The annual Vectis expedition to the Isles of Scilly started with the best visibility we’ve had in recent years but then battled through some interesting weather.

All diving expeditions face risks that need to be mitigated.  There are the obvious safety risks – diving is an adventure sport so having good training, building up experience gradually, refreshing skills, planning the dives, diving the plan, paying attention to (and having a reliable buddy) are all good things to make diving ‘safe’.  Then there are the risks associated with getting to and from the destination which are largely a function of the weather.  What happens if the ferry sailing is delayed – outbound to IoS or outbound, or the weather is too bad to dive!  We had contingencies but never had to implement them over the last five years until this year.

This year is an El Nino year.  The Met office say it could increase the chance of more unsettled conditions later in the year but we were diving mid-way through the year so who knows if this is to ‘blame’ for the transient bad weather we had.  The beauty of the IoS is that there should always be a lee shore to dive. This year we knew from the long range weather forecast we were not going to be able to get out to the western rocks but still had plenty of sites to choose on the eastern side of the isles with big hitting sites such as the King Cadwallon, Italia, the Plympton and Hather and the Cita (incidentally we dived them all).

However, getting out of the harbour proved to be the main issue.  Even if the water is flat on the east side under the cliff’s you need to get there.  With wind speeds to F7 and F8, we would be past the limits set by the insurance companies for the dive boat.  So looking ahead we knew two days might be a problem and so it proved; despite our hopes and prayers the local weather on those days proved to be too much on the day; 24 hour forecasts are pretty good nowadays! 

However, having that strategic look ahead and flexibility to bring diving forward saved some dives.  Fortunately we were so early arriving on the ferry (9:30am) we offloaded kit straight on the boat and kicked off diving on the Saturday.  Fortunately as all divers were dived up so our ‘shakedown dive’ was the SS Italia.  We were greeted with the best visibility I’d know in years and being early in the season we didn’t have quite as much kelp covering the shallow parts of the wreck so it was easier to make them out.

We dived hard around the weather but also made the most of the an enforced day off diving to do some tourist stuff non-divers do which included many walks around the island, visits to pubs and a day trip to another island ; this time Tresco.  This island is famous for its royal visits (Prince William, the President of the British Sub Aqua Club goes there for family holidays), it has a nice church in the middle of the island (with services timed with ferries in mind for the vicar travelling between island) and it has its famous gardens, which for divers includes a section on shipwrecks – hurrah! So we got to see some bits of wreckage from wreck sites we couldn’t dive on this trip. We also had booked Shearwater House as our main base of operations; so some of us also relaxed in the large lounge to read the late Richard Larn’s Shipwreck Book,  or,  if you were needing to do a instructor course theory exam – we arranged one of those too!

Towards the end of our stay we received a text message saying our ferry was delayed due to bad weather and unplanned maintenance so instead of going home Saturday, it would be Monday instead!  Naturally this caused some first world order problems to solve but with the help of the Isles of Scilly Travel company and the letting agents (Isle of Scilly Holiday Homes) contingency plans were put in place and all was well – people who needed to get home for work, transferred to the earlier ferry.  Those of us who stayed got an extra days diving in to make up for one we had lost.

As weather prevented us diving the historic wrecks on the western rocks, this year we dived some of the historical sites of HMS Colossus and the Wheel Wreck which proved to be a lot more interesting than the had anticipated and so I would recommend them to others.  Follow the hyperlinks and read the information on line before doing so to get the most out of the dive.

We also explored sites we would not normally dive as there are so many other sites ahead in the queue.  The pinnacle off Deep Point was an interesting scenic dive in its own right but as the nearby cliffs had been used as a dump site for the island in years gone by for old vehicles, there were various parts of very old vehicles strewn around the base of the pinnacle to keep the rust junkies happy.

This year, despite the unseasonably inclement weather we dived the SS Italia, Cita, SS King Cadwallon, SS Lady Charlotte, HMS Collossus, The Wheel Wreck, Trinity Rock, Plympton and Hather, Pinnacle Near Deep Point – all brilliant dives.

On the surface we explored the remains of SS Schiller and HMS Association plus various other artefacts from the Centaur and other wrecks in the Atlantic Pub.
Thanks to Fiona, Ian and Karen, Josh, Danny, Kirill, Rob, Elliot and Geoff for making it such an awesome trip,