The Cold Light of Day - 02/12/2017

After Monday's chilly 2.8c, I was keen to avoid Loch Long when Captain Al, Freeflow Bob, Fast Eddie and myself went diving on a frosty Saturday morning. The experience had taught me that it was worth taking the mobile food kitchen for half time bacon rolls.So when we trundled up to St Catherine's, Loch Fyne we were at least prepared for the cold.

It was Fast Ed's first dive back since he dived with me at Triple Reef in June, so an easy site was required and Seal Reef seemed ideal.

We weren't the only ones there, South Queensferry BSAC were across from the East Coast for some training. They seemed friendly enough despite being BSAC divers. ;)

We kitted up and split into buddy pairs of Captain Al and Fast Ed and Ol' Freeflow and me.

It was pretty uneventful but for a large school of pollack, a cushion star and some bloody Henry's. We swam back to the sure after the 35 minute announcement that Captain Al was feeling the cold. If he was feeling it then, it was about to get a whole lot worse. We swam back to the exit point. As the person leading the dive I noticed the thermocline at 4m and sat beneath it for 3 minutes. Then when the three minutes was up and everyone was clear, I turned and swam hard through the cold.

I could feel it biting at my exposed skin. We got out and I checked my computer... 2.2c!  Not the coldest I've ever experienced but getting down pretty low.

Still the promise of a roll and bacon was enough to get me back to the van. I had ear problems so I sat the second dive out and watched as my friends came back looking a little chilly. 

The Start of the Cold - 27/11/2017

Each year there is one dive when you really start to notice the cold in the Scottish sea lochs. That dive was tonight. Myself , Jester and Edgar headed to the A-Frames. It was to be Edgar's first dive of the year at a time when most people would be clocking out.

A weekend of snow, followed by a gentle thawing meant that we knew that the ebbing tide would be drawing snow melt from the head of the loch. Our expectations were correct.

It was instantly cold as we entered into the darkness and, as we descended, you could feel a warming of the water. We passed anemones, cuttlefish, catsharks and many of the usual suspects. When we got to the end of the dive the thermocline was sitting at 5.5m so we began our safety stop at 6m and sat there for a little but admiring the haze above our head. Then, we made a dash for it. 2.8c it was chilly.

All pictures courtesy of Jester.

Snout

Anemone

Apnea - 19/11/2017

My recent search history has convinced Google Ad Words that I have a thing for snoring. In actual fact I've been looking at www.learn2freedive.com. In part, it's because I'm fascinated by the videos of French freediver Guillaume Nery. The films make holding your breath seem very cool. Moreover, I like the underwater world and thought I'd like to have a crack at that! Of course, as much as I'm a romantic, I'm a realist. I know I'm not going to be the next Nery.

I therefore decided to sign up to do AIDA ** . 

Before going to the course I got my breath hold up to 2m 13s, read the book and got set to do the course.

It was a pretty full on day with loads to take in. I got my static breath hold up to 2m 53s before moving onto dynamic stuff.

Worth a try? Sure, why not?

This guy actually explains why it's a decent thing to do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6MunbuTWVc

Breath Damn It, Breathe! - 12/11/2017

One of the best thing about ScotSAC, and I assume club diving with BSAC, is that they train you for free. There are some exceptions to this, of course, such as 50m diving and nitrox courses. However, when it comes to safety it's pretty much always free.

• Rescue training for Sport Divers? Free
• Deep rescue training from 30m? Free
• Diver First Aid and O2? Free

It's for that reason that I'm critical of some of the commercial agencies charging for first responder courses. They aren't concerned about the safety of the dive community.

Today myself and a few others did the Diver First Aid course, most of us had first aid training, but it's always good to have a refresher. In all about 17 divers took part, a free benefit to all wider dive community.

CPR

The Hunt Nudi November - 11/11/2017

After camping out in the van overnight at Firkin Point, Loch Lomond overnight, Gill.I.Am and I headed over to Loch Long where we knew the Barrman and Leigh were diving. We arrived to find them 'chilling' on their surface interval.

We chatted, and I seriously considered kitting up to join them for a quick dive with what was left in my 15l tank from last night. Naturally, the lure of the warmth and a role and bacon kept me out the water for a little longer, but we chatted and had a laugh before heading to the day's main event Anchor Point, Loch Fyne, where the Announcer and Jim were toddling up later in the morning.

