You may have noticed that the GLUG website has been offline for the last day or so.  Following a series of hacking incidents, and the refusal of our old web host providers, Hostroute, to provide even basic security measures on our old server, I’ve moved everything to a new webhost provider: Hostgator, who offer a much more secure site, that should be a lot harder for the hackers to compromise (I do hope that no-one’s going to see that as a challenge!).

Hopefully, the change will be completely transparent to the almost everyone.  There are one or two committee members who have GLUG email accounts, and they will need to reconfigure their mail programs (I’ve emailed them to tell them how), but hopefully everything else should be working as before (just a lot more securely).

However, if you do have any problems, please email me using the Contact Form.

Neil.

Third year for a return visit to Sark. If you have not been to Sark, this is a good start to the diving season. Despite the weather this year, our skipper managed to find some excellent dive sites. Please read the write up on this years event. Please let me know if you are interested and I will start a list, with reserves. Maybe because I live in the C.I. - but to me, this is the best diving in the U.K. Numbers are limited to eight divers.

17th September 2008

ONE WEEKS LIVEABOARD ON BLUE SEAS
SAFARI: THE BROTHERS, DAEDALUS AND ELPHINESTONE
TO INCLUDE: RETURN FLIGHTS, TRANSFERS, FULLY CATERED, 6 DAYS WITH 4 DIVES A DAY.
£1025.00
(PLEASE CLICK ON LINK FOR FURTHER DETAILS incl additional costs such as beer, nitrox and marine park fees)
http://www.oonasdivers.com/dive-tours-red-sea-liveaboards-blue-planet-liveaboards.shtml

Hi Everyone.

Following on from GLUG’s last two fabulous Southern Red Sea trips on the magnificent Blue Seas, I have booked her once again and, this time, we will be doing The Brothers, Daedalus and Elphinestone. These are mostly drop off dives with wonderful coral covered walls on one shoulder and, on the other, the blue with great chances of seeing Hammerheads, Grey Reefers, White Tips, Blue Fin Tuna, Baracuda and, the killer turtle on Daedalus!! You will need to have at least 50 dives under your belt for this trip.
Feel free to read the trip reports on previous trips to these reefs to get a feel for a day on board Blue Seas. Also, for those of you who went on last year’s trip (2006) Berga and Tobias ( 2 burgers and a beer) are back on Blue Seas and we are keeping our fingers crossed that they will be our dive guides for next year!

To book please call Oonasdivers on 01323 648924 with a deposit of £200 (only refundable by replacing your canceled place with someone new) and then please email me so as I can keep my paperwork up to date. This a first come first served trip with booking only accepted once you have paid your deposit. Presently there are 18 places left. Thanks.

Finally, just to sound bite this idea-if anyone is interested in me organising what I can only describe as a ‘pretty’ trip, doing The Fury Shoals/St Johns including Dolphin House safari liveaboard, with less challenging diving, but equally very beautiful, especially for photographers, let me know and I can then price it up and arrange. For now, it would be on Blue Waves which holds 15 people and I would be looking at a May trip for around £895. Looking forward to hearing from anyone interested and then, I will ‘event’ it.

Best wishes to everyone and please feel free to get back to me with any questions.
Charlie Stewart

I have contacted the Tenerife Dive and they suggested that it would be better if we can avoid the dates from 21-30 November as they have the instructor training and it will be very busy there. As we have no dates fixed yet, I suggest the 1-8 of December. However, we will most likely miss the AGM.

The cost of diving, self-catering accommodation and transfers will be about £260. Kit hire costs 3 Euros per dive. You will be responsible for booking your flight and emailing me your flight confirmation, which will secure your place on the trip.

Please e-mail me or leave a comment about the dates.

Hi Everyone. For those of you who may have a keen interest in sharks, especially Oceanic Whitetips and Hammerheads, I am going to Red Sea Safari Shagra on 21st November for one week. This is prime time to see the Oceanics especially at Elphinstone. Elphinstone is a 30 minute rib ride from Shagra and, although challenging, is an amazing reef. Please feel free to read my reports (here and here)on my dives there and my stays at Shagra.

As well as Elphinstone, there is Dolphin House reef which is great for photography. Shagra also offers its house reefs and truck diving. Please check out the Oonasdivers website for further information on Shagra.
Flights, transfers, full board in a Madyafa with ensuite and unlimited diving £695.00 except for Elphinstone which is an additional €35 for 2 dives and Dolphin House which is €50 for a days diving.

Feel free to get back to me if you want any further information.

