Stallion Rock 'n' Roll - 16/07/2017

As part my own personal challenge to myself to dive more places I haven't dived before I had organised a boat out of Inveraray to take me and seven friends to Stallion Rock & Kenmore Point - two dives that can theoretically be dived from the shore, but access is limited, restricted and/or tide dependent. 

We set off in fair weather and given that the previous day's weather had been miserable and our forecast was a little uncertain we were all buoyed by this. Our initial plan had been to dive Stallion Rock first and Kenmore Point on the way home given that Stallion Rock was a little further from port, but the presence of another dive boat meant that we switched that around - it made little difference to us.

The entry from the boat was, to be honest, a little sporting as the boat was not ideally suited to diving with having to clamber over the side onto a platform for entry but it wasn't my worst boat experience - at no point did I think there was any significant danger.

My buddy for the day was Jim, with whom I've shared a couple of diving adventures. We were last off the boat. A situation that arose for two reasons:

1. I didn't want to hold anyone up as I put on my twinset and donning it would be easier with less kit swilling around the boat
2. If another diver pair had trouble (equalising etc), as event organiser I could hopefully help them from the boat and would happily dive as three if required

As it was everything went to plan on both dives so no significant intervention was required.

Jim and I plopped in at Kenmore Point last, moved closer to the shore to give us a visual reference going down and sank straight down to 30m. It was a decision that was probably a mistake. We were diving the southern wall and would have been able to enjoy a gnome garden and some more life had we just stayed at 20m where the main part of the wall bottoms out (thereafter it is silt with occasional boulders). That said, it was good to go down a little deeper with Jim, to ensure he was comfortable with that depth before doing Stallion Rock which benefits from a deeper profile.

Heading north we moved up and really got the benefit from doing so as the amount of interesting life improved. We surfaced on my SMB and new LOMO reel to replace the reel lost on the previous week.

After some sandwiches and tea provided by Joe (our skipper), we got ready for Stallion Rock. Topographically, I was keen to explore as much of site as I could so Jim and I had a short discussion about depth and made our plans. This time we were rewarded for our decision to go deeper, as it turns out Stallion Rock isn't really even a rock. Instead, it's the peak of an underwater cliff that at depth has been hollowed out into a wall with overhang by thousands of tides. It was beautiful. As I swam along underneath I felt a little insignificant and enjoyed the the deeplet anemones and creatures that had it made it their home.

I came up exhilarated, glad to have gone deeper, and relieved that the swell had dropped down a little from our time of entry. As we bobbed about I asked Jim how many dives he'd done. He said that was 200th dive and also the deepest he'd been - two milestones on one dive.

Nudibranch

Devonshire Cup Coral

Cushionstar

Jim

Jim

Deeplet Anemone

Deeplet Anemone

Common Sunstar

Northern Sunstar

Seven Armed Starfish

John Dory - 14/07/2017

When we set out for an evening dive at St Catherines, Loch Fyne we never expected anything special. Some midgies, a gentle swim round the reef, some sea life, some more midgies and then the drive home. We didnt imagine we'd see anything rare. However on the drive up I got to thinking about those one in a hundred dives when you sea something that is possible to see but improbable at a given site. For example, the time when Jester and saw Lithodes Maja - possible, but improbable.

Often to see these things you have to go deeper or further than the well worn and fin kicked trails made by many of the local dive schools. It is perhaps why many regular instructors are oblivious to some of the best life at many of the sites and, more importantly, why divers have to get out and explore beyond their usual routines - my theme for the year.

However, all of us were surprised when the Kingmaker spotted a fish that I haven't seen in over 400 dives. We weren't deep, we weren't on the far side of the reef, we were just in the right place at the right time when a John Dory was hovering about. In his excitement, the Kingmaker had nudged up a little silt, but I snapped it, watched it and then left Jester to get the money shot with his fancier camera rig.

Whatever else happened on the dive was neither here nor there, we had been rewarded for venturing out amongst the angry midgies.

John Dory

Devonshire Cup Coral

Limacia Clavigera

Limacia Clavigera

Limacia Clavigera

Return to the Glanmire - 09/07/2017

When I last left the deck of the Glanmire amidst the disaster of the Rope to Nowhere I didn't expect that it would be more than two years until I'd make it back given its a two hour drive from the house. OK, I've dived in  Spain, California, Florida, Vietnam, Qatar and deeper wrecks in the Clyde and Egypt, but TWO YEARS?

I was definitely ready tackle my nemesis armed with 32% nitrox and a twinset when Captain Al arranged a boat for the day. 

My buddy was Jester who'd be diving it for the first time. I was confident. I mean, what could go wrong?  We buddy checked and jumped into the water. I casually swam for the rope and waited for Jester. It was then when I heard him say something about something loose.

I looked down and saw my finger spool slowly spinning down. I tried to grab it but and pull it up, but doing that was just slowly tangling me. I called for Jester to unleash his knife and cut it at the clip. The spool was only worth £9 - about the same as the nitrox in my tank and a fraction of the £35 for the days diving. 

