Werewolf Fish - 26/05/2018

I've done St Abb's already this year, but this time myself and the Wylie Fox were warming up for Scapa Flow in June so we turned our attention to the Glanmire and it's square profile.

Regular readers will know I've done it before in the Rope to Nowhere and Return to the Glanmire. In each case I never exactly covered myself in diving glory. Today I knew it would be different. Firstly, I was pretty dived up and secondly I had learned lessons.

I was right, Wylie Fox and I descended the shot line and dived the wreck and surfaced doing our 10 minutes of decompression on the way up. The dive was quite unremarkable apart from a pleasant snakelocks anemone. That was exactly the sort of experience we both wanted for our Scapa preparations. 

It was the second dive that was to be the standout however. A shallow dive (14m) at Skelly's Hole. I swapped buddies so that I could do some compass work with Walker Texas Ranger. WTR was leading as part of his ScotSAC Sport Diver training. 

The site is pleasant with a series of narrow ravine's and gullies and at certain times of the year home to the Atlantic Wolffish and Lumpsuckers. I've seen a small lumpsucker once many years ago, but an adult has always elluded me and I had never seen a live wolffish.

As we cut our way through the ravines we first saw a large male lumpsucker. It was bigger than I'd expected and way more colourful. It would not have looked out of place in the tropics.

Then one of the other members of our group signalled he'd found something. I'm not sure he knew if it was a conger eel or a wolffish, but it was definitely the latter. 

I surfaced delighted.I can't wait to return at the end of June.

Lumpsucker

Wolffish

Lumpsucker

Dahlia Anemone

Flabellina Lineata

Dahlia Anemone

Snakelocks Anemone

Going South - Part 7 The Spectre of Elphinstone - 13/05/2018

We did to dives on Elphinstone Reef. They were to be the end of cruise filler dives. Granted on a fantastic reef. 

Dive one saw us hanging out deep on the northern plateau looking for pelagic life. We never saw any big stuff. It was nice, but if it feels like I'm skipping over stuff, I am. 

The second dive saw us dive as a group. I lead us out to 40m on the southern plateau up the eastern side back round to the western side - by which point it was just the Big Easy and I left. We kept our eyes peeled, but we never saw any of the pelagic life we were looking for.

We headed back toward the boat enjoying a very gentle drift. As we approached the boat we spotted a tight group of divers looking like they were all doing a safety stop. They weren't though. I asked what they were looking at. One chap, a keen photographer signalled shark. 

We swam to join them and out of the blue they came. Two of them - oceanic white tips, the worlds most prolific man eater. They circled a couple of times and after a couple of minutes The Big Easy and I headed out the water delighted to have encountered them.

Turtle

Nudi

Oceanic White Tip

Going South - Part 6 Daedalus & the Spectre Beneath - 12/05/2018

Daedalus was never part of the plan, but from my perspective it was a welcome addition. 

I had been told to expect sheer drop offs, mediocre reefs (compared to what we'd seen the previous day in Fury Shoals) and hammerheads.

Hammerheads capture the imagination of most divers. I'm not sure why, but I think its that they can occasionally be seen schooling and that when viewed from below they present one of the most distinguished silhouettes in the ocean.

When we woke up to the view of the Daedalus reef there were several liveaboards there sending out boat loads of divers to eastern side of the reef. Our briefing differed, we were going to be doing a drift dive down the opposite side. 

As it transpired once again our guides had misread the current and we all spent an hour finning furiously headlong into a current. It wasn't the hammerhead experience I'd hoped for.

Our second dive was doing the dive all the other boats had done in the first instance. This time, on the leeward side of the island, we bobbed along keeping our eyes peeled. We were half way through the dive when it happened. It was just a shadow at first, when the distinctive head was visible. Once again photography wise I failed to keep my cool. I didn't care I was swimming with one of the most famous residents of the ocean. It was the stuff misplaced nightmares a it glided past 4 times.

We swam back to the boat - the last few moments against the current, only to be told that something else was lurking nearby, unseen by most of us - carcharhinus longimanus, the oceanic white tip.

