St Abbs and Farne Islands

Number of Spaces available:
11
 
Minimum Diving requirements:
Advanced Open Water. You don’t need to be super experienced but you should have completed some UK diving prior. You should also be drysuit qualified for your own comfort! It is also advisable to be deep qualified so that you can explore all the sites. We’ll be running deep courses on the trip at a special rate. Nitrox is also an advisable qualification because it will give you longer dive times.
 
Prices: £500*
 
What’s included:
•    6 days hardboat diving (2 dives per day).
•    3 nights BnB accommodation in St Abbs.
•    4 nights self catering accommodation in Seahouses.
 
What’s not included:
•    Transport:  Depending on the vehicle situation we may hire a van to take us and the kit. Driving is by far the preferred option because it will allow us much more flexibility in transporting kit around.
•    Equipment hire: We can arrange equipment hire at a cost of £150 for a full set for the week including drysuit.
•    Air fills
 
Accommodation
 
St Abbs:
Our plan will to arrive in St Abbs by early evening on the Saturday. We will be staying in a BnB run by the diveboat. Prices are based on twin room shares.
 
Farnes:
We will finish diving on Tuesday at St Abbs and then drive down to the Farnes in the evening. We will be staying in some wigwams on a farm in Seahouses about a mile from the coast. There are 5 wigwams and we will have the run of them. Each one sleeps up to 5 people so we’ll have 2 in each except one with 3. There is a communal kitchen and bathroom area and there will be a repeat of the ‘Come Dive With Me’ from last year! In addition there are fire pits, outdoor eating areas and a shop for provisions.
 
A bit about diving
 
St Abbs:
St Abbs is one of the few UK marine reserves and as such has a huge wealth of fish life not commonly encountered elsewhere on the UK coastline such as the distinctive looking wolf fish. The waters are usually clear and there is wide variety of interesting dive sites including kelp forests and underwater archways. The following link shows some of the diving on offer:
 
http://www.marine-reserve.co.uk/volunteers-conservation/wildlife/virtual...
 
The Farnes:
The Farnes consist of almost 30 small islands and rock outcrops lying between 2 and 4 miles off the Northumberland coast. There are lots of interesting wrecks to visit but the Farnes are famous predominantly as one of the best places to see and dive with seals. There is a massive colony of grey seals here and they commonly come and visit divers in the water to play and nibble on your fins!
 
Courses:
 
Deep Course: The deep course consists of 4 dives. You’ll extend your depth with an instructor and test your reaction to nitrogen narcosis as well as learning how to manage long ascents . We’ll also incorporate some SMB work into this course as well. At the end you’ll be qualified to dive to 40m. Cost £129 (usually £199)
 
Nitrox Course: The nitrox course allows you to extend your bottom times by replacing some of the nitrogen in your tank with oxygen. The course can be completed in a single evening and we will be running them before the trip. Cost £99.
 
Equipment:
 
Because we will be doing 6 days of diving you’ll want to use a drysuit (unless you’re superhard!) in addition to the basic equipment setup each diver will need the following:
 
•    SMB and Reel
•    Torch
•    Dive computer
 
For more information about these products please contact the shop. We will do some special deals on SMB, reel and torch packages.
 
More Information:
 
Please contact the shop if you have any questions
 
*Please note that this cost is based on a certain number of people booking onto the trip, if we fill the trip the cost will decrease a little. Please also be aware that all diving is subject to weather conditions, refunds will not be possible if we have to cancel any days diving. Also if you have to pull out of the trip we will try to fill your space but if we cannot you will be liable for the cost of the trip.