Hellfins June Newsletter

• Congratulations
• Welcome New Members
• Egg-a-fin update
• The Summer Party
• Boat cleaning Party
• Trips to Normandy, Brighton, Poole and Scapa Flow
• Skiing and Diving Weekend
• Training Update
• Hellfins discovered in Borneo
• The story from Porthkerris
• Website News

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations on your engagement Paul and Jenny! Apparently a romantic lunch in the OXO Tower prompted Paul to go down on one knee as they crossed the millennium bridge.

Everyone in the bar on Wednesday would like to thank Nicky and Ian for rushing into London the moment they heard the news to buy champagne for an impromptu toast.

WELCOME NEW MEMBERS

We're delighted to welcome three new members this month:

Sam Manly Sherville de Souza Brian Ditchburn

have joined Hellfins and will be regulars down the pool and pub I'm sure. Glad to have you with us guys.

EGG-A-FIN UPDATE

Plenty of volunteer egg-a-finners so far but we still need more. Remember: this is raising money for the Divers Disease Research Centre as well as for club funds, so it's a worthwhile thing to do.

We'll be having a practice with the Eggs on Wednesday 19th June, so if you haven't got your sponsorship form yet you could come down then or contact Nicky (nicky@hellfins.com) who can email you a form.

You can keep up to date with our experiments in egg buoyancy control techniques as well as the rules of the event and the latest news on the special website: www.hellfins.com/eggafin.

MID-SUMMER PARTY

This years Mid-Summer Party will be at the Brand New Slug and Lettuce near Waterloo. In fact it's so brand new that it's still called Bar Med but by Friday 9th August it will be a fabulous new "Slug" for us to party in.

It's going to be an exciting event. As well as a sumptuous buffet we will also hold the dive kit auction - lots of chances to pick up a bargain at that one.

The party will be your first chance to get your hands on the cool new club t-shirts AND we'll also be giving out prizes for the logo design and for the top egg-a-finners.

Invite all your friends and family - this is going to be ONE GOOD PARTY. Let's invite some potential members too! Tickets cost £8 (including the buffet) and are available from Nicky (nicky@hellfins.com). Donations of unwanted dive kit and other items for the auction also go to Nicky please.

BOAT CLEANING PARTY

If the prospect of painting the boat hull with anti-fowling paint on Saturday doesn't appeal maybe you'll be tempted with the offer of diving on the Sunday? Nigel would be delighted to have some more volunteers for the boat maintenance trip on 22-23rd June, so if you can make it, let him know at Nigel.G.Catterall@stasco.com.

Go on! Get your hands dirty, help the club, relax with a well-earned drink in the pub and then dive all day Sunday - what could be better?

TRIP TO NORMANDY

Two spaces left on the Liveaboard MV Maureen of Dart out of Dartmouth on 14th-21st June. Cost will be £422. The trip to Normandy so lots of wrecks and reefs which have not been dived by the club!

You will need at least 12-litre cylinder and pony or twins. Sports diver minimum and at least 40 dives. Also you should have been diving this year!

Phone Sophie on 07990 590001.

TRIP TO BRIGHTON

Jo is arranging a diving trip to Brighton as she went there last month and was pleasantly surprised at the variety of life on the local reef. To quote from the DO's report in Brighton Marina Divers Newsletter:

"Five of us got out to South West Rocks and it was a pleasure to dive on one of our local chalk reefs and have 4-5 metres Viz. The site was full of life, with highlights of a lump sucker on its nest, a couple of congers with prawns around the entrance to its hole, a sole and the usual array of crabs and wrasse to name a few."

She has provisionally booked 'The Spartacus' as advertised in Dive Magazine for the Monday, 26th August (unfortunately already booked out for the rest of the weekend). The Spartacus takes 12 divers (we will need to bring our own cylinders, x 2, alternatively we may be able to arrange to get fills from B'ton Marina Divers). We can do a wreck dive followed by the reef in the afternoon.