We never saw longimanus on the third dive despite the presence of a silky shark and a couple of it's grey reef cousins. Despite that Daedalus had delivered.

Hammerhead shark

Barracuda

Humphead wrasse

Daudalus

Going South - Part 5 Fast and the Furious - 11/05/2018

We had been given options by the cruise director.

1. An extra day in fury shoals spotting dolphins (we had seen them briefly on the surface the day before)
2. An extra day in Daedalus spotting sharks

The group chose the first option. I'm not sure it was the right choice, they never saw dolphins, but that's democracy for you. What we did get was some of the most magnificent coral reefs I've ever seen.

The Playground and Claudio were beautiful dives providing some stunning coral vistas. However, it was Claudio that had us having fun fighting against a current after navigating the reef. The Battle for Sataya East had obviously weakened a number of our group. As we settled in the shelter. I saw the Kingmaker push on by. I joined him and together we made it.

The Kingmaker was particularly pleased for us to be one of the few buddy pairs that made it back to the boat.

The evening brought us to Abu Galawa Soraya. It was a nice dive also with a spectacular coral amphitheatre and small wreck. It was one of the few dives that I've done that I wish I had a twinset on to make it last longer. It was genuinely spectacular.

Masked puffer

Nudibranch

American wreck

Corals and fish

Blue Spotted Ray

Red Sea Anemone fish

Going South - Part 4 500 - 10/05/2018

My 200th dive was memorable. It was in the Red Sea at a site called The Alternatives. My buddy was the Zookeeper and we had a prolonged encounter with my first scribbled filefish. It stayed with us most of the dive and I've never seen one since.

My 300th dive was also in Egypt and was at Ghobal Island with the Kingmaker. We saw my first and only ever stargazer fish.

By way of contrast, dive 400 was a very dull affair with someone who could barely dive at Twin Piers, Loch Long.

It's safe to say that I wanted to make 500 special. My buddy would be the Gandalf of the Internet and to make it special we would dive it with our cheap Chinese UV torches. It wouldn't be spectacular but it would be fun and it would, perhaps, throw up something interesting.

We swam away from the ever dwindling number of people diving on night dives and fired up the torches. At first I wasn't taking pictures thinking my camera would struggle with the strange white balance and, so, to my disappointment I never photographed the small bubble anemone that lit up furiously under the UV light. But I did snap some glowing corals.

We meandered around for 45 minutes. With that I was half way to 1,000 dives.

Glowing corals

Glowing corals

Going South - Part 3 The Battle for Sataya East - 10/05/2018

The day started on a small reef named Habili Gafar, a small pinnacle that took around 10 minutes to circumnavigate. For the briefest of moments it was desperately pretty then around 40 divers descended on it which for me took away its shine, but it did give us a few more grey reef sharks. From there we moved on to the winding labyrinth of St Gohn's Cave. It was a pretty spectacular set of winding corridors through a delicate reef. 

However, as with yesterday it was the third dive of the day, this time my 499th dive that was to live long in the memory - Sataya East, Fury Shoals

The Kingmaker, overcome with an anal fury of his own had decided to sit this one out. As such there were five of us. We were dropped by rhib on the far side of the reef and were aiming to 'drift with the current' along to a sandy lagoon where we'd find a small exit back towards the main liveaboard. It seemed easy.

We made our way over the barrier reef to the outer wall, rolled and began the dive. It seemed to be going well then as we approached where the lagoon should of been we turned headlong into a powerful current. As the diver at the back of our group of five I watched as Gandalf was swept straight back from his advanced position, We all felt it.

We signalled to the guide coming behind,  his advice was to stay low, and press on. None of us were convinced. Heavy finning, afterall increases the risk of DCI.

Gandalf took the decision to go 'over the top of the reef' , weaving between any large coral formation that could put us in the leeward side of the current.

Eventually we dropped into a small sandy lagoon, where I momentarily admired my first blue spotted ray of the trip.

As a group we had now been joined by two other divers who had slipped into our slipstream. It was hard work, but I found myself having magnificent fun. I signalled 'charge' to the troops. They all got the message Once again we were going over the top.