It was cut and we were ready to descend, but it spooked me. "Perhaps the Glanmire is my wreck nemesis?" I thought as I descended the rope. This was never going to be a chain of thought that would help me control my breathing as I descended.

At the bottom, I lay briefly on the deck and waited for Jester and to calm my breathing rate. I did, but not before I'd wasted a lot of air. We swam round the deck and about halfway through I watched as Jester started following another twinset wearer. Did he think that was me? I signalled him and realised we had been joined by another diver for the remainder of the dive.

It was just as well too, as sans reel I had no way of putting up the SMB when we failed to find the rope back up and JEster is always notoriously reluctant to offer his!! As we decided to go up I realised we had picked up the Wylie Fox who promptly, and expertly deployed her SMB. Up we went slowly stopping a little longer to cover her deco stop.

Back on the deck of the boat I laughed, it was my nemesis, but I'd won this time. 

A lengthy surface interval later and we were back out the boat diving the shallow Cathedral Rock. It was easy but surprisingly light on really interesting life. Still, we had a good time, of the 9 of us who dived it we all came back out without significant incident.

Lobster

Wylie Fox on the line

Jester Safety Stopping

Sunstar

Deep Rescue - 08/07/17

The ScotSAC Deep Rescue course is a requirement for a number of things. First, and my primary reason for wanting to do it, it is a prerequisite for undertaking ScotSAC's 50m qualification.It is also required by all divers wishing to obtain the First Class Diver Award.

Our club BDO had arranged for the course to take place at Seal Reef, St Catherines and all I had to do was provide a willing corpse and let's be honest, Jester would do for that! 

So off down to 30m we went Jester 'died' underwater and I begn the lift under the watchful eye of the regional instructor. It wasn't pretty as I reached 20m Jester began falling between my legs pulling me into a horizontal position - the natural position for my twinset and wing. I wasn't going to recover that - at least in my head - and any attempt to do so would of perhaps risked an uncontrolled ascent. I called cut and we descended and pottered about before coming back up. 

My second attempt went better we got all the way up without any difficulty and the only problem was applying the brakes for the safety stop. I did, just in time, but it reminded me of the moment when the lights change just before you reach them and you have to brake hard.

Quite a reintroduction to cold water diving.

Lanzarote Day 5 - The German Venus - 05/07/2017

I remember being in Florence's Uffizi Gallery and looking at Botticelli's masterpiece The Birth of Venus. Her modesty was protected by her flowing hair. I never loved the picture, though to be honest I'm not a fan of Renaissance painting.

My final day of diving with Dawn Dives brought back that memory. You see, we were diving in the North East of the island at a nudist colony - fortunately we still got to dive in wetsuits! One of my buddies for the day - a fellow Scot - reassured me that it was a great dive and one of the few in the world where you're almost guaranteed to see both tentacles and testicles on the same dive. 

We kitted up and  headed down the carved cliff staircase to the rocks below without seeing a single nudist. I assumed nudists, unlike divers, were late risers.

The site is actually pretty barren in terms of fish life, but the steeply tumbling white sands provide a home to a a number of rays. However, most divers come here for the topography and the opportunity to go deep quickly. 

It was pretty spectacular on both dives, yielding torpedo rays and stingrays on both dives. Hervie's eyes were good at spotting them too.

However, the Venus memory was brought back to me at the end of the dive when I came up from three metres at the long swimming pool style stairs onto the rocks. As I looked up, at the top of the stairs stood a German Venus - proud and unabashed with no clam shells or long hair to cover her modesty. Yet it was me that was emerging from the sea.

Ski slopes

Torpedo Ray

Octopus

Stingray

Stingray

Buddies

Buddies

Lanzarote Day 4 - The Night Shift - 04/07/17

One of my many vices is diving in the dark. Tonight I got the chance to be present at the shift change - when the day shift ends and the reef night shift begins. Diving with a relatively inexperienced French PADI instructor still keen to get a variety of different dives under his belt.

There was 10 euro premium for a night dive, but experience has told me that it is money well spent. 

Calimera Reef was just outside the hotel gates and it at about 8 metres deep it's an ideal beginners site, but I had doubts about how good it would be. I can say with all honesty that it wasn't the best dive I've ever done, but it was pretty good.

It started well, in mostly daylight with a cuttlefish scuttling away from us towards reef fish looking for a place to hole up for the evening. As we continued reef fish gave way to sea cucumbers, octopus, moray eels, crustaceans and diadem sea urchins.

We stayed down for around an hour before slowly returning in dark to the entry point. It was then when the dive highlights presented themselves - a roaming stingray and a seahorse galloping across its rock home.

As we walked back to the hotel the Maxi suggested that he liked night diving, I agreed.

