The Club Expedition is the premiere club event. Held annually, usually in June or
July, the expedition is a week long UK diving holiday. The expedition is aimed at
the more experienced and higher qualified divers of the club. It is aimed at the
more highly qualified divers in an attempt to give those divers of lesser qualifications
or experience something to aim for.
The expedition is a diving holiday - not a holiday with diving! As such, diving activities
will be scheduled every day (weather permitting!) and the diving will be fairly advanced,
usually involving a greater depth than normal, and certainly requiring planned decompression.
Due to the nature of the diving involved, the club organises a range of build-up
dives beforehand. It is expected that all divers going on the expedition take part
in these build-up dives.
In recent years, the expedition has been both land-based and live-aboard based (i.e.
staying aboard a boat all week). A synopsis of some of the recent expeditions follows:
Scapa Flow
Scapa Flow - widely regarded as the Mecca of wreck diving in the UK. Scapa Flow lies
within the Orkney Isles and provided a natural large sheltered anchorage for the
WW1 German High Fleet which was interned there following the Armistice. However just
before the treaty ending the war was signed, the German fleet commander gave the
order for the interned ships to be scuttled. 72 warships were originally sunk and
all but seven were later raised for salvage. The seven that remain provide the focus
for some extremely good and for most of the time, not too challenging, wreck diving.
The club has been to the Flow on four occasions - the last being in July 2007 aboard
the MV Valkyrie. The club has decided to revisit Scapa Flow in August 2011.
The Channel Islands
The Channel Islands provide some exceptional wreck and reef diving in clear, warm
waters. The club booked the Maureen of Dart for a week live aboard trip in June 2005.
During that week, club members dived a variety of wrecks - some of which had been
sunk in the World Wars and others which were just general merchant casualties. The
diving can be challenging for its depth, however wrecks in the 'Sport' diving range
are readily located and are normally well worth a look.
