Date: 11th- 25th June 2022
In June the club spent two weeks diving on one of the smallest of the four main Channel Islands, Sark. We are lucky to have two club Rhibs and some kind and willing members that took on the journey via France to allow us to have the opportunity to dive around the Island.
The tidal flows around Sark allowed for lots of marine life. However, the vast tides also proved a challenge for divers and for boat handlers. The coastline around Sark has a mixture of rock stacks and submerged pinnacles.
The sheer walls were crammed with jewel anemones in many colours. There were many sea fans, soft coral and some of the divers were lucky enough to spot the beautiful looking sunset cup coral in large numbers. There were many nudibranchs, lobsters, crabs and many other fish along the walls too. This made for incredible diving opportunities, certainly on level with more exotic climes.
To add variety, we also dived the Valentine wreck, which is an East Indiaman, wrecked in 1779.
Back on dry land our stay on Sark felt like we had gone back in time. Sark is one of the few remaining places in the world where cars are banned from roads and only tractors, bicycles and horse-drawn vehicles are allowed.
This meant our cylinders were transported by the kind locals on the back of a tractor and we walked and cycled to get around the island. The island is beautiful with majestic coastal scenery from all directions, its large amounts of wildflowers and the spectacular colour of the landscape. It is easy to see why it’s described as the ‘jewel of the Channel Islands’,
When the weather was not on our side, we were lucky enough to have a tour of the wonderful Island with a fellow diver and her two donkeys Florence and Ruby. This made for a unique experience we would not forget.
