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    Where to find Basking Sharks?

    We had the most amazing long weekend diving the small isles with Lochaline boat charters in August, saw basking sharks every day - plus minke, porpoises and dolphins - off Coll spent the time in between diving the Tapti and a wall off Muck for around an hour and a half in the water with between...
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    Scapa Flow liveaboards

    All of the Scapa charter boats are OK, however they do cater for different markets. My all time favorite, is the Karin, nice flat deck for kitting up on, plenty of space and warm and cosy if fairly basic cabins - many a happy week spent diving scapa or further afield on her. Great skipper . I...
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    Where to find Basking Sharks?

    baskingsharkscotland.co.uk - operate as fast rib so can go where the sharks are - think the price for next year is around £120/day, but good value even at that. There was a survey in that area - Coll where there were plans for an off shore wind farm so the sharks were counted over 24 hours -...
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    To dive the UK or not... input appreciated

    Most of the boats in Orkney tend not to go out on Saturdays, unless it's the winter - we jumped on the jean Elaine for a day a couple of weeks ago - an easy day on the karlsruhe and F2 - a good 15m vis on both, the fish were a positive pest getting in the way of pictures - and all in enough time...
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    Diving and travel SCAPA FLOW???

    Any of the boats in the Orkney dive boat association are fine enough, my favourite is Karin, flat dive deck, plenty of space, any gas on request, dive lift - like most of the boats a converted trawler, so basic by US standards. The boats will be booking up by now, so you'll need to do...
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    Diving Loch Ness

    Or Ballahuillish Slates isnt far away, I know it's a training site, but there is plenty to see there, loads of loch anenomes, biggish fish, peacock worms etc - vis was around 15m there 2 weeks ago - and the added bonus of the Clachaig Inn just a few miles away which can be sort of made to be on...
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    Underwater Navigation

    I dunno, I rarely use a compass on most dives, unless it's a direct in and oout to the reef and back with pilotage in the middle. Wrecks, once you've some sort of understanding of them are far easier to navigate using pilotage anyway
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    Underwater Navigation

    I'm not sure how you could organise a dive with 2 trainees both navigating together and maintain proper control - the chances of at least one going astray are very high - it's not a long skill to complete, just have one, then the other complete the same or similar courses
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    Underwater Navigation

    Usually when assessing navigation skills, the first attempt in limited vis often fails, in part at least because the trainee either gets fixated on the compass and ignores everything else, or the other way round and fails to trust the compass. In good vis, it's an easy skill, just take a...
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    underwear

    Weasle for me :) - they don't lose (too) much thermal protection when used with a flooded drysuit in the far north of Scotland in winter. Extreme for summer/spring extreme plus for winter
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    Continuing Education

    Divee in as many different places with as many different folk as time/work/weather allow. Never failed to learn something on every dive trip/course I've ever been on. Trainees will always keep you on your toes, but always something I can learn too. Today we've been diving a local site at Dunnet...
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    Diving Loch Ness

    There aren't any charters operating out of Loch Ness, and whilst there are a few shore dives in it - they are dark, can be deep, and not very exiting unless you like peat. It does make a very pleasant few days kayaking from Inverness to Fort William and back however - much better way to spend...
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    What do most Scuba divers do for a living?

    Isn't one of the nice things about diving the fact that it cuts accross every section of society, and no-one actually cares about what you do for a living anyway? Generally when diving we don't discuss work stuff, I go to work to pay for the things I want to do, and although I enjoy what I do, I...
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    Recommendations for Ireland/Scotland dive trip

    It depends on what you mean by 'technical' - I think the definition means something different here to what it does in the states. Scapa Flow is always worth a trip, I've lost count of the number of times I've been there now and still always something new to see - all of the boats in hte Orkney...
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    Log books

    While I've never been asked for a log book by an operator in the UK, I have when abroad on holiday. There are minimum requirements for many trips/sites and it's up to you to produce evidence of that or possibly not dive, which is fair enough I've always kept a log over the last 23 years...
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    Couple of questions on UK diving

    Loch Carron didn't disappoint despite truly atrocious weather ( F9 wind and torrential rain!) Slow drift round Strome Castle onto the wall which is always very pretty even in winter), then HW slack at Conservation Bay - lobster, peacock worms, coral worms, ling, assorted wrasse, langoustines...
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    Stomach Problems in the Red Sea - how to avoid!

    we usually use one of the liveaboards and none of us have ever had any stomach problems - the water's mostly from the desalination plant anyway and I tend to eat the salads and stuff in the same way as I would at home
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    Couple of questions on UK diving

    Did you bump into the 3 amigos from Bo'ness? - they did describe it at Baltic though! We're diving Loch Carron ths weekend, assuming the roads improve, I'd be very surprised if we bump into any other divers
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    Couple of questions on UK diving

    Most folk in the UK always use a drysuit - it's not so much the water, it's the temperature outside that's the problem. Most places a 5-7mm et suit is fine - for 1 dive as long as you can get changed straight away - in the summer. On the S coast I've had 17deg on deco, here in Scotland 12 deg in...
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    Couple of questions on UK diving

    Scotlandshire's quite a muckle place - I'm in the far north, if you ever get this far drop me a line :)
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