Halton Ocean

Troops dived Glen Isla.

I dropped in on the Glen Isla to recover shot weight but over exerted myself and came to the surface early feeling completely knackered.

Second dive binned due to fog.

After a night moored in LERWICK we awoke to a cool,misty day and headed off to the GLENISLA. We found her sitting upright in about 45m.Lovely 15m vis again and no current. Went forward over break in hull(she hit a mine) passing collapsed mast and spare prop.whizzed around bows then back. passing over engines and boilers visible through skeletonised decking,noticed large, onion shaped structures sticking out, haven’t a clue what they are and neither anyone I’ve asked. On to the stern (I do like to top and tail em) which tapers up with the hull peeled away each side.Yet again time running out, hovered our way back to shot, still enjoying view of wreck below,the vis was that good.

The fog closed in and diving was postponed till 4pm while a small group of us and skipper Bob went off in the minibus for a tour of the west side to see if the fog was any better there. It wasn’t but at least we got to see a bit of the island.

Simon SUN 22/7/06

Wonderful vis, we dropped down onto the Gwaladmena dodging the occasional Jelly. What a cracking little wreck no aires or graces traversable in one dive and enough to see as a first go in Shetland. Sorry to say our objective to find the pea shooter produced a nil result.

Second dive the Lunokhods reminded me of many a south coast IKEA wreck, all flat pack. Lots of rust and suprisingly brass, masses of it. Now you wouldn’t find that off Plymouth!

Adrian 22/7/06

Dived the Gwladmena this morning. The vis is clear but the water dark with the lack of sunlight. This wreck is very reminisent of the Thesis in the sound of Mull, about the same size and shape but lies deeper with a seabed depth of 40. The two boilers are very distinctive as are the deck winches that have now corroded thru and sit in the hull itself. The prop has gone.

Dived the Lunokhods pm. She lies in the gully at the base of the Kirkabister light having dragged her anchor in a storm on 9th November 1993. There is a very distinctive picture on the cover of Bob Baird’s book (ISBN 9781841582337). I actually avoided the wreck, having dived it before, instead expolring the gully that runs perpendicular to the cliffs. The waters here ara superbly rich in life with an abundance of flora and fauna that made the drop shear pleasure despite the lack of metal.

Dragged the troops kicking and screaming thru the first day: they got off the ferry first thing expecting a quiet first day but I put them in twice to make hay while the sun shone.

The fog receeded to low cloud by about 10ish but the sky never turned blue. Still, there is not a breath of wind so I aim to make the most of it while it lasts.

Fresh off the overnight ferry, kit stowed and we,re off for ou first dive on the GWLADEMA,a wreck sitting in about 40m. Down shot onto boilers and finding vis of 15m . She’s sitting upright, though all the superstructure aft of midships has been swept. Went to the stern first which was dissapointing. Looked for gun over starboard side but it was not obvious.Followed propshaft forward to boilers and passed engine whih had somehow got in front. N/S time running out,trying to stretch it hovering over fairly intact bows and continuing back to line.

After a nice bacon bap and a lounge we headed for the lighthouse on BRESSAY for our next dive on the Russian klondiker LUNOKHODS.Free descent onto the kelpy remains. Immediately found a nice swimthrough part of the hull. Struck by the ammount of brass fittings and cocks lying around,better there for divers to polish and enjoy than crumbling in someones garage.Wreckage petered out and kelp returned, time to go. Whatched 1″ transparent jellyfish struggle in the watercolumn during our safety stop.

Simon Sat 22/7/06

I think something is brewing out in the atlantic, ready to stike at me as I have had two good trips now.

First home from Skye:

And then the run from Stromness to Lerwick today.

Fair Isle

Looking south to Sumburgh Head

And into Lerwick

http://helen.thedeepstop.com/

Apparently I am the “hotest thing in tight jeans”.

You heard it here first.

Dear Rear Admirable Anderson,

Did You Leave Something Behind?

I note your recent visit to my Islands - The Shiants.

I would like to draw your attention to a number of complaints that I have received subsequent to your visit. Visitors to the islands, some well respected friends of mine, have been horrified to be confronted by a terrifying apparition. It appears that by accident or design you left one of your party stranded.

He or ‘it’ would be a better description, a kind of Caliban!!. seems to have taken up residence and is now intent on terrifying any and all comers to the islands.

Commodore Zebidee Manson (no relation) managed to take this rather blurred picture of the ‘thing’ as it made it’s attack, which I enclose. If it means anything to you I would request, nay demand, that you return to the Islands at once and remove the thing using whatever method is necessary, and return it to Sycorax it’s mother.

