Right as requested here is a quick summary of the weekend (this goes on a bit so delete it now, you have been warned).

I met up with Jerry in Oxford at 10:30 ish and we left by 11:00 after loading his car. The plan was to pick up Jo F & Kate P at Glasgow airport at 16:00 but because of accidents etc. we still hadn't made it to Leeds by 16:00. In the end Jo abandoned Kate at the airport and continued to Oban in comfort and Kate took the bus (£11.00).

After stopping to have a chat with a very nice policeman (I was driving) Jerry and me arrived in Oban at 22:30 ish. We off loaded the kit and then went to the pub to meet the others.

Saturday morning we were all up early and had breakfast and then off to the Breeda for the first dive of the weekend. Jerry was diving on his unit so it was a fairly gentle potter around the top of the wreck at 18m. The viz was about 8m so there was plenty to see. Lots of hard flat stuff, lots of pretty fish, crabs and nudibranchs etc.

After lunch the next dive was the Hispania, good viz but a bit of current this time. Still being good and staying on the upper parts of the wreck (18m) again for Jerry's benefit. I found a very nice Butter Fish while we were hiding from the current. Most people got to have a close up look at a Lions Mane Jelly fish on the way back up the shot line. The lucky ones got stung as well.

Back on the boat it was fettling time while the others had showers and stuff before dinner. After dinner it was down to the Mish Nish for a quick pint then off to some other pub at the other end of the key to see the local live music?????

The drummer was to busy drinking to bother about timing and the lead singer wasn't to sure which style suited him. It did look like we were on for a fight with the locals at one stage but they were too pissed to make up their minds either way, so we had another drink. Back to the Mish Nish at 23:00 for some dancing, top night as usual. There are probably quite a few photo's of the night, I know I was blind in the left eye for 10 minutes after one encounter with a camera.

Sunday morning was fairly bright with a bit of a swell that was making me and few others feel a bit sick while motoring to the first site. I can't remember the name of this wreck (Jo or Jerry can provide the detail) but it was well broken over the rocks in about 16m of water. The viz was pushing 15m with no current. Everyone had a good time on this one, I bagged off at the end of the dive and while Jerry and me where ascending a seal came up behind Jerry to check him out. Back at the surface it was a quick pick up and then away from the rocks as the tide was starting to turn.

Then off to Coll harbour for lunch. We were doing about 6 knots in the channel with 20m of flat sea bed below us. Everyone feeling pretty good after the dive and no one feeling sea sick at the time. I was at the stern after getting out of my dry suit, the others were scattered about the boat after getting changed. There was a loud bang and the boat heeled over onto its starboard side with the gunwale almost into the water, then it righted its self then heeled over to the port side, again till the gunwale was almost touching the water. The boat settled upright briefly so the first order of action was get back into the dry suit. You would be amazed at how fast a dry suit can be put on when you need to. The others started to make their way to the stern as well to get their drysuits on as well.

It was then about half an hour of rocking from one side of the boat to the other while the skipper tried to get the boat of the rock. A local fishing boat was coming along side when the boat finally slide off the rock. Then it was off to Coll harbour. It was fairly obvious that the boat was taking on water so by the time we arrived the fire brigade was waiting with pumps to help out. We were told to get every thing off the boat until the damage was assessed. No more diving for us :o(

Apparently this rock has claimed a few of the locals boats as well, it rises straight up from 20m to within 1.5m of the surface ( I think it does dry out on top on some tides).

The locals were wonderful, within an hour or two of us arriving on the island they had arranged some where for us to stay the night and transport to and from the farmhouse. I will not name names here because it is fairly obvious they prefer to keep a low profile but they made us feel at home, threw in an early morning wake up call for the couples sleeping in the caravan (the roaster likes to sit under the vent in the caravan and at 4:00 in the morning, it lets rip). Us snorer's that were banished to the old farm house slept right through.

Breakfast in the morning (Monday) then a 10:00 pick up by the local shop owner and part time vicar, to take us back to the ferry. We got ourselves organised on the pier so that the loading would be fairly slick when the ferry arrived. We were back in Oban by 14:30 on Monday afternoon. The cars were packed by 15:00 and everyone went home.

Jo rang Jerry while we were driving south and suggested that we go and rinse off the dive kit on the way home. It seemed like a good idea so we diverted to Jo's place for the night in Manchester, then Tuesday morning Jo, Kate (Jo's house mate), Jerry and me went to the place we cannot name, to wash the kit off.

As I said earlier there were only a few people there and it was wonderful as usual. After a 50 minute dive with Jerry (19m this time) we got out packed the car, gained another rebreather and drove home.

All in all and excellent weekend, much fun had by all.

I would like to thank Jo for organising the trip because I haven't had so much fun in a long time. Roll on October when the next Oban trip is on.

Ian