We never made it back to the boat, but we got closer than any other group. That to me seemed like a moral victory. Once everyone got over their annoyance at the dive guides getting the currents all wrong, we laughed about the dive now named the Battle for Sataya East.

St Gohn's Cave

Moray

The Blue Spotted Ray in the sandy lagoon

St Gohn's Cave

Going South - Part 2 Dangerous Territory - 09/05/2018

The 3rd dive of the day would be the Kingmaker's 500th dive. The numerically notable dive was set to be at Sha'ab Dangerous in St John's. So named because of the markings on nautical maps informing sea captains of dangerous reefs, not really because it's danger. It was a dive that was to be somewhat anticlimactic as the Kingmaker's 499th turned out to be very special indeed. 

The day started nicely at a small reef named Habili Ali before moving on to Small Gotta. Small Gotta was meant to be pretty and unspectacular. That's what Kingmaker's dive log would say. I mean who remembers their 499th dive? It's not meant to be memorable. And it wasn't, right up until an oceanic manta soared up from the deep blue performed a loop and then swam out the way it came with the Kingmaker "soaring" along beside it. He was delighted.

That would make for a pretty memorable 499th, but when the two grey reef sharks came by I could tell the Kingmaker was enjoying himself. Back on the boat we agreed that it was amongst the best dives we'd all done. It will live long in the memory. 

Sadly for Dangerous, as pretty as it was as a reef it wasn't spectacular in the way the previous dive had been.

Soaring manta

Crack in the coral - Dangerous

500th dive

Antheas - the current signallers

Res sea anemone fish

Going South - Part 1

With both the Kingmaker and I turning 40 in the last six months we had decided that we would do a red sea liveaboard to celebrate. We had settled on heading south to Rocky, Zabargad & St Johns on board MY Blue Horizon. A few folk got wind of our  trip and decided to join us including:

• The Gandalf of the Internet
• Pushme Poolme
• The Big Easy

We were set.

When we arrived we were told that the itinery would have to change as the Egyptian military has revoked the boats permission to go to Rocky and Zabargad. As such the new plan was:

Port Ghalib - St Johns - Fury Shoals - Daedalus - Elphinstone - Port Ghalib

I wasn't that fussed - the addition of Daedalus meant I'd have an improved chance of seeing my first hamnmerhead shark and that was one of the primary reasons my trip.

Once on the boat our little group was given an additional diver to even up the numbers. She was experienced, but hadn't dived in a while. I'd like to think we made her welcome. We started with a couple of 60 minute check dives that threw up a couple of nudibranchs in between the boat steaming down to St John's to start our adventures.

The Big Easy

Kingmaker

Unidentified nudibranch

Gandalf of the Internet

Chromodoris Strigata

The only crown of thorns

The first moray

The first turtle

Eastbound And Down - 29/04/2018

Since the turn of the year I have been the "Expedition Officer" for my dive club. I'm selfish and like diving, so it is well suited to my interests. The better the diving, the better it is for me. So it was without hesitation that I booked Pathfinder for a few days throughout the year. This was the first of those days. 

Myself and Gill.I.Am had arrived the night before in the van to save me getting up too early in the morning. It's a pretty decent deal as you can park a campervan overnight for a £10 donation to the St Abbs Harbour Trust. 

In the morning I awoke to sunshine and an eerily quiet harbour. However, soon enough the troops had arrived along with groups of day trippers. I had agreed to take responsibility for a club Branch Diver and, if she felt comfortable after her first boat dive, a little instruction on the second. 

Once on the boat it all went swimmingly and the only thing that let us down was the visibility which was pretty poor (2m). However, we endured the cold for 41 minutes which meant Sarah could log her longest ever dive. 

After a quick trip back to shore for snacks and some chat we all headed out again. This time Sarah was going to finish her Sport Diver compass work before enjoying a little pootle around rocks.

It was reciprocal heading. Pretty basic stuff. It did mean that we were unlikely to get back to our starting point, but with improving visibility I could see the Black Carr Rock that was enough for a pass. From there, Sarah and I just went from rock to rock looking for the famous wolf fish residents of St Abbs. We never found any, but we did find a nice scorpionfish, beadlet anemones  colourful bloody henry starfish. Not bad for a training dive.

