Friday

Having left Portsmouth at about ten in the morning, Ian and I got to Portpatrick at about 18:00. We arrived to find that the slow car we had been following for the last hour was Paul and Lou, who were also on the trip! We had a quick wander around town and then we were allowed to put our stuff onto the boat (Salutay). Jo, Jeremy and Guy then also arrived so we went off to Hotel Mount Stewart for tea.

About five hours later Ricky, Rich and Ali finally arrived.

Saturday

We were awoken at 6:00 with then sound of the engines starting. We did our best to ignore these but it's hard to sleep through two large rattley diesel engines running away. Also as time went by the motion of the boat was getting increasingly vigorous so I was pleased I'd nabbed a bunk at the back of the boat.

We got up at 8ish to be greeted by a cheery Freda offering us bacon and sausage sandwiches. Marvellous! Those that were capable wolfed them down, however Ian, Ali, Lou and Guy were all way too sick. Jo adopted her travel seat that she would occupy whenever the boat was moving and stared fixedly at the horizon. Jeremy just felt a bit wobbly and so went to lie down.

After a four hour crossing we arrived off Rathlin Island where we dived SS Lochgarry. Ali was too ill and binned the dive without even trying to kit up.

Quite a few folk were feeling unwell as they kitted up - this was demonstrated by Guy who got his kit on, climbed up to the side of the boat and then jumped straight into the water. Rob (our excellent crewman) stuck his head out of the wheelhouse and said "they normally wait until I shout "OK" at them". I could only agree. We then had to recover Guy as he was nowhere near the shotline.

The wreck lies in 32m and is fairly intact. The shot line is tied off to the bow, just by a hold that has had some huge chain poured into it to bury the ammunition that is in it. Viz was around seven metres, the water a chilly 9 deg C.

Guy and I did the entire length of the wreck and then returned back up the shot. A good dive.

Back on the boat Jo made her first attempt at binning the next dive by ripping her wrist seal as she removed her drysuit. There was some rapid repairs over lunch and this did not stop her diving at all.

We went into Ballycastle for lunch - it was good to be in shelter, with no pitching and rolling of the boat. Most of us wandered into the town for ice-cream from Mauds, except for Ali who took one look at NI and threw up (again). Oh dear.

Back on the boat Ricky amused us by walking into the saloon with his ice-cream, and promptly falling down the hatchway into the aft cabin. He destroyed his ice-cream in the process and fortunately did not do the boat too much damage. We of course found this very funny - indeed the only way it could have been even funnier was if he had covered his face in ice-cream as well.

After lunch it was back out to dive the Templemore, just outside the harbour in 18m of water. The viz was poorer here, 4 - 5 metres. This wreck is fairly well broken and has conger on it, although Guy and I did not see any.

After diving it was back into Ballycastle for dinner, then on to the Angler's Arms to sample Guiness and Smithwicks.

Sunday

Up at 8:30 for a gorgeous breakfast, then we had a rough crossing to Rathlin Island to dive at Farganlack Point. There was a huge swell coming in off the Atlantic and the sight of the waves breaking on Rathlin was excellent. Farganlack Point is a drop-off to 100m, with two arches at 18 and 36 metres. Al (the skipper) gave clear instructions on how to find these arches.

I went in with Ian, we descended to 18m where I stopped so we could contour round to find the first arch. Ian though appeared to have his depth head on and just carried on going down. There was not much I could do but follow - the viz was not great (5m or so) as there was a definite algal bloom and he was disappearing into the black. The dropoff itself is quite good - a shear wall down to the 50ish metres that we went to. Covered in dead-man's fingers and similar squidgies.

We anchored for lunch in Church Bay (off Rathlin) and then dived HMS Drake, which lies in 12 - 18 metres. This is well broken up and silty, with viz from 3 - 5 metres depending on who had been there before. We found two 6" guns, one of which you could look around the recoil mechanism which was quite cool.

Ian's IBOD was eating batteries and so he bailed out to open circuit. To confuse him further I also hit him for gas (nothing like a bit of task loading :o) but he coped admirably.

After the dive we steamed to Portrush, a 2 hour journey up the coast. This took us past the stunning basalt cliffs of Benbane Head, and also the Giant's Causeway although there's not much to see of that from the sea.

We were forced to have Chilli for tea as Ali refused to let us have lasagne.

Then it was to the Portrush yacht club for some very smoky Bass.

Monday

We wanted to dive the Castle Eden today but the weather was too bad. Instead we steamed back to the Lochgarry. This was a 2 hour steam back in the strong wind, fortunately we were running with the wind and so it was not too bad.

I dived with Jo this time - a pleasant relaxing dive as we knew our way around the wreck this time. There was a nice little swim-though under the collapsed stern that we found.

We had lunch anchored off Rathlin again, the wind was increasing in strength all the while, however it was still sunny. I dozed off on the foredeck and managed to sunburn quite nicely.

Due to the increasing wind we could not do the scenic dive we had planned (Boo Hoo!) and instead dived HMS Drake again. This time we found the mast lying off to one side, complete with boom and masthead fittings which was good.

When we surfaced the wind had increased still further and the steam back to Ballycastle was quite bouncy. Some of us stayed out on the foredeck in the screaming wind with waves breaking over the bow and the spray being blown horizontally. It was great. There were huge thunderclouds over the mainland which were very spectacular.

The contrast on arrival at Ballycastle was amazing. The place is so sheltered that there was no wind there at all - the sudden peace after the crossing was weird.

After dinner we went out to the Harbour Bar and the Angler's Arms again.

Tuesday

Awoken at 5:30 by the engines starting up. Then dozed until 7:30 when the increasing roughness of the sea forced me to admit that I was not going to get anymore sleep. Up in the saloon I found Ian asleep on the floor and Ali asleep in his drysuit on the seats. I sat down and watched the rough sea until breakfast appeared.

Due to the weather there was no chance of diving so we steamed straight back to Portpatrick, getting there for about 11:00. We then packed up our stuff while Freda rustled up breakfast for us. Once this was eaten that was it. Our long weekend diving Northern Ireland was over :o(

Summary

Salutay is generally a good boat. Al and Freda are excellent hosts who look after you well. The food is first-class.
The kitting up space on the boat is adequate, but only just. I little more room would be nice, however once we settled into a routine things worked out fairly well.
Despite the less-than-ideal weather we still got some good diving in. Luckily we were mostly sheltered from the worst of it.

Thanks very much Jo for organising it all for us :o)