2DiVE4 Farne Islands September 2006 Trip Report
by Mat Henderson

After a long six hours drive we arrive at Seahouses on the north east coast with a numb backside and a real sense of excitement for the coming days diving.  We are all staying at the Lodge which is a comfortable little guest house with all the amenities required for a fun and successful dive trip; a bed, a well stocked bar, a half decent menu and most importantly a pool table.  Introductions are made for those that haven’t met and after checking our kit in to our rooms we all made a dash for a well earned tipple at the bar.  The evenings discussions center around the following days diving, the questions are flowing almost as much as the beer; “what’s the boat like, who’s the skipper, what time does it leave, how much kit can we take” but the one question that is on everyone’s mind is “will there be seals!”.  Steve and Nikki both assure us that they have never failed to see seals on the Farne Islands and practically guarantee us all a fin nibbling time tomorrow.  The expectation of coming up close and personal with a seal, especially given it is pup season follows us all to our beds.

Up early the next morning, and after a quick peek at the weather through the bedroom curtains it is off to breakfast whilst secretly hoping that the gods have blessed us with calm seas.  A Full English later we take the short two minute drive down to the harbor (stopping only to collect the obligatory sandwiches and Bakewell tarts) to meet our skipper and load the gear on to the boat.

The weather is still, bright and quite frankly almost too good to be true.  The boat is massive, far larger than any of us could of expected and comes equipped with its own dog (not something often seen on a dive boat).  Once all the gear is loaded the skipper sets us on our way for the short thirty minute trip to the Farne Islands.  “Seal”, someone cries and the whole boat jumps up and dashes to the side for a hopeful glimpse (including the Dog, that we later found out has what can only be describes as a fin fetish).  Low and behold there was a seal, not one but absolutely loads of them; at last the feeling of hope starts to be replaced by a feeling of complete and utter excitement, we will be diving with seals!  Kit is set up quickly but carefully whilst the skipper negotiates the rocks to find us the perfect seal playground.  With the dog biting our fins everyone plunges off the back of the boat and into the North Sea.

The first dive of the trip is along a spectacular wall covered in dead mens fingers, soft coral and anenomes bottoming out at about 18 metres.  The growth is amazing and the rock formations make perfect hiding places for crabs, lobster, all manner of star fish and some fairly inquisitive and approachable large wrasse.  The plan was to work our way up the wall and to hopefully bump in to some seals on our way up the wall to our safety stop.  Sure enough somewhere near 10 meters we saw our first seal, albeit a quick glimpse but it gave us real hope for the elusive close encounter.  Safety stop completed and SMB deployed we get picked up by the Sovereign III enjoying the comfort and ease of the automatic electric lift to pull us all safely from the surf.

Some of us had closer visits from the seals than others but nobody had had their thirst for seal fun quenched so it was time to move the boat on, change cylinders and go Cousteau once more; although our desire to jump straight back in was tempered slightly when Steve broke open the bakewell tarts (even the seals can wait for bakewell).  Fully refreshed and with kit changed and checked once more, one by one we giant stride in to the great North Sea.  By PADI standards this was indeed a dive, but seal spotting is apparently easier and far more effective in shallower waters, so this dive turned out to be the longest safety stop in history with a total depth of sub five meters.

