Apologies if the following seems to be advertising - but I’m not getting anything for it, and I know that we have a number of HIV+ divers within the club, who may be interested in this…

I know it’s the wrong time of year for most of us to be thinking about Travel Insurance, but I’ve recently read somewhere that some mainstream Insurers are starting to provide HIV-friendly travel policies.  I’ve done a bit of investigation, and it appears to be true.

Insure and Go will cover HIV-positive travellers, and more importantly will not exclude HIV-related claims, provided that you declare the condition in advance, and satisfy a couple of criteria - the main ones being that you have a reasonably high CD4 count, a reasonably low Viral load, and have not changed your medication in the last 6 months, or refused medication against medical advice.

There’s no additional premium to cover HIV, either, and since their Annual Policies start from around £50 per person (compared to around £100 quoted by some of the “specialist” HIV insurance companies), it seems pretty good value.  They cover Scuba Diving to 30m as standard, and to 40m or even 50m for an additional premium.  They’ll even cover Cage diving with Great Whites!

Lambda Divers & Toronto Rainbow Reef Rangers are running a trip to Cozumel, Mexico in May 2009.

They’re staying at the Scuba Club, Cozumel - which hosted DFL (Diving for Life) in 2003 - so you can be sure they’re Gay-friendly! (I went to that DFL, and the Resort was excellent).
Click on the Image above to see more photos of the resort & diving from DFL 2003.

If you’re interested in going, you can download the TRRR Cozumel Trip Details info

Hello Members,

Brighton Pride is next weekend and we need to rally more support in manning our stall on Saturday 2nd August at Preston Park. If you are going, a 30 min - 1hr stint will be gratefully appreciated. London Pride was a great event for Glug with several new members signed up and we hope Brighton will be even more successful. We expect the stall (as with London Pride) to get really busy so helping out by talking to people about diving and joining our club will be thankfully received.

Please contact Caroline if you can lend a hand (email address on GLUG Contacts page when you  log in. Tell me the times you can do and provide your mobile number.

Many thanks,

Caroline M

Mares has kindly donated a cool pair of Avanti Quattro Excel fins, worth £99.99 as a fantastic competition giveaway to new GLUG members who sign up before August 31st

We’ll be manning stalls in Trafalgar Square for London Pride, and at Preston Park for Brighton Pride, so why not come down for a chat? Every new member who joins before August 31st will be entered into the draw, with the Fins as the Star Prize.

For more information about the prize draw, please download the flyer.

Apologies if you received the earlier version!  I’m obviously getting dyslexic in my old age!

Corinne tells me that she now has one place spare for the Plymouth trip in August. For more details, see the Events Page.

All,

Lambda Divers have one free space on their trip to Bonaire from April 5th-12th, if any of our female members fancy a last-minute trip.

They’ve had a late cancellation, and the lady concerned is selling her slot at a 10% discount, for US$900 (around £450) excluding flights. In addition to that, you get a US$28 credit on your resort bill for the week.

Unfortunately, I’ve had no details of what the price includes in the way of meals etc., but if you’re interested, send an email to lambdadiversinfo@hotmail.com

Neil.

The MCS (Marine Conservation Society) and BSAC are calling up British Scuba Divers to join the Battle for Britain’s seas. Join them for a march on Parliament to demand Marine Reserves Now within the Marine Act, which will be published in draft on 3rd April.

MCS, BSAC and public aquaria have collectively gathered over 100,000 signatures in support of a network of highly protected marine reserves, to be delivered to Environment Secretary, Hilary Benn outside the Houses of Parliament. We need YOUR support, so please register as a demonstrator today. Email Sandrac@bsac.com giving your name and contact details.

NB: Only the first 100 Divers will be able to take part in the march (on a first come first served basis). Please DO NOT simply turn up on the day without registering first.

More details:
Date: 3rd April
Assembly Time: 11:00am
Assembly Point: In front of County Hall (by London Aquarium)
What to bring: Mask & Snorkel. (optional: Diving suit, booties, fins, but NO Dive Knives, Tanks, or Weights).
NB: There will be no changing or storage facilities

A Marine Reserves Now! T-Shirt will be provided to participants.