The skipper would expect us at 07:00 and so some may wish to get to Brighton on the Sunday at lunch time say and stay the night. It should prove to be a good time to visit Brighton as Brighton Marina Yacht Club is holding a Regatta for the Sunday and Monday and it is from the marina that we will pick up The Spartacus.

Jo needs get back to the skipper by next Wednesday, 12th June and would be grateful if you would confirm by then. You can contact her by email at Joanna.E.Crook@opc.shell.com. If we fill the boat the cost will be £30 p/p. Jo needs a deposit by next Wednesday 12th June.

JULY RIB TRIP

Still spaces on the trip on 6th July. There will be some training going on but it looks like we will be taking the RIB out for some fun diving too. Contact Sid (sidlothian@hotmail.com) if you're interested.

DIVING AND SKIING TRIP

Nicky is organising a Diving & Skiing Trip on 13th & 14th July

Here's the plan....

Either meet straight at Stoney on the Saturday AM or for those that want we can met on the Friday at my Mum & Dads place in Farthinghoe (small village near Banbury 40min from Stoney)

Accommodation - Camping in my Mum & Dads garden or B&B in the village plus there are a few beds in the house 1st come 1st served.

Saturday - Diving at the Stoney Cove - 2 dives to get the last few training dive signs off.... INSTRUCTORS NEEDED !!!!!!!

Saturday Night - BBQ (weather permitting) OR go into Banbury and sample the nightlife.

Sunday - For those that are really keen we could fit in an early morning horse ride, before we set off to Milton Keynes for a spot of Skiing/Boarding....

Finishing up with a spot of Sunday Lunch in local Pub before we all head homeward.

If you are interested please let Nicky (nicky@hellfins.com) know by Wednesday 19th - what days you can make and your accommodation requirements.

TRIP TO SCAPA FLOW

Crispin (crispin@easynet.co.uk) is organising a trip to Scapa along with the Sea Urchins and there are still some places available.

Where: Scapa Flow is a body of water about 12 miles across surrounded by the Orkney Islands off the north of Scotland. The boat and the accommodation are at Stromness, a town on the Orkney 'mainland'.

Why: At the end of the first world war the entire German High Seas Fleet of seventy ships was scuttled in Scapa Flow. That's why.

Dates. 24th to the 30th Aug. 2002.

Boat: The Sharon Rose, a converted 67ft trawler. It can work as a liveaboard but we're taking it as a dayboat as all the sites are within easy reach. Air, tanks and weights come as part of the price and the boat has an onboard compressor for air or nitrox (extra). Diving would start on Sun. the 25th Aug. and continue for six days until Fri. the 30th Aug. We would be able to put our kit on board the boat on Sat. 24th pm.

Accommodation. Crispin have booked the 'Orca Hotel' on a self-catering basis for the 24th -30th Aug. It's two minutes walk from the boat so there should be no need to have a car on the island unless you want one. It sleeps twelve in six rooms.

Travel. Goes something like this. The prices are all subject to change, but they give an idea of the cost.

Road. You can drive and take the car on the 2 hour ferry crossing (£74 for the car and £31 per person) or leave the car at the ferry point at Thurso.

Rail. From Kings Cross to Thurso via Edinburgh (£81 return) then the ferry (£31 return).

Air. To Kirkwall on Orkney. £262 BA return from London, £116 return from Inverness or £146 return from Edinburgh.

How much: Apart from the travel. The boat will be £160 each, including air, tanks and weights. The self catering accom. will be £100ea. sharing a room. A room on your own will unfortunately probably cost double. There are also B&Bs nearby. That's it.

Contacts: www.orcahotel.com and www.jeanelaine.co.uk for the boat operators Scapa Flow Charters. There is also an enthusiastic write up in December's 'Dive' magazine with some fine photos.

An idea: The wrecks are all in the nitrox range down to 40m. If several of us got trained up we could safer, longer, clearer headed dives. Let me know if you're interested.

