Details of some of our planned trips. For more information or to reserve a place please contact the trip organiser either directly or through the website.
Dunstaffnage (organiser: Nick Wood)
We are going to take the red boat up to dunstaffnage marina for 5 weeks beginning on the 5th of feburary http://www.dunstaffnagemarina.co.uk/ where it will be left on hard standing and launched for us each time a trip is organised.
You could not wish for an easier way to start the diving day with our on rib moored up on a pontoon ready and waiting for us.
Accommodation is in Cologin Chalets http://www.cologin.co.uk/ with 6 berth (2 twin rooms and 2 sofas) self catering for only £10 per night (plus about £1 electricity over the weekend) and a pub onsite. These are very comfortable as myself and gary managed to sneak onto a MUSAC trip last year to the same place. The accommodation is less than 10 minutes drive from the marina so mornings need not be too early.
Plenty of local shops including a large tescos 10 minutes away if needed and lots of local pubs and resturants.
I need people to register interest as soon as possible please for any, and as many of the trips as they like:
Feb 5th-7th
Feb 12th-14th
Feb 26th-28th
March 5th-7th
Cost wise I am hoping to run each trip for less than £100 total. If the trips are filled (max 6 people per trip with unfilled spaces being offered to MUSAC to strengthen our bonds and make the trips cheaper) then boat costs per week will be only £7 per week plus fuel, accomodation = £20 + £1-2 elec per weekend, air fills £5. Total = £34 unless I have missed anything glaringly obvious. Obviously food, drink and petrol for travelling up there is additional (total under £100).
Cornwall - 1st-10th April (organiser: Andy Jennions)
It is getting time to organise the Annual Easter dive trip to Cornwall. For those who have been before names and email details to me asap.
We will go down to Cornwall, Nr Penzance, on April 1st and leave on April 10th.
There are normally 4-6 places for beginners on the 'early bird gets the worm principal' and that leaves about another 18 places.
A deposit of £50.00 will be required before the end of term and the cost, including deposit, for diving and accomodations, caravans, is about £190.00 depending on how many dives you do.
So additional cost are transport, food and beer.
Sound of Mull - 4-8th June (organiser: Sean)
I'm planning a long weekend to the Sound of Mull next June diving the stunning wrecks such as the Hispania. We'll be travelling up on Friday
4th June and diving Sat, Sun and Mon. We can travel back on the Monday night or stay an extra night and drive home on the Tuesday.
We'll be staying at Lochaline Dive centre www.lochalinedivecentre.co.uk and diving from their hard boat. It'll be 3 dives a day.
The boat is £420 a day and takes up to 12 divers.
Based on 10 divers the cost will be £221 for 3 days diving, 3 nights accommodation, 3 breakfasts and dinner for 2 nights. All we'll need to add on is air (or nitrox) and travel, lunch and of course beer.
If you're interested please email asap.
I'll need a £50 deposit to secure a place. As usual deposits are non refundable.
Cape Wrath - 24th - 31st July (organiser: Sean and Steve M)
OK….I’m putting together a Summer Dive Expedition to Cape Wrath, together with Sean and Debbie. Cape Wrath is located on the extreme north-west coast of the Scottish mainland. It’s very remote. We have to be completely self-sufficient. There are only few local Scottish shops for food and supplies … but the nearest dive shop will be half a day’s drive away. We have done a trip like this from Liverpool several times before … I think five times in total. We have a pretty good idea of suitable launch sites, dive sites, charts, currents, tides etc.
We can dive either on the west coast of Scotland or the north coast, depending upon the wind direction. However if we have unfavourable wind coming from the Northwest quadrant then there is nowhere sheltered to dive. This is a risk we have to take. From time to time the military also carry out bombing practising on the north coast near Cape Wrath. This has only affected our diving on one of the trips, but it has to be taken into account. There is an amusing story to be told over a pint of beer about our LUSAC involvement with the bombing activities …!
The plan is to take two boats and a compressor, together with 10 divers … although we will happily go with 8, but it makes the trip a bit more expensive. We will stay at an isolated lodge, with only sheep for neighbours. The sheep don’t complain about the noise when we run the compressor. ☺ We have just received confirmation of the accommodation booking.
The diving can be some of the best in the UK. Almost all of the diving is scenic diving. There are very few wrecks around Cape Wrath … because of course there is very little shipping up there. It’s remote! Cape Wrath itself is always a prime objective because it is so inaccessible. Sometimes we get there … and some years we don’t. On the last trip, we got to Cape Wrath but could not dive the caves because of unfavourable sea conditions. Nevertheless it was worth getting there just to have done it and seen it … and of course we dived on the way back at somewhere more sheltered.
This trip is for experienced Sports Divers and above. You need to have done a minimum of 40-50 dives and be confident in your abilities. I am afraid that this trip is not the one for practising or improving your diving skills. It’s a pretty full-on expedition. We have to do everything ourselves. On the last trip I think we only made it to the pub one time … everyone was either too busy or too tired in the evening to make the effort. Will probably learn from that experience this time … and take our own beer. Alcohol however is not included in the trip costs … it’s a personal thing.
I can take the club compressor in my van. Sean and Debbie will tow one of the boats. We need a driver with a car and towing hitch capable of towing the other boat to make this trip viable. AndyJ? SteveR? Anyone else …??
The £350 cost is only an approximation. You can see I have not allowed for things like the additional accommodation on Saturday night on the way up, if we decide to do this. I don’t know how much boat fuel we will use … this depends upon how far we want to travel to dive sites and of course on the sea conditions. However I will be very surprised if the trip costs more than £400 overall.
If you are interested in a place on this trip then please send me an e-mail. I need a £100 deposit cheque by the end of January to secure your place. No deposit … no place! There are already divers outside the University club who would like to join us on this trip … I have several German rebreather friends who are extremely interested. If there are places unfilled (i.e. without deposits) by the end of January then I will offer the spare places outside the club. You snooze … you lose!
Eyemouth - 29 May - 2 June (organiser: Steve Millard)
I am helping to organise a long diving weekend in Eyemouth for Saturday 29th May - Wednesday 2rd June.
I have three German friends coming and so we have a viable trip. Is there anyone else from the University club who would like to join us?
Monday is a Bank Holiday. I will driving up on Saturday morning and only be diving Saturday (afternoon)-Monday. Returning to Liverpool on Monday evening.
The costs are:
Hard boat diving-two dives/day-£35/day
B&B accommodation-£30/night
Air-£ 2/fill (I think)
I have room for one person in my van, with dive kit. For more than one person, we need another car + driver.
There are four spare places available.
Information about the Eyemouth divecenter here:
E-mail me privately if you are interested in joining us. This is for (very) experienced Sports Diver, Dive Leader and above. Diving depths probably in the range 20-40 m. A 45 m dive is possible.
Anyone interested ??