Saturday 17th pm

John, Jason, Dave and Chris met up in the Oban inn, Oban. We ate some lunch (expecting to see it soon after) and had a beer.

We loaded the boat, the Elizabeth G with all our gear and sorted out our rooms. The other 4 divers + 1 non-diver boarded the boat. Weather was too rough to go direct to St Kilda, so we set sail for Tobermory on Mull. John and Jason took Stugeron seasickness tablets washed down with rum. We ate dinner en-route, arriving in Tobermory about 20:30, as it would be rude not to, we went to the pub :o)

Sunday 18th.

Weather was still too bad to go to St Kilda so we headed up to the Small isles and did an early afternoon dive at Eigg, a good dive down a 30m wall and sand slope. Viz ok at about 10m, a fair bit of life around.

We continued our journey, doing a dive around Canna which was similar to the first dive. We moored up at Canna overnight, had a nice dinner and went to the little cafe/pub thing on the island. Had a bit of an explore of Canna (Population ~20) and headed back to the boat. Here, we found that a large platter of cheese had been left out..... We ate cheese, drank some rum and played cards till about midnight and slept well.

We're going to St Kilda!!! Seasick tablets (both Stugeron and new experimental type) along with a bit of rum and we were good to go. It took about 10hrs of non-stop journey to get us there!! And some of it was nastily rough.

Somehow, no-one was sick..... We arrived at the impressive islands and managed to dive the Sawcut, a narrow crack (about 1m wide at the start) in the rock face that opens up into a cavern going down to about 35m. Good viz and plenty of life, we even got a big lobster, but had to put it back as it was carrying eggs :o(

Had dinner anchored in Village bay and went ashore to the Pub on the island - the pub is actually run by QinetiQ as it's located in their base on the island, no chance of a staff discount though, mind you at just £4 a round for 4 people we didn't really mind. The pub was surprisingly busy, with about 30-40 people consisting of divers, Army and QQ staff, wildlife bods and sheep population checkers! Back to the boat, more cheese was there for us, we ate it all again :o)

4 of the group decided to go and explore the island, so it was down to the Maldives crew + Larry to make the first dive, the "Trouser leg". The skipper briefed us, explaining that it was a cave type dive with good viz and lots of life. Entrance to the cave was at 50m. Due to the depth, only John and Jas dived the cave. We easily located the entrance at 50m and swam in. The cave was about 25m long, rising to 35m, viz was superb, with plenty of life. We exited the cave and swam around the numerous car and house sized boulders. Suddenly John spotted something, started waving and shouting "Hello doggy". I figured John had lost his mind as I couldn't see anything, but after a minute I noticed a large seal checking us out. The seal came within 6 feet of us quite a few times and was just generally inquisitive it stayed with us for about 15mins before we had to ascend and do our deco. Superb!! One of my best dives ever.

We're running away!! The skipper had seen the weather forecast and we ran away back to Harris to avoid being pummelled by waves at St Kilda. Skipper brought us all sick bags as he reckoned it might get a bit choppy on the way back. Time for sea-sick drugs again!! We had a long and rough sail back to Harris before doing a late evening dive and collecting a load of scallops. We then had a super meal anchored up in a quiet bay, followed by Cheese, rum and cards. Slept well :o)