As not everyone could go on the trip to Norway and because we had a great time last time we went to Northern Island I decided to plan another trip to the North Antrim Coast.  Once again our host was Richard Lafferty from Aquaholics based in Portstewart. We were lucky that there was still space over the August Bank Holiday and as the ferry was the most expensive part of the trip we decided to go for four days.

Eight of us in two cars set off to Birkenhead for the overnight ferry, a pretty good way of getting to Ireland as it allowed us to relax and have a glass or two of the black stuff (Guinness) to get our taste buds accustomed. Friday morning at 06:30 saw us driving North to meet the boat at Portstewart for our first days diving at Malin Head. The wind was strong making the sea quite choppy but Richard’s new bigger boat coped with it well. On this first day we dived the Skerries and the wreck of the William Manell, this wreck struck me as being very similar to the Tarbaka in the Orkneys with clear vis and a great swim through.

     Anenomes on the Skerries                             The William Manell

Back on shore and we made our way to the accommodation at Ballycastle, the house in Ballycastle, a nearly new three story affair with garage to store the wet kit was great, it included all mod cons including a dishwasher and although a tight squeeze for eight of us was ideally placed near the center of town.

The first night saw us going out to sample some of the local bars and ending up in a very pleasant bistro for dinner.

Unfortunately the wind increased overnight and changed to the North West and although we had wall to wall sunshine it meant an early end to more dives at Malin Head. Fortunately this meant a number of sites we had not dived on last trip were sheltered by the bulk of Rathlin Island. This was to be out dive location for the following three days.

On Saturday we dived The Loughgary in less then slack water!! and The Templemore both excellent dives in great vis. In true tradition we decided that Saturday night was going to be curry night. We had all brought a mixture of spicy dishes to share so the table was loaded, unfortunately Stan won the prize of finding the only whole dried chilli in my special Bombay Potato and also unfortunately didn’t actually find it until he had bit into it. The more stalwart members of the party then went out to visit a few more bars.

 
  Big Conger on the Templemore             The Loughgary

Sunday was another day of wall to wall sunshine still blowing though so off we went towards Rathlin again. The sites today were The Drake and once again The Loughgary, this time the water was slack and vis so good you could see from one side of the wreck to the other. The weather was so good that the non divers took it on themselves to sort out a BBQ. So the night consisted of fine wine, Martins homemade kebabs plus local sausages of various flavours. As it was our last night we all the walked into Ballycastle for a few beers.

        Chefs at Work!                                King Prawns Anyone?

Monday and the last full day, again we did two fantastic dives. The first was a reef at Black Head on Rathlin Island which ended with a basking shark swimming round and round mine and Sue’s DSMB line while we were doing a stop at 6m. The last dive was on the Drake, the vis was the best I have ever had on this wreck, it was like swimming in an aquarium. When we finally tied up  in Ballycastle harbour we found the town in turmoil, it was ‘The Ould Lammas Fair’ a two day event that closed off all the roads in the town center and filled them with stalls selling bric a brack, horse traders, some bizarre confectionery called dulse and yellowman (don’t ask) and what seemed like tens of thousands of happy Irish souls. We managed to fight our way (not literally) back to the house to pack up our kit. We even managed a last pint of Guinness in an ancient quaint bar in town before setting off to Belfast and the overnight ferry back to Birkenhead.

        Good vis on The Drake               Sue's Nudibranch

The team were Andy, Sue, Martin, Sally, Annie, Stan, Clive and Tony.

Written by Andy McKay August 2007