Vanessa in Post IGC Rehab on Sandy's ranch in Hollister CA.

This is the place for the details on our camps. The fifth annual one will run August 21 - 25, 2017 at the Asilomar Conference Center on the Monterey Peninsula.
schembre
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Fri Sep 26, 2014 6:27 pm

[/quote]
Anyway we were diving at Roseneath in the Clyde, across from the submarine base at Faslane and we could hear a very loud engine noise which seemed very close, so came to the surface and exited the water. One minute later from the shore we witnessed the biggest nuclear submarine break the surface. Suddenly a guy was on deck with a loud hailer and was trying to tell us something, :unsure: we hurriedly jumped into my friends sports car and fled, never looking back. :huh: A bit of an adventure in a Bond sort of way :laugh: No car chase though. :laugh: and no rap sheet thankfully. :) :laugh: A couple of weeks later I was an invited guest at the very same base, through my diving club. I thought better of mentioning my previous encounter with a nuclear sub though. :blush: :)

Tom N.[/quote]

Hey Tom,
When were you at Faslane? I spent a lot of time up there between 91-96 when the base was gearing up for UK Tridents ... maybe I was on the boat that almost did you in ... ? :-) I can remember Green Peace run-ins, but not subba clubs ... maybe it was a smaller fast attack boat - nonetheless I appreciate your story. However, the "official word" is that you encountered the Lock Ness Monster! :-)


tombo1230
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Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:34 pm

schembre wrote:
Anyway we were diving at Roseneath in the Clyde, across from the submarine base at Faslane and we could hear a very loud engine noise which seemed very close, so came to the surface and exited the water. One minute later from the shore we witnessed the biggest nuclear submarine break the surface. Suddenly a guy was on deck with a loud hailer and was trying to tell us something, :unsure: we hurriedly jumped into my friends sports car and fled, never looking back. :huh: A bit of an adventure in a Bond sort of way :laugh: No car chase though. :laugh: and no rap sheet thankfully. :) :laugh: A couple of weeks later I was an invited guest at the very same base, through my diving club. I thought better of mentioning my previous encounter with a nuclear sub though. :blush: :)

Tom N.[/quote]

Hey Tom,
When were you at Faslane? I spent a lot of time up there between 91-96 when the base was gearing up for UK Tridents ... maybe I was on the boat that almost did you in ... ? :-) I can remember Green Peace run-ins, but not subba clubs ... maybe it was a smaller fast attack boat - nonetheless I appreciate your story. However, the "official word" is that you encountered the Lock Ness Monster! :-)[/quote]

Nope, it was a very big and very black submarine. It was much earlier than 91' a very long time ago in fact. I am putting it somewhere between 75 and 76 my fellow diver had a residential holiday caravan over in Roseneath which is directly on the opposite side of the river to the base. It was winter, November or December and it was snowing a little. The caravan was a welcome source of heat after the dive. I know the story sounds a bit far fetched, but we were confronted by a massive submarine that surfaced very close to the shore. We didn't hang about to chat as we had heard stories about other divers having their equipment confiscated, but not where we were diving. the most amazing thing that day was witnessing the massive bubble of water and air as the submarine broke the surface on the flat calm water.

The last thing we expected to see that day was a submarine. my friend was trying to get enough qualifying deep dives to get into the dive school, as he was trying to get a career in the North Sea, which in fact he did do and had a great career. I was the youngest instructor ever at 16 with the Scottish Sub Aqua CLub and I was probably 17 or 18 when this happened.

I had never seen anything as huge close up, as the sub' was that day. it was big! I remember it had very round sort of lines if you know what I mean? This was also in the days when we would sometimes go further round to Loch Long and would find out that there was torpedo firing that day and we would not be allowed to dive on those occasions for obvious reasons. The firing of torpedoes ended soon after as far as I remember. this was a time of high activity on the Clyde and Loch Long.

Nessie is reported to live in Loch Ness a fresh water loch, so wouldn't be seen dead in a salt water river or Loch. :)

Believe it or not Greenpeace, or their descendants, still have a camp along from the base.
There is a ten mile run I used to do with another pal about five or six years ago through the hills near Faslane and we used to get shouted at by the campers as we looped back past their camp. I suspect they thought we were soldiers or worked at the base, which neither of us did.

Tom N.


schembre
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Fri Sep 26, 2014 11:58 pm

Oh, even the little ones are big when you're up close and personal like you were. Back in '75 the US also had a sub base on the other side of the Loch (Holy Loch). If boat you saw had its fair water planes up on the sail (or conning tower as the Brits call it), then it was a US boat; if the planes were up front on the bow, it was a UK boat. Also, back in those days the Polaris/Poseidon fleet was active for both UK & US, so you may have encountered a real live boomer, which were pretty big as well - literally a fast attack boat cut in half and a missile compartment welded into the middle.

