Isle of Skye, August 2003

Boat: Elena C
Skipper: Gordon (Dive and Sea the Hebrides)

The dive centre is in an idyllic setting. The boat was comfortable, although with 12 of us on board we had to be tidy, otherwise there were the familiar cries of, "Where's my ...?", "Can you pass me my ...?" The other thing about the boat was the height we had to drop from!! Alan did his usual forward roll entry but most of us did backward rolls.

On several days the sea was as flat as a millpond and some of the sunsets were spectacular.

Dives were mainly on reefs, with a couple on what were loosely termed wrecks, and included Lampay Island, Isay Island, SS Chadwick off Neist Point, Neist Point Light HOuse, Heron Point, Sgeir A'Chuain (aka Ocean Rock), SS Doris off Neist Point, Minish Reef, Wiay, Rubhclach, Flossnan and MacLeod's Maidens.

Other activities included lunchtime sessions of fishing (Steve Taylor), cave snorkelling (Tinky) and skinny dipping (Tinky and Alan) - yes the water was so warm, evening sessions of horse riding (Evelyn and Pete) and a variety of other sight seeing ventures were undertaken by other group members.

I won't argue with anyone who says the vis was better than my estimations - I find it difficult to estimate - but I think it was between at least 5 and 10 metres on all dives. We saw large crabs galore. In fact we became quite blasé about them, and on surfacing from some dives didn't even mention them! One was so big even Sladey wouldn't have a go at it. There were urchins, star fish, cushion stars, squat lobsters, scorpion fish, congas, a huge lobster with claws as thick as my wrist (as well as other large ones), some beautiful cushion stars, an octopus which Sladey extricated from its home. It swam from him to Evelyn and then squirted its ink towards Neil, a ling and an 8-10 inch pipefish, a flounder, a small white flatfish, a white nudibranch, a large walking starfish, a dogfish, a gunnel/butterfish, wrasse, pollock, sponges, deadman's fingers, two large lion's mane jellyfish. Alan and Tinky also saw a large crayfish which screamed at Tinky when he tried to get hold of it. I believe he (Tinky) retreated rather rapidly! That's all I can remember, but other people may have seen other things too.

Before we entered the water for our last dive Alan just had time to see Mike's reaction to the unusual configuration of his kit! Then, the diving over, Evelyn, Bev and Hilary provided the 'musical' (??) entertainment on the journey back to Struan.

Eight of us ate out at the Stein Inn (the oldest pub on Skye and only 100m from our accommodation), and to round off a superb week there was even a piper from Nova Scotia in the bar.

Two new Skill Development Courses will be led soon by Tinky and Alan. Tinky's will be 'Cooking with a Ping' and Alan's will be 'Cooking for a Veggie'.

It was a most enjoyable week, full of entertainment, and the weather was very kind to us. There were the biggest crabs and lobsters any of us had ever seen in this country, an extensive variety of life, both large and minute, and some of the best visibility you could wish for in this country. Thanks to all those who played their parts in making the lunches to take on the boat every day and the evening meals, but most of all to Bev and Pete for deciding the menus and shopping for the food. The self-catering was a success in more ways than one - Mike even learned how to do mashed potatoes!!

A big thank you to Steve Slade for pulling it all together. He's wanted to organise this trip for years, and when he did, managed to pick absolutely glorious weather.