Eastwood divers went to the sound of mull for the weekend and as usual we booked the Loch Aline dive centre. When I arrived I parked in the car park at the shop, no changes there except a big new compressor and as usual any gas you want and all the usual spares ect but......looking at the accommodation something looked different.

There was some new decking so I wandered over and then I saw this...



And then I saw this...



And when I was asked if I would like a lattie.....How could I refuse... very nice indeed....Note they have big barby great for a fun night. The girls will love this they can sit down and the guys can burn the steaks for you...



I had a chat with the chief..... yes chief you can have you breakfast, mid day and evening meals here inside in the restaurant or outside in the sun. There are still cooking facilitys if you want cook for yourself, All the usual lobster, crab and of course scallops in garlic butter MMmmm.



I was then shown the new accommodation.....wow all en suite and showers now.



After a night dive on the pier by some.... http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/mal ... _pier.html ...

we had something to eat at the Hotel (It was already booked as we never knew they did food at the dive center) we then had a fun night in the social club. The next morning we headed of to the pier. Another surprise.....The Sound diver.



They have a new boat which is big and has plenty of space, inside and out. Its fitted with all the usual electronic gismos so you always find that wreck and it also has eight bunks for the older guys who feel sleepy between dives...



The deck can accommodate twelve tech divers so twelve scuba divers can go for a walk round the deck.



And if you are one of these techy divers you will love the diver lift to help you out the water with all that heavy kit. But if you are scuba diving and are just lazy and cant be bothered climbing the dive ladder it makes for really easy diving.



The second dive was on the Shuna, the viz was 8m+ and was very enjoyable as its not normally known for good viz. The holds are still full of coal and there are still a few places for the adventurous diver to get inside and have a wee look round.
http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/malin/shuna.html

The third dive was on the Rondo and the viz here was better at about ten to twelve meters. My buddy shiny has wanted to do the bow for a while so we saw the whole wreck. We did come off the wreck a bit and retracing our steps we got back to the wreck. Because it was low tide it was only 49.7m in the bow which is below the sea bed. There was plenty of big saith which were about 500mm long and some small cuco wrasse. Our deco time was 28 mins because of little excursion but as the stern of the wreck is very shallow you can deco on the wreck.
http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/malin/rondo.html

The fourth dive was on the Swan a protected wreck at Duart castle. We saw the cannons and the anchor and had a great dive brief all about the Swan and the history of this very old wreck. You can only dive the Swan with Loch Aline dive centre.
http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/malin/swan.html

The fifth dive was on the Thesis
http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/malin/thesis.html

The sixth was on Calf Island wall….
http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/mal ... sland.html

The seventh dive was on the Hispania….
http://finstrokes.com/divelinks/malin/hispania.html

To sum it up.....Great diving in what has to be the best dive centre in Scotland now.
http://www.lochalinedivecentre.co.uk/index.html

49.7m damn and blast Shiny I really feel for you. Surely a good buddy would have helped dig a hole to get the 50 in. Sounds like you had a good trip.
But Latte on the decking ...... harden up man

Tell me about it !!! Gutted

There is still a chance for the 50 Shiny. Some computers are calibrated in salt water while the others are calibrated in fresh water but I can't remember which reads shallowest.

It's funny you should say that, one of the dives I did with marion, we both put out computers side by side on the sea bed and I was reading 0.5m shallower than her. Weird. I've got a Suunto and Marion has an Aladin (correct me if i'm wrong)

Pics from the Sound of Mull

The old post office where we stayed - Idea for diving the wall (West Pier on the LHS of the photo)



Forget the dive guide - this is the way to dive the West Pier - Jump entry off the pier and back up the ladder !!!



The view looking East down the Sound




Finally, Sunday was a hard day's diving !!

Check out the dive guide shiny.......updated

http://www.finstrokes.com/divelinks/mal ... _pier.html

West Pier - Friday night - Dived this abour an hour before HT - very little current considering it wasn't technically slack. Night dive so stuck to just below 30m, although the bottom at 95m was very tempting !!
Not as much life on this wall as there was on Calf island, but still a good dive.

Shuna - Sat - Good vis for this wreck, almost 10m. Dived it once before and it was nothing like the same.

Rhondo - Sat - Dived this with John and got to within a *censored* of 50m. Gutted, was quite literally diggin a hole to put my computer down. Loads of life on the wreck. Shoals of fish near the sea bed, Cuckoo wrasse further up and lots of nudie's (so i'm told) One of the best wrecks of the weekend (except for the little* bit of deco I had to do)

Swan (Duart castle) - Sat - Remains of a 17th Century wreck - well 3 cannons and an anchor, but a good wee potter at 10m to finish the day off.

Thesis - Sun - I know I dived this because it's logged in my computer, but I can't remember a thing about it, sorry folks. 32.6m 39mins

Calf Island Wall - Sun - This was another of the weekend's highlights. This is a 60~m sheer wall with loads of life on it. Lots of deep cracks with dogfish and conger hiding inside along with the usual sideway walking creatures.

Hispania - Sun - Was really looking forward to this, but it didn't quite live up to expectations. Half of this was due to the current on it, but it was diver soup due to another boat of 12 being on it at the same time as us. (nothing that a sharp knife to some LP hoses wouldn't sort) Saying that, going down into the holds to explore the inside of the wreck was great fun. You can pretty much swim into most of the dark places guarinteed that there is an exit at the other end.

Where's the picture of the fin gimp ? He's a young lad, but he will work for 20p
all day (don't pay him up front)

Tsk tsk. Thought your depth limit was 30m

Deeper with a regional Instructor....

Limits are only recomendations and as I've pretty much done all my training for deep diving and extended range, I think i'm up to it.

Dive Centre looks good, what a difference with the decking area, all the more space for the midges to eat you...SQSAC are up there this weekend and I decided to give it a miss and do a Gas Dive instead, wish i was going now....Rondo deepest i ever got was 55m inside the Bow with wrist and computer in a hole..

Aye Aladins and Suunto depths do read differently..is it not to do with the fact aladins are calibrated for Fresh Water?...or maybe no two computers would read the same anyway...

I dont know if things have changed but Uwatec computers always used to have their depth display calibrated for fresh water.