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