Diving Late Nov./Early Dec.

[wreckchick]

Well, here's the deal.....

I'm flying into London on November 19, I'm booked for a week in France from the 22nd to the 30th, then I fly out of London on Dec. 9.

What would you dive in the neighborhood? I'm not fabulously wealthy so I can't pop down to the Red Sea for a few days, but I wouldn't mind catching a couple dives. It's more than likely that I'll be up in Scotland for a bit at some point, I've heard that Portsmouth has some good diving, but where else would you go?

Rachel

 

[Conor]

I'm only getting around to diving in the UK at the moment so I can't advise on that. But if you want to travel from England you have a few options, mostly depending on time or money.

Fly to Girona and Dive in L'Estartit. Flights are very cheap and only a couple of hours. Accomodation and other costs should be cheaper than spending the same time in the UK and you would probably save money over a longer period.

Fly to Malta. You should be able to get fLights, accomodation and diving for under £300 for a week, or slightly less for a long weekend. Flights are still relatively short.

Fly to Egypt, dive the Red Sea. Water temperatures are warmer than the other two but getting colder at that time of year, the flight is longer but well worth it if you have a week to spare. Once again at that time of year if you shop around you should be able to get a week including diving, flights and accomodation for around £300, and the cost of food etc is incredibly cheap (2 meals a day for two for two weeks cost me E£600 about UK£70, i.e £20 per person per week, I would almost spend that a day eating out in the UK).

I think the more expensive option is probably diving in the UK, not really due to the diving (although equipment rental can be quite expensive here) but more likely due to the cost of living here. Accomodation and food etc are a lot more expensive than the equivalent in the other places mentioned.

Hopefully I'll be finding out a bit more about UK diving myself over the next few months.

You may want to post in the Uk Wreck Ferrets area or visit www.yorkshire-divers.co.uk

Cheers

Conor

 

[spottydog]

There is lots of diving around the coast of the UK but by that time of year you are unfortunately running the risk of bad weather blowing you out.

Most of the UK diving is done from boats although there is some shore diving around.

UK sites on the south coast include Brighton, Littlehampton, Weymouth, Swanage, Poole, Plymouth, and Cornwall.

There is also a large number of dive sites in Scotland.

A good place to search for possible sites is Divernet which contains previous articles which have been published by Diver magazine and a active forum as well as a last minute spaces section where boat skippers add details of places available.

 

[Diversauras]

I spent some time in UK, Windsor, and during the fall I used to do the Thames. Still have the bottles, cups, mugs and boat registration enamels. Seems my spots were Cookham and Reading.