News from Lochaline Dive Centre

updated March 2008

Lochaline Dive Centre Wildlife Holidays (from Winter 2008)

As many of our customers will know the Sound of Mull is not just a fantastic place to come diving, the landscape and scenery around Morvern is spectacular and adds a great deal to the sense of place and escapism from every day life that you get when you come here. With this in mind we have tapped into some local knowledge and put together some wonderful wildlife holidays that you can enjoy throughout the year, either as an addition to a diving trip, something for a non-diving partner or your family to do whilst you’re out diving, or just as a wildlife holiday in itself. The holidays will be land based primarily but will include boat excursions.

Our wildlife guide Steve Hardy has worked on various bird reserves and observatories in Norfolk and as a Species Protection Warden on the Isle of Mull, monitoring Sea and Golden Eagles. He has worked as a Field Assistant for BBC wildlife cameramen, working on Natural History programs about eagles and otters, and has traveled widely among the Scottish Islands.

Currently Steve is the Warden at the Rahoy Hills Wildlife Reserve (Scottish Wildlife Trust) where he monitors birds, butterflies, rare plant species and the affects of grazing on woodland and upland habitats. Steve has had plenty of experience in taking members of the public and school children on guided walks observing wildlife.

Wildlife holidays at Lochaline Dive Centre are all inclusive with accommodation at the Old Post Office (situated on the West Pier in Lochaline), which has lovely sea views from most windows. All meals are provided. The wildlife holidays will run from Sundays – Fridays during the Autumn, Winter and Spring months and range from 3 to 5 day trips. The course numbers are limited to 6 and off-road transport is provided to get access to some of the more remote areas. Boat trips are also provided and (weather permitting) will include a stop in Tobermory, Mull.

So....enjoy a peaceful & tranquil break exploring the wildlife of Morvern, Lochaline and the Sound of Mull with Steve as your local guide. You will track along Lochaline from Artornish, explore Ardtornish Bay, Loch Tearnait and the Black Glen, enjoy Forestry walks at Innimore village and Savary and visit the Rahoy Reserve. Further afield you will be taken by vehicle along Lochshore of Loch Aline, Loch Arienas and Loch Doire Na Mast and by hard boat out onto the Sound Of Mull.

Whilst a general level of fitness will be necessary - all activities will be conducted at a leisurely pace and tailored to suit any particular group.

All inclusive prices for the wildlife holidays are £350 per person for the 3 day trip and £500 per person for the 5 day trip.

For more information either call 01967421627 or email lochaline.divecentre@virgin.net or simply watch this space: a dedicted section of this Dive Centre website will be turned over to the wildlife excursions in the near future.

Lochaline Dive Centre now offers catering!

The Dive Centre now offers catering for its guests, with full cooked breakfasts and evening meals. Avoid the hassle of bringing all your own food with you, get out of bed just that little bit later to enjoy a cooked breakfast and return from a days diving safe in the knowledge you don't have spend time cooking (for yourself or everyone else). The arrangements are flexible though to allow you to self cater if you wish to and also enjoy a night out at the Lochaline Hotel or the wonderful Whitehouse Restaurant next door to the Centre.

Prices are £30 Dinner Bed and Breakfast, or £18 Bed & Breakfast. We do require warning for the larger groups, so please call 01967 421627 in advance if you require catering. Sample menus can be provided.

 

ADUS surveys the Hispania, Sound of Mull

In addition to running the Dive Centre with his partner Annabel, Mark is also a co-director of research group called ADUS, jointly based at the Universities of Dundee and St Andrews, and specialising in high resolution sonar surveys of shipwrecks. ADUS has just become a 'spin-out' company with both Universities retaining a stake in ADUS Ltd. In July last year ADUS surveyed a sunken Russian nuclear submarine for the Salvage and Marine Operations team of the Ministry of Defence, with whom the ADUS surveyed the Royal Oak in 2006. The submarine, K159, lies at a depth of 250m in the Barents Sea. ADUS' most recent work has included the survey of a large cargo vessel lying at the bottom of the Malacca Straits, south of Melaka, Malaysia, which is presently a hazard to shipping. The vessel, MV California, is about to be salvaged by Mammoet, a large Dutch salvage company, with whom ADUS hopes to undertake more 'pre-salvage' wreck surveys in the future. In February ADUS, in association with Salvage & Marine Operations, surveyed the protected wreck of the Campania in the Firth of Forth. Campania is an example of the very small number of vessels converted to interim aircraft carriers to support seaborne flying operations before the construction of the first purpose designed aircraft carrier. On 5th November 1918 she sank after collisions with the anchored Glorious and Royal Oak when her moorings broke in a gale during fleet exercises in the Forth.

More details of the work undertaken by ADUS and more images can be seen at www.adus.org.uk and www.wrecksight.com where you can download 3D viewing software and a dataset of the Brummer, one of the German wrecks at Scapa Flow. At some point very soon many more images and datasets will be available to download, including that of the Hispania (below). The Hispania, one of the most popular wreck dives in Scotland, was surveyed in March last year. ADUS image specialist Chris Rowland is currently working on the final visualisations at Dundee University's Centre for Digital Imaging.

