for a local dive-skipper who had sadly died. Bob had joined in the service and we all looked on as the bagpiper played as they set off from the pier for the last time for the skipper.

At the first dive of the day, Dave, Ged and myself got ready to dive on "The Breda" wreck. It was a bit rough as Bob told us to jump in and swim to the shot-line where we met up with Rachael and Mark. Mark's mask strap had snapped and he was in a bit of trouble so he decided to get back on board and try later. Dave gave us the OK and thumbs down and we descended onto the top deck of the wreck. Viz was OK but we all stayed close to Dave.
A few minutes into the dive and Ged swam up to us, his mask strap had also broken, but lucky for him (and having heard a few stories from JU) he had a spare mask in his stab pocket. Ged’s not only happy with just diving, he wants to do mask clearing drills all the time as well, which he did very well. Can see why we do all the training now.
Panic over and after touring through the wreck we made our way back to the shot line to make our way back up and to the ladder of the boat. You need to be pretty fit to pull yourself back on board, or it must have been the smell of breakfast and a hot cup of tea that Nicki had waiting for us after the first dive
Ian had a problem with his neck seal on his dry suit and needed some hasty repairs, that or share Carol’s dry suit all weekend, but that was a bit tight for him. A few hours rest allowed repairs to take place, breakfast to go down and allow our surface interval time to increase as we crossed over and up The Sound of Mull.

Second dive and same buddies. Diving a wall near Loch Ailine we descended to 25m and followed Dave along the wall. The viz was not too good and we turned to go with the drift. I took the lead, or more like I ended up in front. Dave indicated he wanted me to fin harder, which I did. I looked round again and both Ged and Dave gave me some other hand signal (this one not in the training manual !). I got the gist of this one, what Dave was saying was don't fin, just let the drift take you. Sorry boys!

That was the first day over and after Bob had moored up to a tanker ship at Loch Ailine sand pier we had our evening meal and made our way to the local social club. With TSAC and the locals there we had a party. Well not quite. After a few more pints and a friendly game of pool we made our way back to The Gaelic Rose. Cheese and biscuits were waiting for us and also a little copper pipe. This had a little fan built into it and the idea was to blow into the pipe and make the fan go round or get covered in talc. Mark was up for being first to succeed - seven blows later and looking like a snowman he had mastered the art of the pipe.

Sunday morning started with a bang ! Several in fact. The tanker ship we were moored next to was loading sand and the top covers were being removed to load the cargo. Well it got us up anyway for an early morning dive on "The Rondo". By 09:30 that morning we were down onto the stern of "The Rondo" at 6 metres. Descending to 29 metres, viz was pretty good and there was plenty of marine life on view. Met up with a 2nd diving party and we threaded our way round their dive line and moved into clearer waters. From the prop shaft we ascended up the line to meet with Bob’s boat. We boarded the boat for a welcome cup of tea and and a bacon butty.

After a short trip back down The Sound of Mull we arrived for our final dive of the weekend. The task was to find some scallops. Dave told me what they looked like and we jumped overboard with our goody bags. At 15 metres we arrived at the sandy plains of our hunting ground. Dave pointed to what we were looking for and after 20 minutes and alot of hard work for Dave pulling the bag around we arranged our ascent. I sent up my delayed SMB but things went wrong and I sent it up without holding the dive reel....oops. Dave sent his up and promptly handed over our swag bag to me to lift up.

Great end to a brilliant well organised weekend. My thanks go out to Rachael for organising the trip, Dave for driving and diving with me and to Bob and Nicki for doing a good job and having a brilliant boat.

Many thanks to TSAC for making it a great year to remember for all the new divers.

Phil Leigh, TSAC Sports Diver
Trafford Sub Aqua Club www.traffordsubaqua.freeserve.co.uk


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