Parked up for the night

Setting up for the day

Add caption

My buddy

Pathfinder

Scorpionfish

The King & I - 24/05/2018

So with a trip to Rocky & Zabargad on the horizon the Kingmaker was back in the water giving his kit a nice 30m shake down. I was driving so I got to pick the site and as I hadn't been to Drishaig in about a year that was where I chose. We kitted up in some pretty stormy weather before heading down the old fisherman's path and into the water.

The Kingmaker had forgotten his primary torch and my old primary was, er, out of action after a mishap a few weeks before. So between the two of us we had a cumulative total of about 800 lumens of light.  That wouldn't stop us. Afterall, we're tough folk up here. It would, however,  limit our ability to spot life. As it was, the life found us.

There were nudibranchs, firework anemones, a sea mouse, and all kinds of little critters. And the vis?! Despite being stormy and brown on the surface under 5m it was pretty clear - easily 5m, but dark.

After about 40 minutes we surfaced and made our way back. All in all a pretty decent shakedown. Roll on May!!

Highland Dancers

Sea mouse

Northern Soul - 22/04/2018

Having a campervan has made diving more pleasant in a number of ways:

• Between dives I can take refuge from the elements in the van and cook up a tasty treat and a cup of tea
• If meeting friends I don't have to rush up to sites at the crack of dawn - I can arrive the night before sleepover
• I can go to more rural spots and not have to worry about getting back

This weekend I was teaming up with me ol' Yorkshire mucker Josh. He was wanting to dive "some deep Scottish walls". I felt I could oblige combining my campervan and his desire to test out a new tent.

So I assembled a plan:

• Day 1 - Dive Trail Island with K-Pep in the Firth of Clyde
• Day 2 - Dive Kentallan Wall & the Slates
• Day 3 - Dive Lochaline Wall in the Sound of Mull

I asked Jester if he wanted to come, then I asked my buddy (Wylie Fox) for an upcoming trip to Scapa Flow. They both agreed. The team was set.

Trail Island saw Jester, Josh and I all diving off K-Peps much loved RHIB Jenny. As we set of from Largs we realised we had nailed it - the weather was perfect. We rolled off the RHIB and headed down to 30m the point where the sea bed disappears into the abyss. I led us over the wall and down to a casual 34m and along the wall. We bumped into a few nudibranchs (flabellina pedata, flabellina lineata) and the odd candy striped flatworm. It was going well from a nudi perspective and josh had nailed his first Scottish wall. I'd been wearing a hire drysuit that wasnt that dry so I sat out a 2nd dive on the Lady Isabella Barque in preference for drying out in the sun.

From there it was the drive north to our overnight stop at Caolasnacon for our overnight stop.

The following morning we were joined by the Barrman & the Landlady for Kentallan Wall. I had dived Kentallan wall a couple of weeks before and wasn't expecting too much life. Sadly, for us I was right. It was a decent dive, but it was cold and my undersuit was still little on the damp side. As such, I decided against doing the Slates in preference for letting my undersuit dry.

Afterwards four us headed to Lochaline to set up camp for the night. The dive the next day would be memorable.

I'd never dived the Lochaline Wall. The only other time I'd been there was when I dived in the Sound of Mull years ago, but missed out because I'd arrived late.

Wylie Fox was the expert and we'd just follow her lead. So, the next morning, we kitted up and entered the water one hour before slack. We swam for a bit in the shallows then plunged down toward 46m. ~The bottom was still nowhere in site. So with the discretion being the better part of valour we turned and zig-zagged back up the wall before the tide turned and dragged us out. 

The wall was covered in life. We emerged agreeing that it was perhaps the best shore dive we've done in Scotland (Kintyre excepted). From there we began the long trek home and the even longer drive for Josh who had nourished his diving soul away from the English quarries.

Flabellina lineata

Flabellina lineata

Flabellina pedata

Cushionstar

Northern Sunstar

More flabellinas