The March will start at 12:15, to arrive at Old Palace Yard at 12:45. There will be a photocall with divers congregated outside the Houses of Parliament and presentation of the Marine Reserves Now! petition to the Environment secretary at 13:00.

http://www.scubascuba.com/liveaboards-seaquest-intro.asp

For those of you, who like to get away for Xmas and The New Year, three of us are going on the above trip. Check out the link for full details, but, for now, the brief details are as follows:

21st Dec-5th Jan 2009

2 weeks liveaboard on Seaquest, all inclusive (except booze)

This will cost £2980 plus UK and Male departure taxes of £67 per person. This includes economy class scheduled flights from the UK with Emirates Airlines, airport to liveaboard transfers, full board accommodation in an air-conditioned, en-suite twin/double cabin, canned soft drinks, teas, coffees and snacks, drinking water, all diving, use of tanks and weights and various excursions. A £250 deposit is required to secure a place.

As there are still places left on Seaquest, it would be great to have some more GLUG members join Brian Broadbridge, Allan Isted and myself, Charlie Stewart on this amazing trip.

Santa Claus and stress or pristine diving with Manta Rays? Mmmmm!

Best Wishes

Charlie

Hi Everyone

I hope to go to Thailand next February, to do my Dive Master qualification, on Ko Samui. I have also been discussing doing a trip with Adam at Rainbow Scuba

He has suggested that we might want to try and fill a liveaboard with both, GLUGies and others, from his rainbow network. We are looking at two specific charters namely:

http://www.moby-dick-adventures.com/m-v-nautica.htm

http://www.diving-thailand-phuket.com/diving_thailand_liveaboard/colona_liveaboard_introduction.htm

As well as this 4/6 day live aboard, Adam can also organise land based trips on this fabulous island-check out his web wite. As a lot of you know, Fred Wyn has just left Thailand after an amazing and successful time and spoke highly of his time with Adam and Rainbow-scuba.

At this stage, I would like to gauge your interest, in this idea and then, with enough interest, Adam can put the trip together for us.

On a different note, The Red Sea September trip has now been opened up to some other G & L dive clubs who are showing keen interest. You may want to have a think about booking shortly if you are interested.

See you on Tuesday (4th) committee meeting and social or at LIDS

Charlie

Diving for Life 2008 has just been announced - it will be on Phi-Phi Island, Thailand from 18-25th October 2008. We hope for a huge GLUG uptake on this one!! Keep your eyes on the DFL (Diving for Life) website : www.divingforlife.org
where in the next few days/weeks bookings will open.
I have emailed Adam at Rainbow Scuba (also Thailand) to see if he can arrange a liveaboard for the week preceding - if you’d be interested in this please email me direct so i can keep a head count. (stephaniebutcher@aol.com),

When?
Thursday 14th August 2008 to Monday 18th August 2008, incl.

You can of course turns this into a week but please note you’ll either have to make your own way to/from St Maxime or meet us at Nice airport to benefit from transfers.

Where?
Sainte Maxime is on the South coast of France, between Toulon and Nice. Flights will be to Nice. You can also take the Eurostar & fast train but see comment above re transfers.

For more info on Saint Maxime in general and the diving in particular, go to: http://www.diamonddiving.net/destinations/stemaxime.htm

What?
The package includes: transfers to/from the airport as a group, half-board accomodation in a ‘centre de vacances’ (holiday centre) and 5 dives with tanks and weights. The holiday centre is a bit outside town and has a swimming pool and tennis courts. The food is decent wihout being wow (still better than a bacon buttie in Portland) and includes wine with your meal, after all, this is France!
Weather permitting, we will dive Le Rubis, a beautiful submarine lying upright on a sandy bottom. See this link for a short underwater movie of the wreck or look in the October 2007 Dive mag at page 49 for a nice piccie and a short description.

Who?
12 divers - 7 spaces already gone!
Le Rubis is not a shallow wreck so only well dived in Bsac Sport or Padi Advanced, and upwards. If you are less experienced and still wants to come for the fun and the sun, you may have to pay extra for a guide on all dives and/or not dive le Rubis. If you have any questions, ask and I’ll try to get more details of what is possible according to your level.

We may be able to accomodate a few non divers too but depending on the size of the group this may have cost implications if we need an additional people carrier so please ask. Non-divers should not be bored as on top of the pool and tennis court, Sainte Maxime has plenty of bars, restaurants, shops and beaches.

