The new BBC’s Oceans UK series has begun filming with the wreck of the Breda, one of Scotlands most popular dives. Maritime Archaeologist Frank Pope and Explorer Paul Rose dived the Breda from the Dive Centre’s charter boat, Sound Diver, and discussed the extent of the remains of the wreck, and the changes they have noticed since the last time they dived her. The story of the Breda will make up a part of one of the new programs to be aired in 2011. The team made good use of the ADUS survey of the wreck undertaken in February this year in order to plan their dives and understand the current condition of the wreck.

Film crew over the wreck of the Breda

The 2010 Sound of Mull Archaeological Project (SOMAP) is once again underway. This year’s fieldschool includes survey work and excavation on the site of the John Preston. The project has been supported by Historic Scotland and organised by the Nautical Archaeology Society (NAS) and Lochaline Dive Centre in its capacity as one of Scotland’s four NAS regional centres. You can follow what the intrepid Somappers get up to during the fieldschool at www.mullfieldschool2010.blogspot.com

Mary Harvey the NAS Training Officer is undertaking a bike ride from Land’s End to John O’ Groats immediately after SOMAP (where does she get the energy?) so please if you are feeling generous, sponsor her ride at www.justgiving.com/Mary-Harvey

Its also great to have Steve Liscoe here, ex-ADU diver and Mary Rose stalwart, organising the excavation – he dusted off his vintage diving gear specially for the occasion!

Steve Liscoe - Vintage Diver!

Dredging at the bow of the John Preston

Surveying the John Preston

Gin bottle (Dutch)

In the middle of February, ADUS (www.adus-uk.com),using the Dive Centre’s vessel Sound Diver, undertook further trials of a new prototype sonar in association with its manufacturer, Reson. The sonar represents the very latest generation of high resolution multibeam systems and has produced the most detailed images of the wrecks lying in and around the Sound of Mull ever seen. Of particular interest was the exceptionally high resolution data acquired of the wreck of the Breda. This wreck is so commonly dived and yet it is still amazing to see exactly how she looks on the seabed in this much detail.

All the images of the wrecks acquired and processed by ADUS  (Breda, Rondo, Thesis, Shuna, Hispania, Buitenzorg, Evelyn Rose, and Swan (Duart Point)) will eventually be available onboard Sound Diver for dive briefings and to purchase via the ADUS WreckSight series of interactive 3D software (www.wrecksight.com )

Wreck of the Breda (copyright ADUS Ltd)

Wreck of the Breda (copyright ADUS Ltd)

PADI Diver Training Courses 2010

Lochaline Dive Centre is offering the following PADI diver training courses

All one day speciality courses are £180
Full board accommodation £39 per person per day
Group discounts available
All courses include manuals and certification costs
Open Water Course includes kit hire
All other courses full kit hire £35 a day

Course dates:

• April 10th, 11th, 12th Open Water £499
• April  13th, 14th Dry Suit £180  (discount on purchase of kit)
• June 1st, 2nd Advanced Open Water (boat dives) £325
• June 3rd Speciality Night Diving £180 (discount on torch)
• July 20th, 21st Wreck Speciality (minimum number of 4 applies includes 4 boat dives) £355
• August 16th, 17th, 18th Rescue £399 (minimum 2 people)
• September 27th, 28th, 29th Open Water £499/ Advanced Open Water £265/ Rescue £399
• October 19th, 20th, 21st, Open Water £499/ Advanced Open Water £265/ Rescue £399

More details of all courses on our courses page:

Lochaline Dive Centre diver training courses

For bookings and more details about your requirements please contact the Training Manager, Ivan Woolley on 0779 000 7979

In the past week ADUS (www.adus-uk.com) has undertaken sonar surveys of the wrecks in the Sound of Mull using the very latest generation of high resolution multibeam sonar manufactured by Reson. The survey also utilized a new submersible IMU (Intertial Measurement Unit) as part of the Applanix position and orientation system mounted on ADUS’ ISHAPS deployment system over the transom of the Dive Centre’s boat Sound Diver.

