May 2005
The May Bank Holiday saw an invasion by 24 Oceandivers of peaceful Clare Island off the Mayo coast. The occasion was the opening of a new Dive Centre there which is owned and managed by John McCabe. We completed a total of 5 dives working off the "Fawnglas", John's superb 11.2 meter Oceantramp dive boat. Although the weather was a very mixed bag, the diving was still excellent with great variety off the sheltered North shore and the Deasey Rocks. We saw massive, house sized, boulders which were strewn along the bottom giving amazing gullies and swim throughs to dive between. Just around the corner from the harbour, there were a wonderful series of mini walls to explore all teeming with sponges, anemones and squat lobsters.
North of the Lighthouse, we did some spectacular deep diving off the Deasey Rocks, there is a wall which drops into 40 meters and plenty of interesting chimneys and gullies leading you back to the surface.
Back on shore, the fun was excellent with good food and craic till late each night. We stayed in a variety of local B&Bs all of which were friendly and well run. Bar meals were available from the Hotel and all the staff and locals made us feel really welcome. Follow the link to some great photos of the weekend! Clare Island Photos
John has put in a huge amount of hard work and investment to bring about his new dive operation, we wish him the very best in the future and strongly recommend a visit. For further details checkout John's website:
Our next big Dive Safari will be to Baltimore in West Cork over the June Bank Holiday, this is always one of our most popular events of the year since the area has some of the best wreck diving in the country. Traveling down on Friday 3rd June, we will stay 3 nights in the village of Baltimore and hope to access as many site as possible over the Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
The most famous wreck in the area in the Kowloon Bridge which sank off the Stags Rock in 1986. She is one of the largest accessible wrecks in Europe with a overall length of just under 1000 feet and lies in 38 meters of clear water. The ship is so huge that her upper bow section comes to within 12 meters of the surface.
As well as the many excellent wreck sites, we hope to also dive off the Fastnet Lighthouse and visit Cape Clear if the weather allows.
For full details on the trip, check the details on our Baltimore Dive Safari section.
