Hi all

After two years as GLUG’s chair I have decided to stand down. I think it’s good to have regular changes in any club so I’d like to hand over to someone else.

It’s been a very enjoyable two years and I thoroughly recommend the role to you! If anyone is thinking of standing as chair and wants to talk it over do please give me a ring.

Best wishes to all
Debbie

Coming to a venue in London soon…

GLUG’s Xmas dinner will be held late afternoon/evening of 9th December. It will replace the usual monthly meeting on the first Tuesday of the month. Final arrangements being made and will be announced ASAP. In the meantime, get the date in your diary for this year’s dinner!

Debbie

The November issue of Diver is out and GLUG is mentioned in one of John Bantin’s gear reviews. We are described as “look[ing] like members of any diving club, some of whom got their kit from a car-boot sale”, a fact which is hard to deny if you’ve had a look at the GLUG galleries.
It’s a very funny review and is beautifully illustrated with a photograph of our own Charlie Stewart, resplendent in a black and silver one-piece with appliqué detailing.
Charlie appears again on the following page and the delightful Birga provides a little something for the ladies a few pages before.
Well worth picking up if you don’t already subscribe.

I’ve added a link to World-First Travel Insurance in the sidebar. Ignacio and I have been using them as our travel insurers for several years, and have been very happy with the service provided. Their annual prices start from £65/year for one person, and £85/year for a couple, and they include Scuba Diving as standard.

They are also one of the few travel insurance companies who will cover travellers with pre-existing medical conditions, including HIV - and without disclosing your status to any other companies.

GLUG is also registered as a web affiliate for World First, so if you click on the link and subsequently purchase insurance online from them, the club gets a commission of 10%. You can also phone them to buy your insurance - please tell them that you saw them on the GLUG website, but note that we only get half as much commission for phone purchases.

A little diving related article that may have escaped your notice…

“Diving is about having fun, it’s not about being a complete nutter.”

The Sark trip is now fully booked - I will start a reserve list should anyone drop out. I am also looking into the possibility of organising another Channel Islands/Sark trip for June and/or July. Further details will follow when I have checked out the tides.
Thanks
Fred

There’s now a spare place on the Tenerife trip, 8th-16th June 2007. Please contact me for further details. Flights cost around £160 and 6 days’ diving is just 194 euros. Accommodation and meals extra - but not expensive.

A couple of my friends are launching a new G & L club night called Myth on the 25th of October at Sugar Hut Village in Brentwood (Essex). Please see the poster below for details

Due to the success of the Sark trip in September, the next GLUG Sark trip will take place on Bank Holiday weekend of the 26th May 2007. 28th is a Bank Holiday.

In September, helped by a couple of my club members, we were able to take care of all the catering (for a minimal fee) to keep your costs to a minimum. We intend to do the same next year.

Possibly planning further weekend trips to Sark in June and/or July is there is sufficient demand.

The details are the same as for the previous Sark trip.

If you wish to register interest in this trip please drop me an e-mail and later, I will look to obtain from you the usual Booking Form, together with a small deposit. You can email me by logging into the website, and then clicking on the envelope icon which will appear at the top of this post.

Update: The dates are now a day earlier than previously published
Following the success of this year’s Red Sea trip (as documented in October’s Diver Magazine including a front page coup), I am pleased to announce that I have booked the magnificent MY Blue Seas for 19th-26th 18th-25th July 2007. The 2007 safari will take us to the stunning outer Daedalus Reef and then south to the beautiful Rocky and Zabargad Island Reefs. Check them out!

The details are as follows: Return flights from Gatwick, transfers, 1 weeks liveaboard including all meals and soft drinks, at least 3 dives per day including free Nitrox (with conditions) and our final day will be spent at The Coral Beach Hotel. I have negotiated a £80 per person discount with our friends at Oonasdivers, giving a cost of £995.

I hope you can join me to dive these amazing reefs and enjoy the comfort and spaciousness of The Blue Seas vessel. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions and I look forward to your reservations. Places will be reserved on a first come first served basis.

To reserve your place, you need to pay a deposit of £200 by calling Oonasdivers on 01323 648924, and telling them you want to book on the GLUG trip. Please note that all payments are non-refundable unless either (a) you provide a replacement diver to take your place, or (b) there is a waiting list at the time you cancel.

I will also be at the Dive Show on Saturday if any one wants to meet up.

Best wishes for now

CHARLIE STEWART

PS. You can email me by logging into the website, and then clicking on the envelope icon at the top of this post

Ocean Optics 10th annual Underwater Photograhy festival takes place on 4th & 5th November at Kings College London, on the Strand.

The event has expanded this year to cover the whole weekend, and there will be talks from leading professional UW photographers including Micheal Aw, Alex Mustard, Amos Nachoum, Martin Edge, and Peter Rowlands, founder of Ocean Optics and Sport Diver Magazine, and publisher of the online E-Zine, Underwater Photography Magazine

I’m in the early stages of planning a trip to the South of France next year. The diving can be as deep or shallow as we choose but wrecks in the area tend to be in the 25 to 45/50 mtrs range so this trip is for divers with previous and good experience of deeper diving. I’m thinking of doing nothing deeper than 40 mtrs but this is not a trip for beginners.

I will open this trip to selected well-behaved divers from my BSAC dive club. This would be either the first or third week of September 2007 and I have two boats in mind:

October’s GLUG Meeting is on Tuesday 3rd September, from 7.30pm in the Konditor & Cook cafe bar at the Curzon Cinema, Shaftesbury Avenue. All welcome.