Should you fail to comply, I will have no option but to refer the matter to the Procurator Fiscal, whose motto is ‘Fear and Speed’.

I need say no more.

Some weeks stay in the memory for a long while and this was a week that threw up quite a few good anecdotes. A couple of the protagonists have been back but the main man just popped by today with some photos.

It was five years ago, in my first season, but still funny. Hadn’t appreciated how much water has gone under the bridge in the interim so it was good to reflect.

Are you still out there JC?

Normally it takes 4hrs to clean the boat: it has to… that is usually all the time between one group leaving and the other arriving.

So far it has taken two days to clean just the fridge: it wasn’t grubby, just a lot of people have been by for tea etc. A lot of fat chewed, a little fridge half cleaned.

Oh well, at least the batteries are getting recharged. Planning away thurs night.

Gobernador Bories

18m for 43 min. Vis a darkish’ poor 10m. Cracking dive and thanks to the Jean Elaine.

Fell asleep in front of top gear and woke to a call from the harbours to shift the boat at about half nine this morning. Washed the deck, fannied about and then went for a dive.

Was told, but my head is mince at mo.

Nice photy though.

Out of Uig Harbour on MV Halton seems likes ages ago. And here we are at the end of two weeks, having explored the

Shiants,Loch Roag, Gasker and Haskeir. Still flushed with the excitement of events last night, the final island

(Haskeir) where we were greetede by a large bsking shrk lazing around alongside us as we prepared for a calm and

gentle landing and an evening ringing Fulmars and Petrels and then an exhilarating and tempestuous exit as the sea

got up and the long drop to the dinghy over greasy rocks.

But as ever we were in the safe and capable hands of ‘captain’ Bob, Angus and Mary, whose skill in keeping us safe

while maximising the enjoyment and exhileration, we tend to take for granted. But riding that rib with Angus at the

helm - iron hand and watchful eye - as waves rise, fall, break, swirl and tear, must be experienced to be fully

appreciated. And then to be ferried to the protective lee of MV Halton.

We are the Sule Skerry Bird Ringing Group and friends. Twelve of us, mostly experienced bird ringers. Each year the

Halton is chartered for two to four weeks to visit the uninhabited outlying islands of the UK. Birds are surveyed

and ringed. None of the islands have established landings. Each island presents its own problems depending on the

state of the tide and the weather. All have rocky shores. So to get twelve people of various ages and genders onto

the islands presents its own special challenges. Sometimes we fail and have to run for shelter. But if its possible

the crew of the Halton have proved themselves willing to try and most times to achieve to get people and a ton of

equipment safely on shore.

We spent a week on the Shiants this year. Guest of Adam Nicholson, the owner, who was delighted to invite the group

onto the island to stay in the bothy and camp and live with the birds for a week. The boulder scree along the shore

of Garbh Eilean is teeming with sea birds and must be one of the seven wonders of the world. This is their place and

we were guests, a little intrusive but temporary visitors nonetheless.

If anyone is interested birds ringed 1,170
Fulmar 7
Storm Petrel 145
Shag 71
Great Skua 5
Great Black Backed 5
Common Gull 2
Puffin 355
Razorbill 591
Guillemot 160
Skylarks 1
Meadow Pipit 7
Rock Pipit 2
Wheatear 17

Of course that is only a fraction of the birds actually there!

Loch Roag - a beautiful spot, but the weather had cut up rough and we had to be content with walking around some of

the islands of the west loch. Pabay was the star.

Our visits to Gasker and Haskeir were shorter than intended but a burst of Mediterranean weather made the whole

thing a delight. Hard to believe that these islands are some of the most inhospitable places in the British Isles.
We look forward to next year.
Thank you MV Halton, our star of the sea. Thank you Bob, thank you Angus and thank you Mary

Margaret (Elphinstone) we really missed you loads. Lets hope we can share more Halton island adventures together in

future years.

15 July 06 15.23

I have said it before, but every departing group leaves a vacuum. It’s as if all that departing energy takes some of the boat with it, as if she has been winded with a blow to the ribs, so she now has to inhale before starting away again. There are token reminders left behind; a bundle of food left on my chair with an apple perched on top, bits of frayed string from cut knots, a handful of thermos flasks needed a wash.

I liked some more than others (I would be less than human if my feelings for twelve people didn’t span the gamut from dislike to affection) but that is to miss the point: the individuals at some point fuse so that I see an amalgam, a collection that takes on an identity every bit as characteristic as each of the personalities from which it is composed. It is that chimera that I have to pin down, steer and then answer to. I am never sure how to treat it: is it a democracy? The lowest common denominator? The one the shouts the loudest? The one that writes the cheque? I think all have to be appeased but without diluting the sense of purpose and the dynamic and the direction needs to be steered. It makes for a lumbering beast but the last fortnight has seem one that I have grown very fond of.

