If you've just seen the latest Egypt trip advertised on the club website and are considering it ..can I recommend that you grasp the opportunity with both hands.

I was fortunate to have just experienced 6 days of world class diving on some of the top sites in the Red Sea.

Nothing can really prepare you for the experience on your first trip. The wonderful vibrant colours, the prolific fish life and the vast variety of dive sites.

If like me you have never been on a live aboard and have some apprehension don't worry. Yes you are set adrift with 19 other bods, but in truth they are all of the same mind-set. They are there for one purpose and one purpose only ---- to dive. Our group was made up of 6 Mid Herts Divers, a family of 4 , a married couple and the remainder members of a club from the Midlands. It doesn't take long for the whole group to bond and gel together. Yes we did break into our groups when we dived but once back on the boat we quickly shared our experience.

It is a bit odd, being on a floating hotel , but that is exactly what it is. The rooms are normally twin bedded with minimal storage , a port hole or window, dependant on the location in the boat and a small en-suite shower and toilet.

There is more crew than you can shake a stick at and they perform a multitude of tasks through out the trip. If they're not anchoring the boat to the wreck or reef, they are helping you on or off with your kit. If their not doing that they are busy keeping the boat clean and running safely. This brings me onto the dive guides. Wow, they also have a full day. Their first task in the morning is to go around knocking on cabins , waking everyone up. They then spend the day briefing the dive, kitting up, guiding the dive, de-kitting, then making sure all the guests are OK after the dive, throw some food down their necks and then onto the next cycle, brief, kit, dive de-kit....its certainly not all play.

The boat itself with its dedicated dive area is diving luxury. You set your kit up on the first night and that's it for the week. The only thing you need to do is drop the first stage off the cylinder so it can be filled after each dive, not exactly hard work.

Liveaboards in the Red Sea are fantastic and once experienced , never to be bettered. (we used Tony Backhurst and one of their Typhoon Fleet - Whirlwind).

I'm not going to say much more as its now  up to you to experience the rest of the trip for yourself. The only part I would add is that if you're not diving then the time on board may not be for you. ( in other words - don't take the other-half unless they are happy to sit around for hours on end on the sun deck miles from the nearest shopping mall.)

Pete Hodkin

Dates now confirmed 13th to 20th October 2012 doing "Wrecks & Reefs" from Sharm el Sheikh. Contact Clive Murphy if interested. Currently, we have a fantastic 18 members going, so only need another 3 to get a further 5% discount each!

THE SCAPA FLOW "HEADBANGER" TRIP

20th to 26th August 2011

see Gallery for photos

We should have known that this would be a great trip when a disparate bunch of Mid Herts divers set out  on a 700 mile journey in three different vehicles from three different locations and actually met up in a lay-by  just north of Inverness, over 500 miles later!

Some may call it luck…..they may be right.

After getting over the 27 (yes twenty seven!) hour trip, which included an extremely pleasant ferry trip from Scrabster to Stromness passing the Old Man of Hoy ( who apparently was still a young man when we set out), we were very pleased to arrive at MV Sunrise moored alongside in Stromness Harbour.

She is converted trawler with enclosed sides, much to the disgust of Skipper George who had served his time fishing on boats with open decks when the ships were made of wood and the men were made of steel blah , blah, blah……………

Anyway, it wasn’t long before we heard the soon to become familiar CLANG! *&%$$@!!!. It was mostly the taller members at first, but when the diving started the sound produced could only be described as like a Caribbean steel band with Tourette’s Syndrome. Nobody was spared, even the shortest divers’ heads made regular contact with the low deckhead in the diving area.

This though, was the only low point (sorry!) of the trip.

The weather was unusually good, the sea state slight and underwater visibility excellent all week.

The diving was awesome, on World famous wrecks of the German Imperial Battle fleet such as the battleships SMS Konig, Koln, Karlsruhe, Markgraf, Brummer and Dresden. We also managed to dive on the MV James Barrie, a 1970s trawler and the UB116 submarine, both well known to those who have made the 1400 mile round trip before. The only slightly disappointing dive was perhaps when the shot line had mysteriously detached itself from the HMS Roedean wreck and re-attached itself to two crab pots full of particularly angry crabs, although Ray alone claimed to have found the wreck using his Jedi powers.

Ah….mentioning Ray alone…..buddy pairs…….dive times……..sorry, what goes on tour stays on tour!

I could go on describing the fantastic wrecks , divers complaining of too many fish spoiling the photos, close encounters with TWO lovely conger eels and  beds of delicious scallops, freshly cooked but I’m sure you would become bored. Suffice to say an extremely good time was had by all, with all divers completing at least ten dives during the week.

As well as the diving, an intrepid group led by Clive visited the oldest known Neolithic settlement in Europe at Scara Brae, the Orkney Museum at Kirkwall, the Naval Museum at Scapa Flow, and a very nice tea room.

There were outstanding performances by Ian Nokes, a former Mid Herts Divers Diving Officer who although not diving, acted as Dive Manager for the entire week, and James Fitt-Stirling as the ultimate tea making machine.

Other notable achievements include Pete Smith and Paul Nicholls re-starting their Dive Leader training, and Phil Mason, Simon and James Fitt-Stirling completing our Sports Diver qualification. 

Oh, and of course there is the remarkable, though puzzling, achievement of Keith and Martin pushing an empty luggage trailer around Stromness Harbour with the brakes on………….

Phil Mason