Charlie

Still no entries for the Marine Life Quiz yet! Perhaps the picture on my original post put you all off - but not all the creatures are that difficult.

Most people should be able to identify at least a couple of the creatures below. Click on any picture to start the Quiz.

You’ll also need to download the GLUG Quiz Answer Form .

Update: Yayyy! I got a couple of entries! The score to beat at present is 33.5 71.5 !! out of 86 (don’t forget there are 3 prizes, though)

I’ve also discovered that you may have problems emailing your form if you’re on a public computer - when you click the “submit” button on the form, it will try to use an email program to send it - if you’re using hotmail, it may not work. I’ll publish an updated answerform tomorrow which will allow you to save it, and add it to an email as an attachment.

On July 9, the Galapagos National Park (GNP) immediately suspended dive operations in the area, affecting 15 liveaboards.

Some have stopped running, others are only doing Southern itineraries and skipping Wolf and Darwin Islands. Only Peter Hughes’ Sky Dancer and the Galapagos Aggressors I and II are still operating. They have special GNP permits to combine diving and land activities while the others do not, however the GNP hasn’t required these permits in the 18 years Galapagos liveaboards have been diving.

The decision came a week after the United Nations placed the GNP on the list of World Heritage sites in danger from environmental threat and overuse. The liveaboards are negotiating with Ecuador’s government to reopen dive operations. Divers worldwide are also putting on the pressure by protesting to the Ecuadorean ambassador in their country.

An agreement may soon be worked out to let dive boats finish their 2007 trips and apply for dive permits in 2008. If you have booked a GNP dive trip, contact whomever you booked for more information.

I’ve now got one spare place on the Plymouth August bank holiday dive. 3 days’ diving off the hard boat Storm - loads to see. Accommodation can be arranged at Venn Farm. Please contact me urgently if you can take up the place.

i am going diving in south korea from Monday 24th Sep to Friday 28th anyone fancy joining me for a weeks diving, to make up a dive buddy pair??

Just back from some glorious walking in North Wales (which started the day after we returned from the Red Sea), so a bit later than usual, I’ve now posted some of the photos I took on the recent GLUG trip to the Red Sea (arranged excellently by Charlie again). Take a look in the Gallery.

Actually, these are all of the decent ones… my new camera proved more of a challenge than I anticipated!

As ever, all comments and constructive criticism welcome.

Enjoy!
Alan

Showing an uncharacteristic degree of forward planning, the subject of the Xmas Meal and AGM was raised at this month’s club meeting.

It was agreed that we should return to Strada at St Pauls again this year for the Xmas Meal. The AGM will, as usual, be held beforehand, at a venue yet to be determined, and we’ll move on to the Restaurant in the evening.

The date has also yet to be agreed - and that’s where you come in. On the GLUG website, you’ll find a new Poll in the Right hand column. Please log in to the website, using your Username and Password - you’ll then be able to vote in the Poll. You can choose from the first 3 Saturdays in December - and if you can make all three, then you can vote for all three! However, if you have a preference, then please vote for the one or two dates that you prefer.

Once you’ve voted, you’ll be able to see the current results.

Note: If you can’t remember your username & password, your username is quite often your first initial followed by your last name, all in lowercase - so try resetting your password using that first. If that doesn’t work, then please email me using the Contact Form and selecting “website problems”.

Rainbow-Scuba in Thailand are organising a unique 5 days 6 nights live-aboard into Myanmar coastal waters from 8 to 14 Feb 2008. Only 2 places are remaining so anyone interested please check details on the web site www.rainbow-scuba.com or contact Adam@rainbow-scuba.com for more information.

Martin J. and I have discussed a possibility of organising another diving trip to Tenerife towards the end of the year. If anyone may be interested, please leave a comment or e-mail me. We are thinking of mid November.

There are plenty of information about this location on our web site in Trip Reports and previous posts and lots of pictures in the Gallery. It may be particularly attractive for new members as there are PADI courses available, brilliant viz and easy diving with friendly stingrays and a loggerhead turtle.

Dear AllPlease find attached the agenda for tonights meeting.Agenda 070807See you there ;-)Chris 

Hi!

Further to my earlier post, I am going to Marsa Shagra eco-village 21-28 November. I have been quoted between £600 to £696 according to the type of accomodation chosen and have sent an invite to my GLUG-friendly BSAC club. Do you want to join us?
If so, you can get more info at www.oonasdivers.co.uk (click on the top middle tile ‘Marsa Shagra and Marsa Nakari), and leave a comment here to let me know that you are interested.

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