The Green Peace Hippy Camp, as we use to call it ... last time I was at Faslane (around 2007), it was still there, just moved to the other side of the road! ;-) Hey, the best Indian food I ever had was at the Akash in Helensburgh, just down the road. I ate there whenever I could. The owner loved it when I broke a sweat from his vindaloo! I can't tell you how many Americans have eaten there and are here in the states looking for a place that comes close! I have found a place in Silverdale, WA that's a distant second. I've been in Southern California for 18 years now and drive my Indian friends nuts insisting they find me an Akash here at home! :-)

Great stories ... I hope one day we'll meet at camp and share some more!

Bob


tombo1230
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Sat Sep 27, 2014 1:48 am

schembre wrote:
Oh, even the little ones are big when you're up close and personal like you were. Back in '75 the US also had a sub base on the other side of the Loch (Holy Loch). If boat you saw had its fair water planes up on the sail (or conning tower as the Brits call it), then it was a US boat; if the planes were up front on the bow, it was a UK boat. Also, back in those days the Polaris/Poseidon fleet was active for both UK & US, so you may have encountered a real live boomer, which were pretty big as well - literally a fast attack boat cut in half and a missile compartment welded into the middle.

The Green Peace Hippy Camp, as we use to call it ... last time I was at Faslane (around 2007), it was still there, just moved to the other side of the road! ;-) Hey, the best Indian food I ever had was at the Akash in Helensburgh, just down the road. I ate there whenever I could. The owner loved it when I broke a sweat from his vindaloo! I can't tell you how many Americans have eaten there and are here in the states looking for a place that comes close! I have found a place in Silverdale, WA that's a distant second. I've been in Southern California for 18 years now and drive my Indian friends nuts insisting they find me an Akash here at home! :-)

Great stories ... I hope one day we'll meet at camp and share some more!

Bob
I thought at the time that this was a Polaris sub we had seen, but I'm no expert on these things.

I think the hippies are stuck in a time warp, they are very much society dropouts. It would be hard to find where else they could fit in.

As for Indian curries, as you probably know there are Indian/Scottish curry dishes that you can get in Scotland but can't get in England, or at least that used to be the case. Pakora was one of those dishes, it was invented in Scotland. We are spoiled in Scotland for great Curry Houses. :)

I'm sure we spoke briefly at the first camp and you mentioned you had been at Faslane, I should have told you about that incident then.

Tom N.


schembre
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Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:47 am

Oh, you're that "Tom"! Sorry, I didn't connect the dots ... I'm still a bit brain dead from the last camp. Yes, I remember now. So now you know what to bring for me at the next camp - Scottish curry! ;-)


tombo1230
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Sat Sep 27, 2014 10:55 am

schembre wrote:
Oh, you're that "Tom"! Sorry, I didn't connect the dots ... I'm still a bit brain dead from the last camp. Yes, I remember now. So now you know what to bring for me at the next camp - Scottish curry! ;-)

Hey hey!! :laugh: :laugh:


TGNesh
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Sat Sep 27, 2014 2:35 pm

Gosh, how this thread is hijacked, bloody hell!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Many thanks guys and Shel! I think it was veeeeeery obvious that my rehab-therapy worked, I was having a BLAST!!! :woohoo: :laugh:

Then again, it didn't work out enough, it was SO hard saying goodbye and getting back to Holland... :(

And yes, too bad the surfing didn't work out, but there is definitely next year, so I wasn't bumped, just worried about Sandy. Eventually we did enjoy the swimming in the ocean (the water was cooooold!! :S, but after a while so very nice!) and lying on the beach. Yes Willem, of course with a bikini! :laugh: I don't think there are pictures of that, haha! :P Or maybe there is video-footage by Neil (he records just about anything!), at least he recorded some when wearing a wetsuit. I of course felt very sexy in that one! :laugh: B)

All in all, Sandy made me drive a car, golf car, tractor, a big ass truck, ride horses (Haybug and Woody) and chase hens, I couldn't be happier! :woohoo:

Ness

(Gosh Tom, some story!!!! :ohmy: :laugh: )


sandysue
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Sat Sep 27, 2014 5:27 pm

Thanks Ness

I'm so happy that you had fun with all of my toys. Sorry about the surfing. At least you got to paddle out on a surf board and wear a wetsuit. I think some guy out there even offered to teach you how to surf. You should have taken him up on it. There is always next year. :)

Sandy


TGNesh
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Sun Sep 28, 2014 4:16 pm

Yep Sandy, I'd rather have yóu teach me instead of whoever, so thankfully there is next year! ;) All the toys have kept me satisfied way enough, so all good! :)

Indeed, at least I looked pretty sexy in that wetsuit, whaha!! :laugh: :laugh: Too bad there are no pictures of that, only footage that Neil recorded I think.

Trying to get back to normal life here, not succeeding just yet... :S :( Oh well....at least I can watch the clip of all the fun things I did, priceless memories! :cheer: :woohoo:

Ness



sandysue wrote:
Thanks Ness

I'm so happy that you had fun with all of my toys. Sorry about the surfing. At least you got to paddle out on a surf board and wear a wetsuit. I think some guy out there even offered to teach you how to surf. You should have taken him up on it. There is always next year. :)

Sandy


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