As a club we experience a range of Dive Sites as summarised below:-
Capernwray Dive Centre is a large flooded former slate quarry, and now operates as an inland diving site mostly for training new club members in preperation for open sea diving. The Quarry is located near the village of Over Kellet, Lancashire, England.
The Max depth you will get in the quarry is about 21 meters, (maybe 22 if you dig your dive computer into the lakebed). To aid with training or keep bored divers interested there are a number of purpose sunk objects such as wrecks or heleicopters to keep you entertained or practice your skills.
There is a small dive shop which sells some scuba equipment and provides air/nitrox fills. While waiting between dives you can spend the surface interval at the nice onsite cafe after building up an appetite from your first dive.
Marine Fauna: While you won’t be spotting any nudibranchs or grey seals at Capernwray there are fish including trout, perch and sturgeon. Sticking fish food in your buddy’s drysuit pocket is a great way to start your dive with a fish mob spectacle, although not a recommended prank on novice divers.
From Seals to shipwrecks or soft coral reefs, Farne Islands diving is considered to be some of the best scuba diving in the UK depending on your interests. The layout of the islands gives good shelter from tides & currents regardless of direction, there will always be somewhere to dive as long as the seas are not too rough.
Marine Fauna: The Atlantic Grey Seal is one of the rarest species of seal in the whole world, and it just so happens that the UK is home to 40 Percent of the world’s population of them. A good chunk of that 40 Percent can be found here at the Farne Islands where some 5000 seals are estimated to reside. Often referred to as ‘Sea Dogs’ on account of both their appearance and their behavior in the water these naturally inquisitive creatures are known to get up close and personal with divers. The juveniles are especially playful and will often be found nibbling on the end of a diver’s fin.
The Farne Islands are also one of those rare places that Divers can become bird watchers as the seabirds that reside here, such as the puffins and guilemots, can be observed diving beneath the waves to catch fish In addition to the seals and the birds the best of UK marine life can be found at the Farne Islands with Octopus, Conger Eel, Wolfish, Pollack, Wrasse, Cod, Jellyfish, Nudibrachs etc etc etc all showing up at one dive site or another.
Ship Wrecks: As one might expect from islands which sit just beneath the waves at high tide, the Farne Islands have laid claim to dozens of ships over the years, which means that there are some pretty special wrecks for us divers to explore, amongst the best of them are;
Scapa flow is an expanse of water that for centuries has been a sheltered anchorage for mariners. At the outbreak of World War One, Scapa Flow became the home base for the Grand Fleet. On 21 June, 1919, 74 interned warships of the Imperial German Navy Fleet were scuttled at Scapa Flow to avoid them falling into British hands. It was, and still is, the single greatest act of naval suicide the world has ever seen.
Over the course of the coming decades, the majority of the warships were raised, leaving today eight complete ships of the original High Seas Fleet on the seabed waiting to be explored. They are the 26,000-ton battleships König, Markgraf and Kronprinz Wilhelm, the 5000-ton cruisers Dresden, Brummer, Cöln and Karlsruhe and the 900-ton destroyer V83.
Over the years, many other vessels have come sunk in Scapa Flow – both military and civilian. during World Wars One and Two, “blockships” were also sunk in the eastern and western channels leading into Scapa Flow acting as barriers against enemy vessels.
The german high seas fleet wrecks lie in 30 to 45m of water – with average underwater visibility of 10-15m. The German wrecks either lie on their sides or upside-down. The cruisers all lie on their side, allowing divers to swim to the side of the hull and look down the now-vertical deck. Everywhere there is something to hold your interest: sleek cruiser bows designed to slice through the water; gun-turrets looming up out of the gloom and anchor-chains run out from their chain lockers to steam-driven capstans – before dropping down to the seabed.
As one might expect scapa flow hosts a countless number of ships over the years, which means that there are some pretty special wrecks to explore, amongst the best of them are;