I think sometimes people do not know what they ask for before they ask: the debilitation caused through seasickness is horrible to witness, let alone experience, but in many ways comes with the territory. The danger of exposure that comes with the remoteness of the places that the boat is able to get to can only be imagined before it will bite one day. Yet I guess they ask because they know it is here that the rewards are. Today I put money and a mobile phone in my pocket for the first time in a fortnight and something seemed to have died as I did it. Not to see other boats, other people, other signs of the effects of people seems to be at the grist of what the trips are about, but there again, that may just be me.

There are a couple left behind but with only five left on the boat each can find a space and we may as well be alone. So I am sat in the wheelhouse trying to gather my thoughts on the last two weeks before I have to start thinking next week.

Two weeks was a long time and exhausting, especially being so far away from home. When the ground is new and unfamiliar everything has to be learned for the first time, it adds to the work load. But with that comes the thrill of finding something fresh and novel. The south end of Harris was spectacular and a thrill to be among the rugged barren coastline. We found some areas densely populated with seabirds, others disappointingly empty. I demonstrated that I may not need to achieve some of the goals the group have set whist being central to others: a sixty foot boat to get to the Shiants is overkill, but par for the course for the Flannans.

So what am I trying to say?

I think I see the perception that folk have of me that I am living the life of Reilly, flitting form holiday to holiday. Yet to me this jars with the reality I feel. I am typing now with red rimmed eyelids weighed down with 36hrs of pitiful sleep, ,the edge of madness knowing away at my thoughts and wondering when the pleasure is. It will be 73 miles to Cape Wrath and another 70 round the corner and I am tired already. I rarely enjoy the moment: there is always too much at stake, too much to do and think of to be dwelling on the pleasure of the moment, but at the end of a week, when the responsibilities have evaporated, then I can relax in a quiet contemplation and revel in the memory.

I also enjoy looking at the world through other peoples’ eyes. One is looking at the trip through the eyepiece of a video camera, another with ringing pliers in their pocket. I went a walk with one who is tickled by moths and saw what has flitted past my feet unnoticed previously. These are not passions for me, ringing birds puts me neither up nor down but I enjoy the enthusiasm and passion that rubs off from those for who it is the case. The role I play in this is irrelevant: I put them there, they get on with it.

There have been moments of anger and frustration in the week: these things are never a bed of roses, but the things that people have seem are not those that have caused the most worry. It is a fragile existence and sometimes it feels as if the ice can crack at any time. A safety valve goes off noisily every now and then but at least the pressure is dissipated harmlessly. When you have to fix the genny to fix the loo to fix the next thing, tensions mount and those closest to the explosion are not necessarily those to blame.

Well, I didn’t get to my point but I guess that some time in the next few weeks I will start to enjoy the last two weeks. It was cracking trip for me. If the others enjoyed it, all the better. If not, then at least they can take succour from the fact that the rose survived.

Banged the starter at 2am. Bleary eyes, 8 cylinders and the creaping light from the soon to appear sun.

First shout a half hour later.

They were ready for off. Dingy in, pick up in the dark and away.

The wind had dropped so we hoped the sea had followed. Leaving the anchorage, we snuck out of Loch Tmanavay and headed for Gasker.

After a quick cup of tea, the serious business of ringing was attended to.

(Photos by JL: thankq)

before an evening dash south to Haskier.

The troops landed in the last of the daylight and headed up to the lighthouse to ring petrels.

We circumnavigated the outliers before heading east for a couple of hours shelter in the lee of the land.

It was a late start despite the early brecky. Wind was still up and the sea running so we left the anchorage and headed off to have a gander at Old Hill at the mouth of Loch Roag.

A landing was out of the question so we headed south, eventually finding a calm refuge in Loch Resort.

An evening recce to Gasker was also thwarted by the sea conditions so we returned to the beautiful shelter of Loch Tamanavay to overnight.

Swinging around an anchor in Loch Roag at the mo, waiting for the wind to abate.

The gusts last night were touching force 8 (the wind was lifting the surface of the sea) in the rain squals but by this morning they had dropped slightly.

The troops are ashore exploring different bits and pieces but there is little ringing going on. To be fair, there are not a great deal of seabirds here anyway but it would be nice to get on Old Hill, the main reason why we came here in the first place.

The forecast tommorrow looks a lot better so hopefully we will get back to it then.