NEDSAC 2 crusing the Sound of Kerrera
Location: Puffin Dive Centre, Oban
Dates: Diving Sunday 24 May to Friday 29 May 2026
(6 days diving)
Cost: £225 to £375 depending on how many come, where we choose to dive and how many dives you get in. (Excluding accommodation and food).
Diver Grade: Open to all.
Oban coastline offers reefs, walls and wrecks at depths to suit all diving grades and the local islands and coastline offer sheltered water from most wind directions.
Puffin Dive Centre has launch and mooring facilities for our club boat, a dive shop and air station as well as storage and toilet facilities.
This week has traditionally been an opportunity for newly qualified divers to gain sea and boat diving experience.
Expect water temperatures around 11C – and accordingly dive times of 30 to 40 minutes.
If we have more divers than the boat can safely carry (8 divers) we would have to ‘shuttle’ to the dive sites and everyone might only get 3 dives every 2 days.
It will be our choice where we dive according to weather, tides and experience. Everyone will be expected to ‘do their bit’ in launching and recovery, and loading and unloading the boat each day.
Some will be either renting accommodation at Oban Holliday Park – 5 minutes walk from Puffin, or bringing their camper to the site or the locality.
If you need to share accommodation let others know so you can book-up. A 6 berth lodge is £1305, a 4 bed lodge is £949. Alternately Airbnb has apartments in Oban, about 10 minutes drive away. The Holiday Park also has camping facilities if you’re feeling brave (it’s been done before!). Last year we left it very late to book and we ended up staying at Tralee – a nice site and cheaper at £990 for a 6-berth, but a half hours drive away.
Self catering, with some group meals in Oban where there are numerous pubs and restaurants, including a ‘spoons.
Puffin do not do food or drink, you will need to bring your lunch.
Cost at today’s rates/fuel would be around £600 shared by all to get the boat up there, in the water, and back, and use of a kit store room, so £60 to £100 each depending on how many go.
There are several elements to the cost – getting the boat up to Oban and back and into the water and use of a kit room (shared by all), boat fuel getting to the dive sites (split according to how far each diver travels), NEDSAC boat fees to cover maintenance, air and car parking.
Diving/air/boat fuel/boat fees cost would be around £15-£20/dive depending on how far the boat has to travel to sites.
Accommodation and food would be at additional cost.
Let Steve M know and he will put you on the Oban 2026 WhatsApp group. If you’re not on the group the organizer isn’t aware you intend to come and won’t be including you in the planning.
This trip will require planning around numbers and tides and we will need to finalise numbers by the end of April 2026, when we will also need a deposit of £50 to cover towing fuel.
If you’ve got any questions, drop me an email or message.
Best wishes,
Steve Madge