In the interim, Gill.I.Am and sat in the van watching John Wick.

Once there we kitted up and headed in for a couple of dives. I was keen see Trichesia Caerulea and spent much of the first dive looking for them, but it was the Announcer who spotted them on our very first safety stop just casually hanging out on some seaweed in the shallows. there were a few of them too.

We also spotted Polycera faeroensis, a huge red gurnard, conger eels, bloody henrys and a few other of my favorites. It was a good day diving.

Charitable Outreach - 10/11/2017

It is a well known (or ken't if you're from Falkirk) fact that beneath my gruff exterior I'm a charitable chap. As members of my club know ,I've taken the step of introducing as many people as possible to diving at night. People appreciate it, not everyone enjoys the dark as I do. On this occasion I took Walker Texas Ranger and Andy G out to Finnart for another dive in the dark. 

We were running late. A phenomenon that happens a lot with diving. We quickly kitted up and got into the water for a potter around.

The viz was decent as we plodded from frame to frame. We passed a nice pipefish, a few cuttlefish and a number of the usual suspects.

It was another success, and pleasantly uneventful!

Back on the surface Gill.I.Am loaded up the trailer and headed to Firkin Point, Loch Lomond to camp overnight.

The Dive Whisperer - 05/11/2017

With the Barrman finalising his instructor training he had asked me if I'd come out with the guys from the club to buddy his Landlady for a couple if dives. Now the poor Landlady has spent much of the last year or so unable to dive, while the Barrman has had the diving time of his life. This was therefore a chance for the Landlady to skill up while diving with one of the greatest dive ninjas in a very small geographical area.

With that we had a chat about what we'd do. I explained how the A-Frames works. We set some limits and off we went. On the first dive I could tell she was a bit nervous - being a little unsure of the site and not a fan of poor visibility. However, decent training always kicks in even throughout the dive her breathing rate slowed.

We came out chatted about and then set off to dive the same route again. This time she was calmer, smoother in the water. The presence of the mighty Frewbowski was making a difference.

In fact, in-depth scientific analysis* proved that her air consumption fell by 15% throughout the day. I should really call myself the Dive Whisperer.

We saw some cool stuff too:

• Highland dancers
• Lobster
• Conger

......And the Barrman passed his instructor training.

The dive crew for the day

* I calculated her SAC rate

The Rush to Africa - 17/11/2017

When a buddy asked me to do a couple of dives on a Friday night so he could get to 96 dives, to enable his 100th dive in South Africa I greed. However, he wasn't an experienced night diver. so I asked around and found a third buddy to join us. I'd never met the guy but he had some PADI training and also GUE training. That was good enough for me to know that he was at least competent in the water with the right kit!

We met up....late and with new time constraints headed to the A-Frames. We did the first the dive which Gooey Ryan declared was the best he'd ever had at the site, Apparently, despite diving here with numerous instructors he'd never explored much further than the big frame.

I chuckled internally when he asked me what heading I'd taken to get to each of the frames. I haven't used a compass at that site in about four years. :)

We spotted a conger, sea lemon, cuttlefish, deeplet anemone - there was some good stuff on show.

I emerged and my left ear was gubbed, but Gooey Ryan was good enough to take Michael in for a quick second. Everyone was happy.

96 en route to Africa

An Aging Wine - 25/10/2017

It is said of fine wines that they improve with age. I hope the the same is true for me. You see, Jester and I went diving the day before my 40th birthday. We headed for St Catherines hoping for cuttlefish and decent weather (according to the forecast).

As we arrived the rain poured down. It slowed to a drizzle at which point we jumped out and kitted up. Gill.I.Am, who had come for the bantz, was not impressed that she'd be stuck in the car. 

We kept it pretty shallow, heading to the boat and then onto the reef. It was a good night for life with loads of scorpionfish, cuttlefish, a few nudibranchs and a coy conger.

What was amazing was that the scorpionfish were improving with each one we found. Slowly getting bigger and bigger in size until at the end we found the daddy of them all - who was about the size of a football. Needless to say I never went too close, but Jester took a few photos.

We emerged to find Gill locked in the car, imagination running riot as she read a crime thriller. I assume the victim is killed in a parked car by a rural dive site.

