Anchors Away! - 30/03/2014

Andrea & Big Al

Earlier in the week Andrea had suggested a trip to Anchor Point, Loch Fyne. I've never dived the site, but fortunately all my buddies had been there at least once. Accompanying me today were Andrea, Big Mack and Big Al. Fast Eddie and Grant (now dubbed Mr Fallsoveralot) had planned to come, but cancelled in the run up to our trip. So we set out, as a fantastic 4, if not the Fantastic 4.

As the clocks were 'springing forward' we met at the later time of 8.00am at Costa del Bonhill and drove to the site. 

The site itself is at a small lay-by on a single track road about 65 miles from Glasgow. From the parking spot, a small path leads to a very pleasant pebble beach dotted with a few large rocks ideal for sitting.

Big Mack lead us out for our first dive, aiming to hit a reef that dropped down to about 30m -  we began to fin. I think the poor visibility less than 3m on the first dive meant that we missed our target, but I still managed find a few things on the seabed that kept me entertainment including a nice catshark/dogfish hidden amongst the seaweed, scallops, the occasional nudibranch and two sea toads enjoying the beautiful McLovin.

Back on shore Andrea finally got my travel BBQ lit and we had rolls and sausage.

Dive 2 was to be a more traditional affair with us using the route mapped out in the Finstrokes guide. As we descended, it became clear that the visibility had deteriorated to around 1m. About 20 minutes into the dive while taking the photograph of the sunstar I lost control of my buoyancy for the briefest of moments and ascended quite quickly up. I recovered within a few metres, but once I got back down to my initial depth I couldn't find Big Al. I waited and looked around for the requisite one minute before safely heading to the surface. You can see how far I surfaced from the shore in the last picture. Alan popped up about 20 seconds later and 10m over. We swam back to shore against a strong out flowing tide.

Regardless of the bad visibility we all had a great day.

Travel BBQ

Lunch

Wall climbing urchin

Sunstar of doom

Surfaced

So Much Nature Part 3 - 27/03/2014

So with the arrival of Evolution Divers we vacated St Catherines (see part 1 and part 2) prime parking spot and headed over to dive Loch Long. We were deciding between the Twin Piers, which we'd drive right past or the Caves where Laura had previously lost a bag that we were going to look for. The Caves won.

We quickly kitted up, buddy checked and headed down to the water where a seal, probably Beryl, was waiting patiently for us. We entered the water and it quickly became clear that we were diving as a buddy three as Beryl swooped between our legs, crashing into us chasing fish and any other critter that came into view. A few wrasse dodged under rocks. Bottoming out at 22m, we probably had the best seal action at around 10m.

Aside from Beryl, sea life was at a premium. By way of contrast, thanks to Beryl, silt was not.

By the end of the second dive both Laura and myself were exhausted largely due to 'so much nature'.

Dahlia Anemone

Beryl

Laura filming Beryl

So Much Nature Part 2 - 27/03/2014

As I've mentioned previously I'm jealous of Ed's profile picture. So at the start and end of our first dive I got Laura to take some pictures. Here's my new portfolio, get ready for a whole lot of smoulder.

Shark Attack

Colourised

So Much Nature Part 1 - 27/03/2014

Sunset over Loch Fyne

As regular readers may know, Laura runs her own animal education business (Animal Magic). On a recent stint at the Caithness International Science Festival, a small boy approached Laura's stand and was amazed by the range of animals.So overwhelmed he declared, "So much nature!" When diving we have a range of catchphrases and it seems this has now been added to our lexicon.

This week I was fortunate enough to be able to take a half day off work on a day when Laura wasn't working, so we decided to head over the Rest and Be Thankful mountain pass and dive in Loch Fyne for the first of our two dives. Our chosen destination was St Catherines 2 (known locally as St Cats or Seal Reef). It's a nice site with relatively easy access and a great view across the Loch to the historic village of Inveraray.

On arrival the sea was particularly choppy, but we could see that it was calming and the weather improving, so before diving we decided to meander down the beach to explore the entry point of a lesser dived site that had long been blocked off to divers. Our investigations suggested there was now room for one or two cars. So we'll explore that site soon.

Once back at the car we leisurely kitted up in broad daylight and entered the ever calming water.After messing about with Laura taking a few Ed-esque pictures of me we headed down to around 23m encountering a nice big Conger who was reluctant to come out for a photograph and slowly worked our way up the reef. I never took many pictures, but it was a great dive with loads of colourful fish, crab types, and echinoderms. Just over 40 minutes later we exited to the sun beginning to set gloriously on the other side of the loch.

