Trip Report - Oban Wreck Adventurers

The birth of "Team Tea-Bag"

Fully loaded and ready to roll, five cars set off from Leeds around lunch-time on Thursday, expecting a journey time of 6-7 hours to arrive at the town of Oban, on Scotland’s west coast. All had successful trips, unfortunately Choppers car was lumbered with picking up ‘Stinky Andrews’ from Glasgow Airport, but hey-ho...

We were greeted with a deserted ‘Jane R’ on arrival, and after several calls to the skipper (Gordon), we set off to tow his stranded van back to the harbour. After loading and setting up kit, the group retired to The Oban Inn for a well-deserved meal and few beers. Luckily only a short trip back to the boat, and the newly decked out accommodation fitted us well.

Friday: Up for 8am with a hearty breakfast of porridge/toast and planned a fairly easy dive on the ‘Breda’ to start things off. A quick safety briefing from the skipper, how did he know about our tea-bagging stories?? and then we were off – dive pairs keenly planning dives and performing last equipment checks. The Breda proved an excellent first dive, plenty to see at 25m, and chance to swim through the open holds with plenty of marine-life. Greeted by Mark (Skippers mate) with sausage rolls/cups of tea back on board – could we ask for more?

Plenty of deck space to keep things stowed and everyone a little more relaxed after the first dive and feeling more comfortable on-board. A full English breakfast followed for brunch, black pudding and everything – SWEET. Afternoon dive on ‘The Thesis’, a cracking current saw a group of divers sheltered by the bow of the wreck, discussing where to go. Si decided to battle his way headfirst into the current, which proved interesting watching. Divers surfaced and after a few incidents with the ladder slipping out of place, back on board for more tea and an afternoon nap. Only Kirk/Chris ventured on night-dive on Loch Aline, the rest of us too lazy and happy to stay warm and dry. After an interesting climb through the silver sand mine machinery, we headed to the local hostelry – a curious place, but provided the sustenance needed. Pretty tired.

Saturday: After some confusion over tides, decided on only one dive (Hispania) as an afternoon dive, so a leisurely day. Some decided on a stroll and after exploring ALL of Loch Aline, retired for a kip and a big lunch to prepare us for the dive. Arrived and ready to hit the Hispania, three other dive boats in the area so was going to be a busy one. A fantastic wreck with plenty to explore in the holds, a shame the current was so strong which provided a bit challenging at times. Two dive pairs had boats head over their DSMBs – rather a worry, that’s why we use them! Still don’t know which boats was potentially so dangerous, but glad to have an experienced group.

Arrived at Tobermoray, the setting for the kids TV programme ‘Balomoray’. Another big meal on board and off to the local pub ‘The Mish Nish’ which has a somewhat legendary status in the area. At 9pm, the quiet pub transformed into a super-club with banging music and a top DJ creating a storm on the dance floor (??). After a few drinkies the lure of dancing came too much and we managed to get the whole group up there. Mark provided a interesting new dance move we named the ‘South African Card Shuffle’, at which we are all now experts. Certainly a tops evening, and you can’t beat a bit of silly dancing on dive trips…

Sunday: Two dives planned for the day, starting with ‘The Rondo’ a interesting wreck that lies at such a steep angle you can dive it from 50m to 5m, perfect for decompressing and divers of any ability. The two Ed’s decided to miss this one with the lure of a lie-in, obviously the dancing had been a bit over-strenuous. Apparently quite a good wreck but not the best of the trip, but nice to get some more depth experience for some.

The final wreck was the Thesis, which the two Ed’s actually got out of bed for, shock horror!. A tops wreck and able to appreciate it much more this time without the immense current of two days before. Got right down to the boilers, unfortunately limited by our nitrox MOD, but would like to see this a bit deeper in future. A great one to finish upon anyway and then headed back to Oban. Quite a rough crossing and regretting stuffing my face at lunchtime as the boat pitched and my stomach heaved with prawns and obscene amounts of mayonnaise. Urgh.

Back into harbour, everyone packed up and after picking up cars and loading up in the rain, the looooooong drive home.

Was it a eating or diving holiday??? Not so sure, either way, it was a good’un...