The surveys have produced the most detailed images of the wrecks lying in the Sound of Mull ever seen and they will be available onboard Sound Diver for dive briefings and to purchase via the ADUS WreckSight series of interactive 3D software. The wrecks of the Rondo, Thesis, Shuna, Hispania, Buitenzorg, Evelyn Rose, and Swan (Duart Point) were surveyed along with some test targets laid out in Ardtornish Bay for research purposes.

The images of the wrecks will appear here and at www.wrecksight.com as soon as post processing is complete – so watch this space & see for the first time what the wrecks in the Sound actually look like !

ADUS' ISHAPS sonar deployment system

Deploying sonar over the transom of Sound Diver

Sonar head & IMU

The 2009 NAS SOMAP project (Sound of Mull Archaeological Project) is off to a flying start, and this years participants have already begun writing their Blog – take a look at  http://www.mullproject2009.blogspot.com/   which makes for some interesting reading!  Yesterday’s ‘Heritage Day’ centred around the 17th Century wreck off the point by Duart Castle and the official unveiling of Historic Scotland’s new wreck interpretation panel. After diving on the wreck the intrepid ’somappers’ had a tour of the Castle and put a serious drain on the home-baked cake reserves at the Castle tearoom. Work now begins in earnest on the survey of the wreck of the John Preston, where we are keen to know how much deterioration there has been since the last survey in 1999.

Unveiling the new wreck interpretation panel at Duart Point

A big thank you to ’steveharriss’ for his kind words about the Dive Centre on the Yorkshire Divers bulletin board. Looks like the Centre and our new charter boat ‘Sound Diver’ did the trick!

steveharris at Yorkshire Divers

Look out too for the great review of the Dive Centre in this month’s DIVE magazine entitled ‘Road Trip to Lochaline’…………

Having been purchased on the south coast and spending some time out of the water for installation of a generator and compressor, Sound Diver, Lochaline Dive Centre’s new dive charter vessel, finally made it home to the Sound of Mull recently ready for the upcoming season.
The journey by sea from a very snowy Portsmouth took us five days with stops at Weymouth, Falmouth, Holyhead, and Belfast on the way. A big thanks to Dave Burden (aka Grumpy Skip) for helping us bring the boat north.

The boat’s first charter was last weekend & the weather stayed with us for dives on the Shuna, Thesis and a productive scallop dive in Ardtornish Bay. Thanks to Darren (Daz the Fish) & the lads at Drift Divers for being such a great bunch for our first outing with the boat.

Available 28 November 2008. Pre-order now at the special introductory price of only £59.00

WreckSight is the groundbreaking new wreck visualisation application from Advanced Underwater Surveys (ADUS). With WreckSight, for the first time, divers are able to view images of shipwrecks interactively and in an unprecedented level of detail. 

WreckSight Scapa Flow Edition

WreckSight Scapa Flow brings high resolution multibeam sonar images of Scapa wrecks to Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X Tiger/Leopard. Enjoy the startling clarity and unprecedented detail which this unique image processing and visualisation software offers.

Features:

• Eight high resolution data sets including the following vessels: Cöln, Bayern, Karlesruhe, Markgraf, Dresden, Konig, Kronprinz Wilhelm and Brummer
• Fully interactive point cloud imaging of survey data collected by ADUS
• High performance OpenGL rendering
• Six preset animation sequences per wreck
• Unique Dive Routes view providing dive planning and analysis tools:
• Eight fully customisable dive routes per wreck
• Multiple shotline placement
• Precision measurement between any two points on a wreck
• Accurate depth and swim distance readings
• 2D dive route plotting with full 3D visualisation

WreckSight Scapa Flow will be available as an electronic download from the ADUS store (www.wrecksight.com) from Friday 28 November 2008, priced £99.00.

However a special introductory price of £59.00 will be available to those who pre-order within the next two weeks.

Lochaline Dive Centre is the proud new owner of ‘Sound Diver‘, a spacious 42ft twin-engined Offshore 125, coded for 12 divers plus crew. The vessel is currently on the south coast undergoing some modifications and will be arriving in Lochaline ready for the 2009 diving season, complete with hydraulic diver lift, onboard compressor, and of course a kettle.

Please call if you are interested in chartering ‘Sound Diver‘ for trips in 2009 – spaces are being filled rapidly.