Reaching out

The big yin

Single Again - 13/10/2017

A trip to the The Caves beckoned as myself and two additional member of Eastwood Divers started a new monthly Friday Night dive. The prospect of it being Friday the 13th didn't bother me, but the descent at the Caves to the waters edge in the dark, in a twinset was enough for me to rejig one of my regulators and dive it on a single cylinder.  A decision that as I mountain goated in and out of the water I did not regret.

The weather had been wet on the run up to the dive so the stream running under the road was in full flow. In some ways this made the entry less slippy and hazardous and by the time I was half way down I noticed the tide was high, reduce my clamber considerably. 

The dive itself proved to be lobster themed as we went about cutting them loose from the fishing line left by fishermen at the site. We plodded on for 45 minutes in decent visibility before heading up.

As successful first for our regular club night dives.

The Journey to Atlantis - 01/10/2017

Earlier in the year I took the decision to improve upon my diver training. As such in 2017 I'd already added the following to my diving arsenal:

• ScotSAC Master Diver
• ScotSAC Deep Rescue
• PADI Twin Set Diver
• NAS MArine Archaology

This weekend I was about to add another - ScotSAC Deep Diving. The course which it seems is run once a year teaches divers to "dive to depths appropriate to the equipment you use, to a maximum depth of 50m".

So with a full day of lectures complete, a few practical planning exercises done and our planning done for our dive, myself and Marchen (my buddy for the day) headed to the curiously named Hangman's Reef with our instructors and we were set to go. We planned the dive and dived the plan overcoming the flashcard hurdles put in our place. 

The whole thing was more of an exercise in discipline as opposed to diving deep. It certainly taught me a more disciplined less computer-centric approach to diving beyond 30m.

We surfaced bang on time. Now qualified to go to 50m. Later that evening I had dinner with the Gandalf of the Internet and the Kingmaker, we made plans to go to deeper. So now the journey to Atlantis begins.

Play Misty For Me - 25/09/2017

Otter Ferry

After an evening camped out near the Oyster Catcher on the shores of Loch Fyne, Gill.I.Am and I headed to St Catherines to meet with the Kingmaker, the Announcer, Jester and Captain Al - who was insistent that after a considerable SCUBA lay off this didn't constitute a SCUBA refresher course.

The weather had been patchy at best, but we knew the sun was trying to breakthrough the fog and that ultimately the day would be as pleasant as the evening before. Which, by any definition, produced a beautiful sunset and a mild-ish September night ideal for van life.

The arrival at St Cats was a gloomy affair, but one ultimately lightened by the presence of the Kingmakers little 3 month old Collie pup, Misty - a name that for me always conjures images of scorned stalkers trying to kill reasonable people as a result of Clint Eastwood's 1971 classic, Play Misty for Me.

Misty

However, this little Misty's worst offence would be to lick Gill.I.Am' mug, eat some stolen grapes and chew on seaweed.

To add further intrigue to the day Jester had brought some masks and kit from LOMO, the watersports company for which he works. The hope was that we could get some natty pictures of it being modelled. However, given the collection of faces involved our chances of success were only ever going to be 50/50 - and I'll say no more about that.

Our first dive was leisurely and limited to the 30m 'shallows'. I buddied Captain Al in the event that after his lay off he was feeling a little rusty, but in the end it was all OK and the dive yielded a nice scorpion fish and a lobster amongst the teeming reef life.

However, disaster struck as I left the water and dekitted. I must have twisted and pinched a nerve in my back, leading to pins and needles in my legs. As a precaution, the Kingmaker called his better half - an A&E consultant - who reassured me that given our dive profile, easy ascent, safety stops etc it was unlikely to be a bend and more likely to be a pinching prolapsed disc of some sort. Either way I was under doctors orders not to dive again.

As a result, I got to be official photographer, enjoy my litle BBQ, the sunshine and Misty. A pretty sweet deal I think.

Fin modelling

Blue Steel

Fog, before it worsened.

Official Captain Al

The Darkness - 19/09/2017

Diving at night isn't for everyone. The imagination is a powerful thing and in the darkness people's imaginations often run riot out running even the most reasoned of minds. However, my own love it compels me time and again to introduce it to more people for the first time.

Tonight it was the turn of Freeflow Bob to experience diving in the dark for the first time. I couldn't tell if he was excited about night diving specifically or not.

