Farne Islands

by Liz Pentreath

A trip to the Farnes Islands, Northumberland
30/09/2006

Saturday morning the 30th of September, Janine led 11 divers onto the aptly named boat Hope of Life. Hope became a reality--multiple octopi (one chasing a crab dinner), lobsters, crab, wrasse, pipefish, various starfish and sea urchins, even a mystery fish (which was most probably a cod upon looking in my fish book, probably the only one left in the North Sea) and of course the stars of the weekend, the SEALS, very playful--kissing divers, hugging divers, nibbling divers' fins, peeping seals, roly-poly seals, standing-on-their-head seals, and one who could just not get enough of everyone's company, the world-renowned Slapper Seal!!

We had sun and calm seas on both days although 'mussel fatigue' claimed a casualty which reduced numbers on the Sunday dives (hope all is well now...) Life on land was as eventful as life in the sea--we had an excellent meal in The Ship by the harbour (apart from some of the mussels, that is)--we took over a back room in the pub and the meal ended with a pudding-eating performance. Some had custard with their apple crumble or roly poly pudding, others opted for ice cream or a jug of cream, but there were some who couldn't decide and so had custard AND ice cream AND pudding....well, we were just storing up fat to cope with the cold waters (which actually never dropped below 13 degrees.)

A weekend of sun, good humour, excellent diving, tasty food, great company.