What next? We each had another tank, as we switched tanks we took the decision to head over to Loch Long and drive part way home rather than do a formal surface interval. Good thing too as a Evolution Divers (a local Sub Aqua Association dive club) turned up en masse. I should say, they are nice guys but it's better to have the loch to yourself.

Kitting Up

Going in

Sea Toad and Urchin

Though Shalt Not Covet Ed's Profile Picture - 27/03/2014

"You shall not covet your neighbour's house. You shall not covet your neighbour's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbour." Exodus 20:17

I love Fast Ed, although while I like his car I have absolutely no designs on his house, wife, manservant, maidservant or donkey. However, his Facebook profile picture (left) is highly desirous.  It was taken by Laura some time ago at Twin Piers, Loch Long and while I don't exactly yearn to posses this image of Ed I'd really like some mean and moody dive shots of me - I seem to look gormless in almost every dive trip photograph. Today I have asked Laura to rectify this situation and take some cool pictures of me smouldering on the surface. Look out for them in the next post..

Bruce Willis Ruins All Films - 26/03/2014

On Sunday I offered to go diving with a friend of a friend, however by the time he got my message he had booked on a RHIB. As such I never went diving. However, my acquaintance's experience would be quite different.

He (Diver 1) was to dive with another diver (Diver 2). They kitted up and headed for their target wreck on the RHIB, a token buddy check - they were afterall experienced divers - and down they went to over 30m. On the return the second diver was starting to feel very 'floaty' and, while trying to deploy a DSMB, rocketed to the surface. Leaving Diver 1 at the bottom of the ocean and having to ascend safely on their own.

Meanwhile on the surface helicopters were scrambled, the coast guard was called and hospitals were put on standby. Another 'bent' diver was to be assisted at great cost to the taxpayer. The reason? At least one of the divers failed to do a proper check with their buddy and had forgotten to put on their weight belt. 

Diver 2, also an acquaintance, is out of the woods and back home recovering thankfully.

This is why we buddy check. Not because we don't trust one another to put their kit on, but rather because we do trust one another to ensure that we're going into the water safely.
As for the title of this post, that's how I remember it - I was taught it at my very first SCUBA pool session.

• Bruce   = Buoyancy  - check BCD and drysuit
• Willis    = Weights    - right hand release weight belt and integrated into BCD
• Ruins    = Releases - BCD straps / weight clips on BCD
• All         = Air             - have I got air? Is it switched on?  Check my pony too.
• Films    = Final OK   - mask, fins, etc

Finally, if my buddy refuses to do a buddy check it's simple - I'm not diving. Instead I'll go watch Bruce Willis ruin a perfectly good movie.

I'll Tell You What Really Bugs Me - 23/03/2014

On Facebook I 'like' Mares, Scubapro and Fourth Element. I like many of their products in real life too.

For example, I own:

• a Mares Abyss Navy Regulator
• a Scubapro Mk17 Regulator
• a Mares Dragon BCD
• a Fourth Element Arctic Undersuit
• Scubapro Seawing Nova fins
• Fourth Element Thermocline stuff

I also like hoods by Waterproof and my Oceanic Shadow mask, but I'll tell you what really bugs me are the string of professional film makers, professional divers and 'explorers' who endorse these products. When buying a product I'm not interested in 'celebrity' endorsements. I'm interested in how cost effective/efficient/comfortable/useful is it going to be for me?

How long does a drysuit take to dry hanging under my stairs? How expensive is the service pack? If it breaks, how good is your customer service?

Like the vast majority of people I have to pay for my kit and it has to perform and last. Wouldn't it be great if these companies, instead of expedition divers, used honest recreational divers to review and promote their products?

It would be amazing to watch a review of two products and hear the diver honestly say, that they can't tell the difference between the two regulators or after using these gloves my fingers were a wee bit warmer.

The current marketing of the big brands in SCUBA is a throw back to last century. Peer to peer marketing is the future it's time for the diving industry to embrace it.

The Sair Finger - 18/03/2014

You've hurt your finger? Puir wee man!  Your pinkie? Deary me! 

Noo, juist you haud it that wey till I get my specs and see!

Fear not readers! I shall not write this whole blog in Scots, my native dialect/language, but given the international readership I shall revert to standard English.

Above are the words of Scottish poet Walter Wingate, somewhat less known than Rabbie Burns, but just as loved. You see, whenever someone hurts their finger here in Scotland you can be assured that someone will quote the opening lines of Walter's most famous poem. We all learnt it as children.

As for me, I hurt my finger while dekitting after this dive, when I accidentally trapped my middle finger between two tanks. Well, it got bigger and bigger and it caused me some discomfort on my last dive, so on Saturday I decided to visit my local Minor Injuries Unit - it's like an A&E for uninspiring injuries.