On the way up I explained a few basic principles of night diving:

• Use a couple of lights to create an entry line for ease of navigating back to the shore - I rarely do this :)
• Dive the site in daylight before diving it at night - I've skipped this a few times too :)
• Don't turn off your torch underwater in case it doesn't go back on - I've experienced this first hand :)
• Carry a spare torch - top tip- I always do this
• Always, always do a buddy check. The incident pit can get so much deeper faster in the dark!

We were all set.

We kitted up and buddy checked at the car before entering the water. We dropped into fairly pleasant, clear, Finnart water. We went down to the big frame before spending the rest of the time looking amongst the wreckage for life.

We saw:

• 
  
• Catsharks
• Nudibranchs
• Lobsters 
• Wrasse
• Cod

Pretty much everything you'd expect to see. However, it was at the end of the dive when I revealed my favourite night diving feature. Encouraging the others to cover the light from their torches we blackened the sea bed then began moving our spare hands in the dark. Lighting up the sea with bioluminescence. If you haven't seen it before I recommend diving at night for that reason. 

You can learn more about the ocean at night here.

I think Ol' Freeflow may have discovered a taste for it.

The SS Kintyre - 17/09/17

When the Wylie Fox asked me if I was interested in diving the SS Kintyre I was immediately keen for a number of reasons. 

1. I could make myself available
2. An experienced diver told me the tide conditions would be ideal
3. The weather forecast looked good
4. It was to be one day shy of the 110th anniversary of the sinking 

It all seemed right and I had wanted to do this dive for sometime and one of the reasons why I had wanted to get the twinset.

It's deep,at around 36m with a long swim out to it from the shore. In fact, by the time you get to it breathing air you are almost in deco. I had asked if it was OK if I brought Jester along for the ride - which Wylie Fox was cool with.

Jester and I as a buddy pair planned as follows:

• Stage 1 - Dive the sewage pipe, if we were both happy by the end of the sewage pipe we'd move to stage 2
• Stage 2 - Dive along the guide rope to the bow of the SS Kintyre, if we were both happy we'd continue to stage 3
• Stage 3 - Dive down to mid ships at around 40m before returning home

Neither of us had any camera equipment - it seemed silly to take it on a dive where people do get into trouble given neither of us had dived it before.

The pipe was pretty, encrusted with anemones and with life all around it, but we ignored it on the way down, along the rope was pretty, but we ignored that too until we got to the bow.

It was magnificent, some people say it's deteriorated considerably, but it is still proud and ghostly as it emerges from the gloom. When I got to it I reached out and touched it - admiring it for a moment. I looked round to see Jester offer me a handshake. He must've felt the same way.

We continued off down along the port side spotting nudibranchs and little schools of fish. I could of stayed there for longer ( I certainly had enough air in the end), but a plan is a plan and we turned heading back.

It's a long dive with plenty of deco. In fact, I felt that one of our companions (K-Pep)  had the right idea with a nice O2 rich 'travel gas' and air on the wreck. It certainly meant that he didn't have to hand about for 15m at 3-5m at the end.

All in all, it was a memorable success.

Done

Entry

Going in

Going down

The First Tango in the Dark - 16/09/2017

My club had planned to dive at the Farne Islands this weekend, but that was kiboshed by the unpredictable nature of East Coast weather. By way of contrast West Coast weather was looking great. The club then decided to have a small camp out at St Catherine's and potentially a night dive.

So I invited Jester to be my guest for the evening now that he had overcome a bout of Common Cold / Manflu / Manthrax / Unspecified Certain Death.*

I had been invited to dive the SS Kintyre the next day by the Wylie Fox and Jester was going to accompany me. So it seemed sensible for him to dust down his deep diving skills ** and prep for the next day.

I had expected a few members to join us, but their preference, after a hard days diving, was to enjoy a bottle of wine on the beach round the campfire. So we kitted up alone in the dark and headed down.

It was funny, because before we went in we had wondered if we'd see any old night diving chums such as sepiola atlantica. As it was we did, along with a catshark, a few nudis, sticklebacks, cushion stars etc.

It seemed Jester was ready to return to some sensible diving.

* Delete as appropriate

** He has none, this is a joke

Haylie's Comber - 09/09/2017

With a brief break in my own amateur football season and Wylie Fox and her very cute dog Haylie looking for a dive day on the beach, we headed to Anchor Point for a splash. 

The weather prior to and the next week had been and was to be miserable. Our phones indicated an eight hour weather window, which we were damn well going to take advantage of. 