Octopus

Sea cucumber

Seahare

Moray Eeel

Scorpion fish

Seahorse

Lanzarote Day 4 - Museo Atlantico - 04/07/2017

As regular readers will know, one of the primary reason was to visit the Museo Atlantico. As part of our trip both myself and Gill.I.Am opted to do it. G was a bit nervous about diving from a RHIB for the first time, but she wasn't the only one. In fact, I was the only paying diver on the boat who had ever rolled off a boat. As such it then fell to me to plop in first, while thre guide explained the procedure. In the end, I think they all enjoyed the experience of a roll. 

The route round the museum is a little like a tourist route round a conventional museum. It tells the story of the journey to Europe that African migrants face. It's strangely chilling when compared to the frivolity of the statues you find behind the curtain. It's genuinely moving.

Life on the dive is a little hit or miss, but fortunately for Gill - who had missed out on angel sharks earlier in the week - managed to see one amongst the statues.

The other significant life around the museum were trigger fish - angry, aggressive, trigger fish. The moment it bit me was a shock. It just felt like someone had stuck needles into my arm. Back on the surface we realised at least three of us were bitten.

It was a worthy dive if you like sunk stuff. 

Gill with biting triggerfish

Lanzarote Day 3 - Playa Chica & the Thermoclines of Fridgia - 02/07/2017

Yeah OK, I may have made up the name "the thermoclines of fridgia", but it was an interesting component of our dives at Puerto Del Carmen. We left Playa Blanca and headed for a dive entry spot that held a few dives within its range. We dived two: The Shrimp Cave and the Cathedral.

The first dive led by Pepe was probably my favourite. We kitted up, did a stride entry off the pier and then proceeded to swim out at 5m midwater until the sand ebbed away beneath and then we dropped down by the sea cliffs to 35m. We levelled off with the rest of the divers a little above us. Pepe signalled for me to drop and have a look in the cave as I did I went through the 37m thermocline and into the cold. It was freezing. I stayed at 40m briefly and then returned to the warmth enjoying the scenery and the fauna - rays and octopus mostly, but also some nice orange corals and fireworms.

At the surface an Italian girl asked if I'd seen the nudibranchs. I hadn't. Something I'd rectify on the second dive.

After a cup of tea we were ready to go back in. This time the dive was being led by two dive master trainees. They were nervous, but eager to impress. I asked their teacher if he wanted me to be a disaster underwater for them. He laughed, but politely declined. 

As we descended, this time straight out from the beach, we hit a current. Not fully understanding the briefing but comfortable with my own ability dive, I think they had planned to replicated Pepe swimming out in the open water at 5m before dropping down to maximise bottom time. The current, however, had other plans and it took them about 5 minutes to realise that they were going nowhere and the golden rule of diving in the current is to get down, closer to bottom and the wall. In fact, I saw Pepe signal from the back. The plan had changed.

It didn't bother me. I still kept my eyes peeled for nudibranchs and at 33m I began to see them - everywhere. Two types, the purple flabellina and the variable seaslug. I took some snaps casually hitting my deco limit as I did and then headed up with crew back onto the shallower flats at 20m where we had another great angel shark encounter.

While doing my safety stop, Pepe signalled how much air I had then when I indicated I had plenty he led me into towards the rock face and into a really nice little cavern.

Two great dives, although I don't know if the DMTs passed their skill. :)

Orange Coral

Purple Flabellina

Fireworm

Exiting the cave

Lanzarote Day 1&2 - Charlotte Reef & the Flamingo Wall -01/07/2017

Days 1&2 saw me dive the same dives two days on the trot. The first with my guide Reinus,  and the second with Gill.i.am after I had established that the diving would be to her tastes.

Now I said in my introductory post that one of the reasons to come here was that we both wanted to see seahorses and angel sharks. Neither dive site disappointed.

At Charlotte Reef (one of two local house reefs on both days no sooner had we dropped down to about 4m when the guides pointed to the seaweed attached to a rock. We looked closer and there was a perfectly camouflaged seahorse rocking back and forward in the swell.

After that, we passed a slew of the usual sub tropical reef fish including:

• Moray eels
• Ornate wrasse
• Dusky grouper
• Triggerfish
• Varible seaslugs

Oh, and my new favourite fish, the Bastard Grunt - follow the link it's a real fish.

With Gill deciding to skip the nearby Flamingo Wall - a site where on the first day I saw two angel sharks I feared she may miss her chance to see the critically endangered species.

Flamingo Wall proved to be a pleasant harbour wall down to 18m and then a flat coral encrusted lava flow out. It yielded a nice selection of octopus, cuttlefish, stingrays as well as the aforementioned angel sharks.

I was impressed. I wanted to see more of Lanzarote's sub-aqua environment. Moreover, even with my dive certifications I'd proven myself to be a competent diver and they were happy to take me deeper and further afield.

Octopus

Variable Seaslug

Moray Eeel

Seahorse

Angel Shark

Sea Bream

Cuttlefish