What to do: Send Crispin a deposit of £100. Cheques made out to SEA URCHINS SAC. His address is 171 Brook Drive, London SE11 4TG. As usual it's on a first come first served basis

TRAINING

There has been a lot of interest in the two courses Mike is organising: The Nitrox course and the Live Saver course. Contact Mike if you're interested.

Mike has also arranged for Try-Dives to be available on Monday Nights now, so if you know of any potential members, do pass his details on to them: mikewilco@yahoo.com, 077 207 17069.

HELLFINS DISCOVERED IN BORNEO

Club members meet up with former members of Hellfins in BORNEO!

Johnny Watson and Sophie Rennie have just been to Brunei to stay with Susy and Simon Cartmer and John Elder and his partner Anna. Once settled and taking full advantage of Ex-Pat Shell life (superb), they dived a wreck called the Toho Maru - a deep wreck off the coast of Brunei. The wreck started at 51m so not for the feint hearted. It was full of life and offered a good start to the diving expedition to follow.

Once tanned up, they all flew via Sarawak into Sabah in Malaysia and boarded a liveaboard for the wrecks of Kudat and Kota Kinabolu. Simon had organised the trip which was dubbed the Truk Lagoon of Asia'.

The first wreck - a local wreck in 24m of water was not the best start - with only 2m viz most of the time. But then the next wreck - called the Japanese Whaling ship was awesome - 50m again to the bottom, it offered a swim through at the stern where the Whales were pulled aboard. Then the boat moved round the corner of the Malaysian Peninsular and off the Kota Kinabolu where 3 more wrecks, the Rice bowl wreck, the upside down wreck and the unknown wreck, offered amazing fish life and great swim through. Sophie and Susy got dead excited and lifted two intact portholes only to discover that they were made of steel and not brass - so they were turfed back onto the wreck for someone else to find!

And so after 15 dives in 5 days and fully saturated the group headed back towards Brunei for a day of rest before Sophie and Johnny flew back to London in time for the remained of the Jubilee weekend.

Susy and Simon move to Thailand in September but John Elder will be in Brunei for another year at least so if anyone wants to go...

The only downside is that Royal Brunei Airlines are a DRY airline - but they will happily serve you with your own BYO alcohol.

THE STORY FROM PORTHKERRIS

Porthkerris Divers is in a great location. The office, shop and café overlooking the bay with the unusual addition of a field alongside with ostriches (proved an amusing silhouette on the coast from the rib - the ostriches outlined against the sky on the brow of the hill!) The ostriches provided no end of amusement for Mary and unfortunately for some (the ostriches that is), a tasty burger at the café. You can find Richard's picture or "Mary Hugging Ostriches" on the website at www.hellfins.com/features/porthkerris2002.

All involved with the diving set up at Porthekerris were extremely helpful and efficient. Catherine managed to get the valve on her dry-suit fixed at short notice. One of the skippers became a favourite of Mary's - he said he had never quite heard such language before (Mary's unique variations of the more usual swear words!). Finally, a very cute looking gofer became a favourite with the other girls. His gofer duties even extended to going and fetching Nick from the comfort of his Beemer and moving his kit along to the correct spot on the beach whilst Nick kept up with the football until the last minute!

All the diving was great except the first day, which claimed a few casualties (one name not to be mentioned in this instance! - head over the side of the rib for the whole of the return journey) [oh, go on, name and shame - ed] and unfortunately Catherine hurt her knee. We started the first morning feeling disappointed as there was a large swell and we overheard in the office that afternoon dives were being cancelled. We did manage to do the one dive that day but not under the best conditions! The Porthkerris team were super efficient and arranged for help per person in getting into the rib and also loaded and unloaded on our behalf. We were literally held upright with our backs against the waves and guided into the water until it was deep enough to swim to the rib. The rib unfortunately had some fuel problems and although a loose fuel pipe was pointed out by Richard it wasn't acknowledged by the skipper; consequently the water in the boat was full of diesel which not only made a number of us feel seasick but also unfortunately soaked our regs which tasted awful for the rest of the dive and in fact gave the impression of a bad air fill.

