By Stuart Wilson, Billericay Sub-Aqua Club

July 2006

Our Isle of Man trip started as a spark of an idea about a year ago from another member of our club, Mike Smith. He and I spoke about going somewhere a bit different and new. No-one knew of any current members who had been to the Isle of Man, and so an idea was born.

Getting there is a little bit harder than your average trip. Flights are almost comparable to the ferry prices, but due to baggage allowances and the problem of transport around the island once there I plumped for the ferry. The Steam Packet Ferry goes to the Isle of Man from Liverpool by Seacat and from Heysham by conventional ferry. Liverpool was preferred but it turned out that the Steam Packet company would not let diving cylinders onboard the Seacat. Therefore we went from Heysham on the Ben-My-Chree. A point to note here is that a Dangerous Goods Note was required (obtainable from the Steam Packet Ferry) and sent to them prior to departure for the cylinders.

The ferry cost £305 return for 6 people and a minibus, outside of the TT races period. The minibus cost £314 for 5 days.

We had a long drive to Heysham on Thursday morning, just getting there in time for the check in 45 mins before departure at 2.15pm The crossing was great, we passed Barrow offshore windfarm and gas platforms in bright sunny conditions, all bode well for the next few days!

 

Port Erin (our minibus in foreground) 

After disembarking in Douglas, we arrived in Port Erin about 6.30pm and found our B&B, Regent House. Nicola Kinley the owner was great, welcoming us and provided good clean rooms and good manx breakfasts whilst we were there (the famous manx kippers, or local preserves or cheeses with croissants being popular).

The next morning we met our skipper Gary Smith and his boat Castaway. He normally operates out of Douglas but had agreed to work from Port St Mary for the three days we were there. Gary and his business partner Dean are members of a local BSAC club and run their boat as a sideline to their normal work. Joining us on the boat was a team of 4 rebreather divers from Belgium and Holland. Gary went through a boat briefing and then took us to our first dive site Sugarloaf Caves. It is only 10 mins from Port St Mary and so we were soon in the water. The caves consist of two separate caves, the first ‘the cave of the birds’ runs directly into the cliff face, and narrows and darkens as you penetrate it.

Andy and I found some impressive coloured anemones near the back of the cave and once we swam out we turned right going along a wide gully between the rockface and the anvil, a small rock island. The next cave entrance was small and obscured by kelp, inside the narrow entrance walls are covered in a deep bed of hydroids, almost like fur. The cave opens out and you find yourself in the ‘fairy hall’ a wide cave with two exits. We swam on straight ahead, with plenty of life clinging to the rock faces, Dead mens fingers, ‘lightbulb’ sea squirts, anenomes, sponges and masses of different hydroids, all very colourful.

 

Dive Route

Outside the cave we swam the right again and started to circle sugarloaf rock. This rock and the surrounding cliff face is home to a colony of Guillemots and gulls. As you swim round at about 6m you can spot the guillemots swimming on the surface. Then all of a sudden they dive down and swim down maybe 3-4m or more, covered in a silvery sheen, the air trapped around their bodies. What an incredible sight to be surrounded by an underwater bazaar of guillemots.

The second dive that day was the Buroo, a rocky cliff face on the very southernmost tip of the isle. It has to be dived on slack and it extends initially sharply then less so down to 40m We dropped in close to the rocks and dropped down onto the boulders and cliff faces below, however we kept quite shallow on our dive. The underwater scenery is formed from huge boulders that are tailor made for current loving animals and wildlife. My buddy Andy and I found lots of large edible crabs and wrasse as we swam around the Buroo. The wrasse were looking for a free lunch, as they appear to know the bad habit some divers have of breaking open an urchin for them, but we both refrained – if every diver did this all the urchins would eventually be gone!

After 15mins or so we came across a huge boulder at around 12m. As we turned the corner a vertical rock face opened up in front of us. My reaction was wow! – it was covered from top to toe in squigy life. Thousands of plumose and jewel anemones covering every single inch. An orange, white, green, and pink wall of colour. After we surfaced the skipper told us another group had spotted a basking shark near us. We did manage to see it briefly from the boat, but it was very shy.

Next day we set off for the Calf Sound, the bit of water between the mainland and the calf of man. We dived Gibdale Bay, a small bay on the western side of the Calf. We started in the shallow water in the middle of the bay and swam West. The kelp forest thinned at about 8-9m and after another few metres we explored a bank of large rocks that ended at about 19m with a flat sandy gravel seabed extending out below us. The wrasse paid us more attention, and we found a brace of lobsters as we searched the cracks and gaps between the rocks.

After the dive almost immediately some of our group spotted basking sharks slightly further north, just east of the light beacon that marks the sound. Gary drove the boat closer and our Dutch friend Wouter [pronounced ‘Walter’] took his camera in with him, snorkelling. After a while he was lucky to be in the path of a shark that swam right under him! He took some great pictures. A little later I joined Wouter and his Dutch buddy and John C in the water 

After what seems like ages trying to get to a point in front of where the shark were heading I finally saw a huge shark coming my way. I stopped and just floated as the behemoth of a shark slowly passed below me, no more than 3m away. I would guess the shark was 7m long, easily dwarfing me. The thing that struck me was how small their eyes are, for such a large creature. The shark had slightly mottled patterning on its skin, but it blended well with the surrounding water colour and so it only became visible at the last minute. My heart was thumping, but what a moment, as it cruised by. A little later I was lucky to see another go by to one side of me of equal size, and then I waved the boat over to be picked up, climbing back onboard exhilarated. That was one big fish!

As it turned out that was the last activity in the water for the weekend. The afternoon dive was blown out and so too was Sunday – great British summer eh? We entertained ourselves by taking the narrow gauge steam train from Port Erin to Douglas the capital. On Monday we took the ferry back to England and drove home. The end of a 5 day adventure.

Even with only a 50% success rate on the diving, this was a great trip, its just that I consider it unfinished business with the Isle of Man. I will be back.

NB: See Gallery for more pics..