We arrived after a leisurely start, and kitted up as Haylie darted around enjoying the sights and smells of the beach.

Before going down we has a brief discussion about how we each dive the site. I, it seems, opted for a left hand sided approach while Wylie plumped for a right hand side approach. Our two dives yielded similar results - something that is hardly surprising given we were on the same reef just traversing it from different sides.

There was plenty of interesting life and my performance underwater earned me an invite to dive one of my bucket list dives.the following week with some far more experienced divers. So it was a successful outing!

Me

Haylie & I

Weather Window

Quint & the Seapen Graveyard

I had considered diving the the Old Cemetery 1 and 2 for sometime. However, something always came up and I never got round to it. So, when I got a message last week from my old dive instructor asking me if I wanted to go dive. I told him about my plan to head to Loch Leven camp with my new van and awning before heading to the Old Cemetery for a couple of dives. He seemed game.

The Old Cemetery has two dive sites - Cemetery 1 to the right and Cemetery 2 - to the left. Based on the guide there is the potential for all kinds of camping fun and shenanigans. However, times have changed. Parking in the lay-by is now restricted to three hours. Probably, judging by the number of beer bottles around the site, because of antisocial behaviour. Still, three hours was enough for us.

Quint and I kitted up and choose the easiest access to the beach we could find which coincidentally turned out to be the entry point for Cemetery 1, but given we wanted to do the second dive it meant that we were required to go down and turn right. 

It is probably true to say we spent too long going down and not enough time swimming left. We seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time looking at seapens standing on the seabed like a continuation of the cemetery on the surface. 

However, we eventually hit the wall we were looking for - it bottoms out at about 20m, so don't go too deep! Once there I saw an octopus, nudibranchs and a nice collection of seastars. We returned via the wreck of a little wooden skiff.

Feeling we had seen pretty much all there was to see in the area we headed back round the loch to the Slates for something a little, well, erm, deeper. 😃

Quint & I

Loch Leven

Testing the camper

Bouncing Bombs and the Wrecks of Loch Striven - 27/08/2017

Panoramic view from the Ferry

When I suggested to member of the club that we could do a little getaway and BBQ at Loch Striven I wasn't sure how many people would come given how inconvenient it is to get to. So I sold it on the promise of an introduction to wreck diving. However, at around the same time the BBC and BSAC very kindly cobbled together a news story that included one of the loch's most famous episodes.

Sir Barnes Wallis designed the 'highball' during WWII to allow aircraft to better attack large battleships, but the design and principle would ultimately used to more famous effect in the Dambuster raids.

Today there are still highballs on the bed of the loch, but our plan was to dive the shallow wrecks of a small WWII landing craft and a barge at a depth of 12m at Brackley Point. The shallow depth means that our ScotSAC Branch divers can enjoy two nice little wrecks.

With a number of people requiring to complete a variety of different training tasks, the Land Lady had decided to take control of the operation and earn her expedition organiser stripes. That allowed me to take a back seat and just dive with our only willing branch diver - Freeflow Bob.

We all arrived and pitched up for the day at what, it seems, is a very popular site for outdoor enthusiasts of all ilks.

We made friends and went diving. Freeflow Bob led me through our buddy check and took me down to 12m and off we swam. Almost instantly we hit wreckage and then swam along a relatively bland sandy bottom. We returned underwhelmed, but Freeflow Bob had managed to take a few snaps.

Our second dive a couple of hours later was to the right which offered up a larger, more identifiable wreck.

Back on the surface there were BBQs, frying pans with burgers, happy children and kayaking. It really was a fun day. We'll be back.

Dive site

Near the surface

Fun on the beach

Northern Promise (2) - 18/08/2017

In our messaging group the Kingmaker and I had offered Midge & Miss Hayes something a little bit special for our second day of diving. However, Miss Hayes with one eye on the rather miserable looking weather and probably the slightly sinister look of the Kingmaker decided that diving wasn't for her today and rocketed off her an old friend who lives in the area.

They were excited, their campsite had afforded them stunning views of Loch Leven and the drive through Glencoe had tipped their scenery sensors into overload. The Kingmaker and I knew our first choice of the Kentallen Wall was going be a winner....once the weather cleared up.