On hitting the water however, the seasickness dissipated and the sightings of an enormous jellyfish during the ascent made it all worthwhile. The jellyfish were like something out of a sci-fi film! They were at least foot wide. The main body was a deep orange and the 'skirt' a yellow. We also saw an unusual fish with a 'dislocated' jaw but this turned out to be wrasse that had suffered injury from a fishing hook. We were desperate to land on dry land at the end of the dive as the waiting around to pick up divers was exacerbated by the smell of diesel. Nicky and Jo staggered on to the beach and a diver sharing the rib with us had to be carried ashore as she had fainted. Somehow this did not deter the next boatload!

On returning to St Keverne, the air was (again) full of fumes but this time from a huge bonfire roasting Oxen. The only place to get away from it was by sitting upwind on the churchyard steps. Mmm, lovely, London air was beginning to seem clean!

The square had filled up with stalls and a brass band played in the early evening. Union Jacks and St Georges flags were draped along the houses and pubs and added to the 'English village' atmosphere.

The early evening was spent (by the less experienced divers & so setting a good example!) in rinsing out kit in order to rid it of the smell of diesel (to no avail). We were so thorough we were scared Nicky's BCD would bubble up in washing up liquid as she rolled back into the water!

We were pleasantly surprised on day two as the weather had improved greatly and diving conditions were much better even though we had been inspired by Mary to buy kites in the local village shop in case the diving was called off. As it was the wind was so low that they wouldn't have flown. Unfortunately we were on the same boat but this time even though the engine stalled a few times it did not smell of fuel.

Nicky asked the dive shop for a solution to the smell of diesel and was advised that lemon juice and coke [coca cola I assume - Ed] would get rid of it. We rinsed our regs in coke and it worked! Remember that one.

The diving got better and better as the conditions became calmer.

We dived the Mohegan, a luxury liner that came to peril in 1917 on its 2nd voyage. The bell from the Mohegan is claimed to be in the Southsea BSAC clubhouse.

We dived the Volnay, a British steamship that sank in 1917 carrying ammunition amongst its cargo - Nicky collected some shot.

We dived the Spyidian Vogiano, a Greek Steamer built in Sunderland that was approaching Falmouth with a cargo of barley from Novorossivsk when it struck the Manacles at mid-day on 8th Feb 1890. Only 8 survived.

The last dive on Tuesday morning was a deeper rocky dive. We spotted five dogfish and saw a beautiful patchwork effect of jewel anemone.

In-between dives we lazed on the grass in front of the dive centre enjoying our lunch and sunbathing with the beautiful view of the bay in front of us. Fantastic galleon sailing boats added to the picturesque scene as white yacht sails dotted the background along the coast.

The stodgy puddings in the local pubs provided well-earned extra calories after our diving exertions. Driving back to the B&B each evening was fantastic: hedgerows rich with wild flowers and trees interlocking above us.

I thoroughly recommend this trip. Thanks to Mike for all his efforts and to Richard and Nick for ferrying those of us around who didn't have cars.

Maybe we should dive the Scilly Isles next year?

You can read more about the Mohegan and the Wrecks or Falmouth on the Submerged Productions website.

Jo. …with thanks to Nicky for the details of the wrecks from her exemplary log book!

WEBSITE NEWS

The Website (www.hellfins.com) has just had its one thousandth visitor. It seems lots of people find us when they are looking for a London dive club and we're certainly keeping Mike's mobile busy with enquiries.

There's been a fantastic response to the caption competition, but we still need just a few more votes - log on to www.hellfins.com/features/stoney2001 for your chance to win a large(ish) prize.

Got a point of view? Send it the webmaster@hellfins.com for a public airing…