Turns out the bang seems to have damaged my nail and caused a rather unpleasant puss filling infection. I'm on antibiotics and have to keep the finger clean, which means no diving for a good few days. As it is, the water is still too cold for Gillian and most of my usual buddies such as Laura, Fast Eddie, Andrea et al are all busy with "work".

Pah! Roll on next week!

The swelling begins

The Great Crab Grab - 13/03/2014

Twin Piers

Another day and another mission for Laura. this time it was crabs that were to be our quarry - small hermit, shore and velvet swimming crabs. The venue for this was a very tranquil Twin Piers, Loch Long.

As we were preparing the transportation tank before the dive we noticed two rather playful seals popping up and splashing around on the surface. Potentially, this could be a really fun dive.

Entering the water just as it got dark we descended to around 20m, only for me to think that we had missed the reef. However, it would seem that I had just gone a little deeper than usual because of the unusually low tide and so we were just on an unfamiliar part of the seabed. Still, Laura seemed to be having fun collecting crabs in her bag. After a quick detour we finally hit the mark.

Once on the reef we pottered around finding a rather nice pipefish, some large edible crabs a variety of small gobies and wrasse, but no sign of either of the seals that had frolicking on the surface.

As time went on we began our ascent to the surface doing a swimming safety stop. Once on the surface we were shocked that we had been down for 50 minutes (I still had 80 bar left in the tank). Since we'd went in other divers had entered, had a dive and dekitted. Unsurprisingly, my fingers were cold.

Since coming home I've done some calculations and I've achieved my second lowest air consumption ever - 18.9 litres per minute. That's only the second time I've dipped below 19lpm. Happy days!

I never took much by the way of pictures, but below are the two that I liked - a crab eating what looked like a cloaked hermit crab and the pipefish, but they only serve to highlight that I need to either replace my strobe or get a new light for photography as my torch has too focused a beam.

Crab eating crab

Pipefish

An Aladdin's Cave - 10/03/2014

View from Lomond Shores 

Recently, Laura has started a new job at the Sea Life Loch Lomond aquarium. So last night Big Al and I headed up to Lomond Shores to meet her after work go diving and receive details of out 'secret mission'. After parking up, enjoying the view and then heading to the aquarium we met Laura.

Our mission, should we choose to accept it, was to collect some mussels to feed the 'stars' of the rock pool exhibition. We accepted and headed a few miles up the road to the Caves at Loch Long. For me, this would be my third time in a row at the site, but I wasn't too bothered as I'm still mesmerised by the boulder wall and the myriad of life it contains.

While kitting up and buddy checking we joked about remembering everything before clambering down the rock face. As I plopped into the water I realised that I had forgotten my fins. So Big Al - who was at the back of the pack - very kindly climbed back up and got them for me. 

Once underwater we headed down to around 20m and began the critter search. There was some great life about including:

• large edible crabs
• lobster
• dahlia anemone
• wrasse
• cod
• bloody henry

Laura had quickly filled her little bag and we headed back enjoying the great visibility. Once at the surface the swag was transferred into a tub containing sea water and we headed back to aquarium.

Peacock worm

Dahlia anemone

Bloody henry

I should say that up until that point in my life I'd never been in the aquarium, though I'd been to its sister site in Oban. So upon arrival we were greeted at the trade entrance by Mark (the manager) who took us in and gave us a closed door tour of the facility. 

I was really impressed, the main tank is particularly good with a great selection of sharks, grouper, eels and a green turtle. Well worth a visit I'd say!

Dude!

Grouper

Day-lightful Caves - 09/03/2014

A friend of mine is starting up a PADI scuba school. Today I had volunteered to assist him by providing some surface cover. As a result, I got the opportunity to visit the Caves during daylight hours. As regular readers will know I only recently dived the site for the first time at night, so to see it in daylight was a pleasant experience.

Those who read my previous blog will know that I gave quite a vivid description of the entry, well today I took some footage, but as always the photos and video don't quite do the angle of descent justice.

I did pop in for a 29 minute dip down to 27m too, but the visibility wasn't great. As such, I never took any photographs underwater.

Divers descending

Entering the water

Caves 101 - 04/03/2014

I dived The Caves, Loch Long for the first time last night with Avril's 'West Coast Divers'. As always there is some cross pollination between dive groups, so I knew all the divers present and they included Avril, Fast Ed, Big Alan and Laura - who has decided she wants a nickname, suggestions on a postcard.

I've wanted to dive the Caves for some time, but wanted to do the site first during the day to acquaint myself with the difficult entry before attempting it at night. However, with my usual Tuesday night football training cancelled and I was presented with the opportunity to dive the site at night with experienced divers. So I took it.

