In order to get the best tides, boats and diving venues in 2011, we have started to pull together a list of dates, venues and organisers for sea diving both in the UK and abroad for 2011.

Once a sufficient framework of weeklong, long weekend, weekend and day trips has been formulated, we can then fill in the remaining gaps to make 2011 a really great diving season. The spreadsheet containing list of dates, venues and organisers can be found on this website here.

Please take a moment to look at this spreadsheet, take a copy and let Clive Murphy have back details of which trips you would be interested in going on and more importantly, which trips you would be prepared to organise. Clive will collate all the proposals received by the end of September 2010 and then formally publish the 2011 Diving Calendar on the website

Clive 07979 540 839

18 members of Mid Herts Divers, friends and family had a brilliant day on Saturday 7th August at Go Ape in Wendover Woods climbing ladders, swinging in the tree-tops, balancing on wires and sliding down zip wires.

Everyone had a great time with no injuries, just puzzlement when we got home at the places in our underwear that the bark/wood chippings managed to find their way. None had been to Wendover Woods before, which is a great loaction in the beautiful Buckinghamshire countryside, and it is thoroughly recommended.

The day was rounded off with a meal in a local restaurant where we all exchanged anecdotes about what was the best bit of the aerial course and hopefully we should be able to upload some photographs shortly. As commented by some Mid Herts Divers members, this was a great way of socially interacting with fellow divers, their families and friends and really makes an already good diving club a truly great club to be part of.

Well done Dan for organising both Go Ape and the meal with the minimum of fuss.

We are all looking forward to your organisational abilities in the forthcoming social events for the remainder of the year:

1. Club Dive & BBQ 30th August 2010
2. Evening at Henlow Greyhound Racing track with meal (date tbc)
3. 10-pin bowling competition against other local diving clubs
4. Christmas meal and Awards Presentation evening (probably) 11th December 2010

Dives on the Teapot wreck (aka The Brigitta) and the Bracklesham Bay Landing Craft are planned for Sunday 29th August.

Mid Herts Divers have dived on the Teapot wreck several times in the last few years and have always found this to be a great little dive. This is combined with a dive on the nearby Landing Craft wreck in Bracklesham and with depths 20m or less, ideal for Ocean Divers!

Hardboat leaving from Selsey, cost £45, all spaces filled but reserve list available.

Contact Colin Savage for details 07946444878

Members of Mid Herts Divers, Potters Bar and Stortford Divers enjoyed a great expedition to Lochaline, Sound of Mull on Coast of Scotland last week, with some really good wreck diving, lots of marine life, comfortable boat, great accommodation and food.

We stayed at the Lochaline Dive Centre’s newly refurbished Dive Lodge on a bed, breakfast and evening meal basis and thanks Rod, what a great choice that was! Not only was the accommodation very good but the Dive Centre’s Cordon Bleu chef, Gordon cooked up a superb range of food including a small amount of shellfish freshly “harvested” as appetisers on a couple of evenings. The Dive Centre's boat "Sound Diver" was very spacious and was with a lift was very stable and comfortable to use. In addition, an on-board compressor meant we could get top-offs between dives, although some in the party did make use of the 300 bar nitrox and trimix available from the Centre. The boat was skippered by Lee and crewed by Steph who were more than willing to help out with Chartwork and Position Fixing training that was done whilst we were there.

The highlight of the trip were the wrecks, which were very accessible and also generally covered in a complete carpet of marine life, mainly Plumrose Anemones thus satisfying both the “wreckies” and the “marine life divers” in our party. The wrecks were brought to life by Mark who runs the Lochaline Dive Centre who took time out to present 3D visualisations of the wrecks using WreckSightsoftware courtesy of ADUS to aid dive planning. Wrecks dived included The Hispania, The Shuna, The Rondo – the classic wreck on a near vertical slope running from 9 to 54 metres,   The Thesis and The Breda.   Mark and his wife Annabel are both Underwater Archeologists and have been involved in the exploration of the wreck of a small warship lost in 1653 that lies against the rocks beneath DuartCastle where we saw cannons and anchor. The site is a designated site and can only be dived under licence. Mark gave us a talk about the history of this wreck and we then took advantage of a tour DuartCastle exhibition of the wreck, possibly “The Swan” to put our diving in context.

Naturally, whilst in Scotland, we had to sample some of the local “produce” at the Tobermory Distillery in the picturesque town of the same name on Mull whilst we had a break between dives!

Many thanks to Rod Reeves for organising the trip including the minibus

Many congratulations to James Coxell for having become Mid Herts Divers latest Open Water Instructor.

James, Well done and well deserved