Ambling along the bottom taking in the delights of the thick kelp something catches my eye up ahead, a seal pup.  I grab the arm of my buddy and signal to him for us to stop and wait; we dump every last bit of air and hang on to the kelp with the words of the skipper ringing in my our ears, “let them come to you”.  We wait and the seal goes nowhere, we wait some more and all it does is star back at us through the kelp.  Okay I’ve had enough, if you won’t come to us, we will come to you.  Slowly we fin towards the pup (which I realize makes the seal seem small but at roughly 6 foot with claws the size of your finger this pup was anything but).  The pup continues to stare back at us and doesn’t seem at all bothered that we are encroaching on his personal bed of kelp; in fact he now starts to show some interest in us drifts a little closer to us.  Fumbling with my camera I take some shots, but not convinced that they will come out I switch to video mode (this is just too good to miss).  We are now about four feet away from this amazingly graceful creature, it’s massive inquisitive eyes are fixed on us and I just cannot believe that we are at last up close and personal with a seal whilst not stood behind the glass of a public aquarium.  My buddy waves his hand at the pup and extends his finger to towards the pups’ nose, the pup flinches a touch but doesn’t move away.  Once more my buddies hand is extended towards the pup and this time bingo, he actually touches the nose of the seal and this time my buddy flinches but neither pull away.  The pup then sits up and squares up with us, he seems to extend his arm and we manage to shake it for a brief second.  I am sure the pup is grinning, but not quite as much as my buddy.  The camera is now about twelve inches from the pups face, I can clearly see his thick white whiskers though the cameras screen; what amazing footage this is going to make.  We don’t want the encounter to end but at the same time I can’t wait to get aboard the boat and share the experience with the others.  The pup gives us one last wave of his hand, stares us both in the face in as much to say, cheers guys and then turns and swims off in to the distance.  The last few seconds of film show my buddy with the biggest of grins and larger-than-life okay signals.  We pop our heads out of the water, signal the boat and climb aboard, still slightly disbelieving the last few minutes.  It would seem that everyone had their own personal seal encounter and the tales would surely last long in to the evening.

Back on dry land we stow the kit away on the boat and head of to get the cylinders refilled.  The cylinders will take about thirty minutes to fill which is not surprisingly exactly the amount of time Steve requires to get his fix of fish and chips from the local eatery (I have to confess that it wasn’t just Steve and in fact someone even had curry sauce; what a heathen).  Tanks collected it was decided that the only way to be sure that the food in our planned pub for the evening was worthy of our money was to scope the joint out first.  So a small but elect group of coinsures headed off to sample the atmosphere, menu and local ales.  We managed to sweet talk our way in to a booking for twelve people, sample the odd ale and befriend a few locals before heading back to shower and regroup for the evening.

Perhaps we should have spent more time sampling the menu rather than the ale, because as it turned out the steak had run out, the salmon looked more like a prawn and quite frankly the bean pot with carrots and peas didn’t really do much for anyone.  So here is the question; how do twelve tourists make a quick exit from a local pub without ordering food given that they pleaded for a reservation?  The answer is quickly, drinks downed, when the landlady had her back turned we legged it like a bunch of naughty school kids.  Fortunately Nikki managed to flutter a few eye lids and the rest of us a few pound notes and before long we had a table for twelve at the Links golf course which came highly recommended by the locals.  The food was excellent, the beer was great and as per usual Steve managed to take a few quid of everyone who fancied a game of pool.

The next morning it was back once again to the bakers and then on to the boat.  Cylinders loaded it was off to the islands again, dog in tow.    The first dive of the day was on a wreck laying in thirty meters.  We descended slowly in our buddy pairs and explored the wreck which was laying in fantasticly clear waters with visibility at least ten or so metres.  The boilers are still in place, the odd door frame still stands but the rest of the superstructure had long since gone.  The interesting thing about this wreck was how it was broken up.  It was completely flat with the exception of the afore mentioned items, it was like someone had literally just stepped on it and squashed it outwards.  It was covered in deadmens fingers, and some of us happened upon a pair of octopus, fairly small but still an interesting find.  Taking a bearing from the ship we moved on up the slope and back towards the island walls which were once again a playground for a host of marine life.  A really nice dive in good visibility with a rather interesting wreck, perfect.

Again pausing only for a bakewell tart and a recharge of bottom time we headed back in to the waters for a final play with the seals.  The depth this time was a little deeper, around 15 meters for the majority of the dive with it culminating in an ascent up a steep crack in to a natural lagoon.  The scenery was spectacular really living up to Fanes’ great reputation.  The lagoon was filled with seal pups, none wanted to come quite as close as the little chap from the day before but even still they were diving all around us, showing off with belly rolls and games of hide and seek, and bite that fin; all very amusing even if it may have been at the expense of a new pair of fins.  Once again the tail lift on the boat made the exit from slightly rougher waters all that much easier.  Everyone accounted for we headed back to the mainland, waving goodbye to the hosts of seals sun bathing in the late September sun.  Back in harbor our decamping from the boat seemed to gain much interest from passing tourists; sad really that the most exciting thing they saw was us, they really should take up diving!