The site itself is not a series of Caves as the name would suggest, but rather a steep wall dive with rocky overhangs, presenting the impression that you are, on occasion, in a cavern.

So to the entry, it goes like this:

1. a 5m clamber down a 70-80 degree incline 
2. a 5m clamber through a 1.5m high tunnel on a 20 degree incline with small river passing through
3. a 20m (at low tide) clamber down through seaweed covered rocks with flowing water with 45 degree incline

In short, it wasn't the worst entry I've ever encountered and, in fact, I enjoyed it. As a result, I was first in the water. 

Once in the water, the site is a wee bit silty until you encounter the main sections of the wall. I know this as Laura and I went at the back for two reasons:

1. I knew Laura would be taking photographs (I'd left my camera at home)
2. We both had mild colds and if we were going to have equalising problems we didn't want to hold up the group. Fortunately, neither of us had to call in Edward Woodward.

Remaining about 5m behind the main group we descended to around 22m and man I wish I'd brought my camera. Huge common lobsters and edible crabs that would grace any plate, large wrasse (ballan, goldsinny, corkwing), cod, big scorpion fish, bloody henry starfish, horse anemone, devonshire cup corals. However, I was most impressed  by the rock formations mohawked with plumose anemones. 

With 100 bar left I was still having, as we say in Scotland, a rare tear! I eventually popped up at the entry point with 50 bar left.

This dive was epic and I'd go as far to say that in my 101 dives it was right up there with Cenotes Chac Mool in Mexico and it cost me nothing to dive and it's right here in Scotland. I cannot wait to go back - difficult entry or not.

I've scraped a few of Laura and Avril's picture off Facebook as it would be a shame if you didn't see any of it. Shhh!

Cod by Laura

Horse Anemone by Laura

Scorpion fish by Laura

Devonshire Cup Coral by Avril

Edible Crab by Avril

Attacking Lobster by Laura

One Planet - Many Dives

Hello, 你好, Guten Tag, 今日は, Assalaamu alaikum

I just checked the viewing statistics and noticed there is a global audience for Poseidon's Parlour. Well, some folks from the USA, Germany, Japan, China and the Maldives at least. Feel free to share your own diving experiences.

If you're visiting Scotland and wanting to explore our cold waters, then give us a shout!

A Centurion Part 2 - 01/03/2014

So this was it, my 100th dive. We (Fast Ed, Big Mack, Shafiq and Matthew - now retorched) all headed in together. Ed and I split from the pack in order hit some of the frames a bit quicker. Diving down we hit one of the smaller frames before moving along to the main one where we pumped into the rest of the guys again.

Lots of life was crawling about the frames, but Ed and I were more amused by the prospect of faux lightsabre battles using torches. Some of the highlights included:

• Spider crab
• Toad crab
• Nice gobies
• Big squat lobsters
• Scallops

So thanks to all buddies, not just today but over the last few years. Most of you have been awright! Sometimes, things are better said to the face....

Ed

Crazy eyes

Squat lobster

Worms and anemones

Toad crab

A-Frame

Spider crab

A Centurion Part 1 - 01/03/2014

Looking north-east up Loch Long

With my last dive outing taking me to 98 dives, a cancelled match and a rare free Saturday morning meant that I had the opportunity to dive with the "Something for the Weekend" posse. There is some crossover between the people in this group and my usual TNDC, so today saw me dive with Fast Ed, Big Mack, Matthew & Shafiq.

Meeting at 8:30 onsite at the A-Frames, I was diving with Big Mack and Fast Ed. I was elected to lead us down to the 'big frame' but at the start of the dive (3m) I looked down and saw a very nice (and expensive) Metalsub torch lying on the sea floor. In the excitement of finding the torch I began my northerly descent a little prematurely,ended up missing the frame and feeling a bit narc'd and confused at a mere 26m. A few signals to Big Mack and he got the message. We ascended to about 15m and began the hunt for life.

Now, since my very first dive I've been an echinoderm kind of guy - I love starfish and I was delighted to find a magnificent Bloody Henry, but what I found next was quite a surprise. I found.....a nudibranch!

When I first took up diving I used to wonder what the fuss was about when it came to 'noodeez'. I'm not even sure I understand to this day - they are sea slugs afterall. However, this one was special as it was the first one I ever found! White with orange dots. Then it happened again! I was a man on fire!!

However, at the surface Fast Ed ruined the dive completely by telling me the torch looked an awful lot like Matthew's who had entered 5 minutes before us. As I shouted to shore to see if anyone had lost anything, Matthew replied asking if I'd found 'it'. As I held it aloft, his joy was barely containable as he danced a jig.

Bloody Henry Starfish (1)

Bloody Henry Starfish (2)

Nudibranch