We waited, sipping tea, for the stair rod rain to stop in the Holly Tree Hotel. When it did we moved fast. So fast, in fact, that I forgot to fasten my crotch strap on my wing. Once corrected the Kingmaker threw the navigational responsibilities my way, absolving himself of any blame should the dive end up a disaster. I'll tell you now, I nailed the navigation bringing us along underwater right back to the slip. I took the plaudits.

The dive itself was great. There were loads of cuckoo wrasse and scallops all set against the back drop of the submerged Great Glen Fault. The visibility was cracking - easily exceeding 10m - but it was on the return that I really made the dive by spotting thornback ray nestling in the sand. I had been redeemed. Where I failed at Drishaig I had succeeded today.

I emerged from the water a hero.

Our second dive at the Slates was never going to be as good, but even the depth adverse Midge was starting to get a taste for it popping down to 34m and spotting scorpion fish. We had him. 

He'll be back to Scotland - he promised....

Kentallen Wall

Northern Promise (1) - 17/08/2017

When I suggest to Midge (a diver that the Kingmaker and I met on our last trip to Egypt) that he comes to Scotland to dive I promised a number of things that he'd be able to do, dive and see.

When anyone comes to visit me in Scotland I want them to leave with a good impression. I'm proud of where I'm from. As such I gave Midge some options. He and Miss Hayes (his carer on his first adventure north of Glasgow) chose Anchor Point and Drishaig Reef for day one. Anchor Point was chosen because it is a scenic wall dive and Drishaig Reef because of the firework anemones and potential to see thornback rays.

The weather was always going to be mixed but the dry spells held out long enough for us to have a good time.

We kitted up at Anchor Point with both my Anglo companions already in awe of the scenery at the surface. Impressing them was going to be easy. :)

As we went down Miss Hayes seemed to be having a problem with her BCD, with Midge unable to fix a problem that I'd already noticed, I quickly sorted it. I think it helped her trust me as a guide. After all, she hadn't ever met me before and I could tell they were concerned about depth being that most of their UK shore dives were about 6m.

We went down and I instantly spotted two conger eels (something that was on Midge's list of wanna sees) and a large strawberry deeplet anemone. We pottered about looking at the array sea stars that were on show. We surfaced yards from our entry point. From then on they were hooked on Scottish shore diving.

Our second dive took us across to Drishaig Reef where I guaranteed them the opportunity to see firework anemones  and the potential of thornback rays. Sadly I failed on the thornback ray front....today.

I left them to head north to their campsite while I raced back to Glasgow to get our tanks refilled for day two.

Midge enjoys the view

Tropical Reefs - 09/08/2017

With the weather staying nice I took the decisive decision to take a day of work. I was happy about this as it meant I was going to get a long lie, didn't have to go to work and could also enjoy a slightly further afield dive site.

Jester, Jim and I all decided on Triple Reef. We were delayed in our start due to technical issues, so we limited ourselves to one nice long dive.

We followed the traditional guide route as I did last time and found ourselves floating around each of the three 'reefs'. It was nice with plenty of anemones ans sunstars to keep us all entertained.

As we surfaced, we popped up 20m from the entry, which increased the length of our our stagger back to the cars. 

It completed a great four days of diving.

Dahlia Anemone

Daisy Anemone

Common Sunstar

Northern Sunstar

Smoke On The Water... -08/08/2017

Fire in the sky

As everyone knows when there's smoke on the water, there's fire in the sky. Tuesday was no exception as Jester, the Announcer joined me and some member of my dive club diving at St Cats, Loch Fyne.

For Jester and I it represented out third straight day diving. Tonight, to compensate for the moisture build up in our drysuits from not being able to dry them properly we were having a BBQ and a bonfire - the latter to be tended faithfully by the Jesterlings while papa bear went in for a couple of dives.

The weather had turned (for the better) and our only real fear were midgies. However, the bonfire would ensure that even they stayed away.

We kitted up, buddy checked and then descended. Almost immediately the Announcer and I saw what we think was a young, female John Dory, but I wasn't quick enough with the camera. As it was the Announcer was having some ear troubles so I spent the rest of the dive with one eye on her making sure that nothing went wrong.

Our second dive which took place after the above sunset was going to be a short one with Jester making do with the air in the remainder of his tank (with a pony for backup). However, it was nice to diving again in the inky blackness of night. On our way back up we both killed our torches and waved our hands firing up the sparkle of bioluminescence.