 

Designated Historic Wreck visits

Mark and Annabel are the 2008 Licensees for the three Designated Historic Wrecks in the Sound of Mull - the 5th rate frigate Dartmouth, and the 17th Century wrecks off Duart Castle and Mingary Castle. The Dive Centre runs a visitor scheme whereby divers can visit these protected wrecks themselves.

For further information and details about the historic wreck visits please e-mail lochaline.divecentre@virgin.net or call 01967 421627.

 

SOMAP 2008

Lochaline Dive Centre: June 2008

The Sound of Mull Archaeological Project (SOMAP) allows you to participate in state-of-the-art underwater archaeological site investigation, using a full range of remote sensing equipment and diver surveys for archaeological assessment and evaluation tasks. SOMAP 2008 will be following on directly from the successful format started for SOMAP 2006 where participants undertook geophysical surveys using sidescan sonar, magnetometer and interferometric multibeam over of areas of sea-bed in the Sound of Mull. Having post processed the geophysical data themselves, participants then dived on the targets they had identified from the survey and groundtruthed them. One of the more bizarre targets turned out to be a Ford Orion 1.4 LX (late 20th Century vintage!) in the middle of Scallastle Bay - excellent work Barry & Sanford! SOMAPers also made visits to the Designated Wreck at Duart Point and deployed Eric (the ROV) from the shore, undertaking monitoring dives to check the stability of the site. Intrepid SOMAPers also made a trip down Lochaline's famous silica sand mine - with a guide to make sure they made it back for the evening lecture...

More details about SOMAP 2008 will be appearing here soon - in the meantime if you are interested in coming along for SOMAP 2008 please drop us a line or call us. SOMAP 2008 will be running in August - dates to be confirmed.

For further information and details please e-mail lochaline.divecentre@virgin.net or call 01967 421627

More about SOMAP

Dive Centre & Outdoors Explorers now offering PADI courses as well as IANTD...

For 2007 Lochaline Dive Centre will be offering a full range of PADI courses with Outdoor Explorer's Simon Deveau as the main instructor. The Dive Centre had a great write up in this months edition of the Sport Diver, the official PADI magazine, by Patrick Shier. Patrick says that Lochaline offers just as much for less experienced divers above 18m than it does for those wanting much deeper more technical dives. For more information about the PADI courses on offer, please drop us a line on lochaline.divecentre@virgin.net or call 01967 421627.

Since 2006 Lochaline Dive Centre has offered a full range of IANTD technical diver courses from Advanced Nitrox to Full Trimix, open or closed circuit, in association with Outdoor Explorers Ltd. The Sound of Mull and Lochaline in particular offers a unique and stunning location in which to undertake technical diver training. Clear deep water is available in sheltered locations in close proximity to Lochaline itself - even shore-based dives in excess of 90m are possible!

The courses are based in Lochaline, diving within the clear waters of the Sound of Mull on a range of sites (including wrecks), and are priced to include hardboat hire, accommodation (arriving the night before course starts and leaving the morning after it finishes), breakfast, evening meal, diving gas, and all course literature.

The courses are delivered as customised packages to suit the individual needs of those attending and will be strictly limited to a 4:1 instructor:student ratio. Courses can be run with less than four students but this may increase the cost for individual participants.

If you are interested please e-mail lochaline.divecentre@virgin.net or call 01967 421627 for further details.

Course details

Nitrox and Trimix available

We are now able to blend nitrox and trimix for all residents and passing divers. We ask that groups requiring nitrox or helium phone us beforehand so that we can order in your gas supplies as required. All our air is oxygen compatible and tested for purity on a quarterly basis.

Gas prices for 2008 are as follows:

Air*	Cost £
Up to 7 litres	2.00
10/12/15 litres	3.50
Up to 30 litres	7.00

*Oxygen compatible to 300 Bar maximum pressure.

Nitrox	Cost £
22 - 32% up to 7 litres	5.00
22 - 32% 10/12/15 litres	8.00
22 - 32% up to 30 litres	12.00
33 - 40% up to 7 litres	6.00
33 - 40% 10/12/15 litres	11.00
33 - 40% up to 30 litres	18.00
41 - 50% up to 7 litres	8.00
41 - 50% 10/12/15 litres	15.00
41 - 50% up to 30 litres	27.00
> 50%	By arrangement

Trimix *	Cost £
O2	0.0125/ litre used
He	0.02/ litre used
Air top-up	2.00

* by prior arrangement

• All cylinders must be in test (& O₂ clean for nitrox/ trimix)
• All cylinders must be correctly marked for gas requested
• Customers will be asked to sign off the Gas Log for nitrox & trimix fills
• All Nitrox/Trimix Cylinders must be brought along empty (unless previous fill undertaken by Lochaline Dive Centre)
• Proof of Nitrox and or Trimix qualifications will be required