How much?
£259 for all the above (£154-£197 for non-diving partners depending on group size and whether we need extra transport), then approx £90-£150 for flights.

Flights are BA from Heathrow. There might be an Easyjet flight from from Gatwick but this is not certain and will involve waiting for BA flight arrival in Nice.

To secure your space, you need a) indicate your interest by adding your name on the event page; and b) send me an email at: adelinemmc- put the @ symbol here(this avoids spam)-yahoo.co.uk and I’ll send you my address for you to send a cheque for £78 for divers and £46 for non divers.

Question? Leave a comment here or call but please let me know ASAP if you want to go as this will open to non-Glug divers in my Bsac club (all Glug-friendly and well behaved) if this does not get booked very soon to save cost on flights.
Ads

I went to the launch yesterday evening of a ‘coffee table’ book called Reef. It’s been produced by Scubazoo, who are the team who filmed with Monty Halls in his Great Ocean Adventures series for Channel 5. This isn’t just another book of great underwater photos though; they are passionate about marine life and conservation and their passion comes through in the way they present life on the reef - not only coral reefs, but all off-shore underwater habitats - in all its great variety and various life-cycles.

‘Reef’ costs £25, which also includes a DVD (since they started as cameramen rather than photographers). It’s published by Dorling Kindersley.

I have no interest to declare in this, other than I think it’s a great book. (I was invited to the launch through Ocean Optics, from where I buy my underwater camera kit - and, I think, so do Scubazoo.)

So if you’re looking for an Xmas present for a dive buddy - or something to suggest that you would like - I strongly recommend it.

GLUG is running a training trip to Sharks Bay with Oonasdivers from 24th-31st October.

The trip is open to non-divers who would like to learn, to qualified divers who’d like to take a further course, and also to qualified divers who just fancy a dive trip to the Red Sea.

The cost is £439, plus whatever training you want - Basic qualification costs £200. For other courses see the Events Page.

The great thing about doing your basic qualification at Sharks Bay is that your initial training is done in a shallow area near the beach, rather than in a swimming pool - so you get to see fish even on your training dives!

The price includes flights, accommodation, and transfers to and from the airport. If you’re not already a GLUG member, you will need to join - but it only costs £10!

For more information, please contact us using the Events Page, choosing “Dive Training” from the drop-down menu.

Since I’ve still only had 6 entries for the Fish ID Quiz, I’m going to extend it for another 3 weeks 10 days, but I promise that I won’t send any more emails until I publish the answers - some of you are probably sick of these emails by now!

At present, a score of 58 out of 86 will win you a prize of an “Absolut Scuba” Scuba tank cover, or an Underwater Photography Coffee Table book - since there’s over £60 worth of prizes on offer, it would be nice to get at least a couple more entries!

I’m on holiday from 12th September, so I’m making 11th September the new deadline.

Click on the creature in the top right of the page to start - and don’t worry, they’re not all that hard!

Announcing the GLUG Marine Life ID Quiz!!

So, you think you know your Marine Creatures? Test your knowledge with the GLUG Photo Quiz, with the chance of winning some fabulous prizes!

There are 25 photos. For each photo, you must identify the creature (either by common, or latin name - no bonus for givnig both though). Most of the photos have one or more additional questions, for bonus points. You can download the GLUG Quiz Answer Form, and fill it in on your computer. Once it’s complete, click the “Email” button on the form to send it to me.

The Questions have varying degrees of difficulty - there will be some that just about everyone can answer, and others which I don’t expect more than a couple of people will know. In the event of a tie, there will be a tie-break question. The Quizmaster’s decision is final!!

To get maximum points, make your answers as complete as possible - for example if the creature was a “Klein’s Butterflyfish”, then putting “Butterflyfish” would only get you half the available points.

Click on the Photo of the first creature (shown here) to start.

Prizes (donated by me - having a clear-out!):

• An “Absolute Scuba” Scubahide
• A Photobook by Kurt Amsler: “Carribbean“
• A Photobook by Cathy Church: “My Underwater Photo Journey“

Winner will get first choice. There will also be a booby prize! Note: You don’t have to be a GLUG member to have a go at the quiz, but you must be a paid-up member to win a prize!!

Closing date for entries is September 1st - so get thinking!

(If you have any problems with the Answer form, please leave a comment below - but bear in mind I’ll be away from 18th-26th July!)