Then Came The Nudibranchs - 29/04/2016

Diving is a funny thing, you can expect to see one thing and then something else comes along that you entirely didn't expect. That was certainly the case when Jester and I headed along to Loch Long for a dive. Our plan had been to dive a site called Craggen, but a chance encounter with two divers at the A-Frames meant we switched lochs and headed over to Loch Fyne in the hope of finding better visibility.

It would seem a wise decision as our move to St Catherine's (despite taking us through blizzard conditions on the Rest & Be Thankful) reaped a plentiful bounty and a first for both myself and Jester. We kitted up in sleet and headed in.

Out first interesting encounter was with a particularly large langoustine who seemed quite happy to have us floating around, but he was pale into insignificance when we encountered one of the larger members of the spider crab family. 

Now, here in Scotland we are used to seeing what we call sea toads and their little cousins macropodia rostrata. However, when we saw the crab in question, my instinct was to think it a King Crab of sorts - I've eaten them once in the US (never again by the way!). Our best guess is Lithodes Maja* - the northern or deep sea king crab. It was big an definitely the stuff of spider crab related nightmares.

The return journey saw us encounter a rock covered in flabellina lineata nudibranchs. It was quite special. However, with Jester having mask troubles it was time to call it quits and enjoy dekitting in the final moments of twilight and a brief period of dry weather.

* If you know better and want to enlighten me then please feel free!

Langoustine

Lithodes Maja

The Alternative Guy Fawkes - 05/11/2015

I'm more interested in firework anemones than actual fireworks. With that in mind the plan was for Jester, the Zookeeper and myself to go hunting for the former type of fireworks. However, a three hour commute meant that the Zookeeper was exhausted and didn't fancy the dive. As such Jester and I headed to Seal Reef intent on re finding a firework anemone we found once before. 

Sadly, we failed. Instead, we found a proliferation of colour changing cuttlefish, a stunning nudibranch and Jester's first ever red gurnard.

We had heard that visibility in the area was good (8-10m) and it didn't disappoint. Visibility was easily 8m even in the dark. 

I was test driving a fully functioning Mares Eos 12rz and hoping to use the wide beam (with no hotspot) for some decent pictures.

We headed down to the small boat and off the bow looking for a firework anemone we found quite some time ago. We struck out, but we did find a langoustine, pipefish, cuttlefish and two red gurnards.

Moving onto the reef, and with deco fast approaching we headed back up gradually. As deco approached his minutes to deco hand signals looked an awful lot like flipping me the bird. Vulgar gestures aside, Jesters aging eyes were on fire, spotting a variety of worms before his spot of the night.  Blind luck I say, but it was a nice Eubranchus Farrani or, as I've heard the Mermaid describe them, "the wee fried egg ones".

It was a great 57 minutes as we emerged to booming of Inveraray fireworks.

Anemone of the State - 27/06/2015

So with the weather looking fair, Jester and I decided to go out and photograph different types of anemone. Our first and what was to be our last dive of the day was at Drishaig Reef, Loch Fyne. As we kitted up and headed in we joined briefly by Phil Cunningham - the legendary Scottish folk musician. We chuckled as we entered the water.

Heading down to 30m we noticed a very distinct thermocline as the temperature dropped from an almost tropical 14c to 8c at about 6m. The temperature change wouldn't just have an affect on our extremities, but also Jesters camera which was suffering from condensation.

Enjoying the langoustine and firework anemones we bumbled along for 30 minutes before cold got the better of us. Heading up, we passed back through the thermocline. It was like stepping into a warm bath and made the safety stop very nice indeed.

On the surface the real action happened. Jester was coming out of his drysuit when he ripped his wrist seal. The diving was over for the day, but we still met big Phil.

Firework anemone

Firework anemone

Langoustine

St Cats One and Done - 22/06/2014

Panoramic swwep from the shore

Sunday - another day another dive. I was meeting the diver formerly known as Mr Fallsoveralot (TDFKAMF) at Aquatron. He was getting a fill and hiring a tank. They were all out of hire tanks, so having just packed two tanks, we trudged back to mine get my other tank and headed off to dive a new site in Loch Fyne. However, as I waited for the overly enthusiastic barista in Starbucks, Milton to make my Chocolate Creme Frappe (or chocolate milkshake as we called it in the olden days) I realised I had DIN fittings and TDFKNAMF A-clamp. The plan to do two dives was out the window.

We headed to St Catherine's, Loch Fyne to dive one of the lesser dived sites in the village. There is some debate as to the name. It's either St Cats 1 or 3 depending on whether or not you number north to south or vice versa. For the avoidance of doubt we'll call it St Catherine's Pier.

I've never read a guide for the site, but a map of the area can be seen here - the pier is pretty obvious. Back at the shop the Moonster had given us a tip to dive in on the right hand side of the pier and then turn right. Our plan was pretty much just that.

After a brief chat with some fishermen we went in following the line of the pier down to 21m, then turned 90 degrees to the right before heading due south (taking us back to the shore and pier). In essence we were diving a right angle triangle - turns out trigonometry does have its uses. Mr Allen (my first year mathematics teacher), you have my apologies.

The dive was quite interesting with the usual array of life and an array of underwater objects. These included:

• a gnome
• a roll top bath
• a huge anchor

Even at the relatively shallow depth (though it was low tide) there were a couple of nice firework anemones, lots of langoustine, some dabs and the usual sealoch anemones, sea squirts and peacock worms.

I'm not sure what TDFKAMF thought, but it was 50 minutes well spent underwater. However, condensation due to high humidity at the surface and a very cool 6.0c bottom temp restricted my snapping underwater.

Langoustine

Grant in rolltop bath

Enjoying the sunshine

Tickled by seaweed

Highland dancer

Life on the anchor

Langoustine (2)

It Was The Best of Dives, It Was The Worst of Dives Part 1 - 10/04/2014

Tonight's diving adventure was a tale of two dives.The first at St Catherine's, Loch Fyne was to be followed by a scramble back over to Twin Piers, Loch Long. This effectively meant our surface interval was also part of our return journey. In part, this was to allow Fast Ed to squeeze in two dives. The poor boy had a 6.30am start and was insisting he had to tucked up in bed with Bella Swan by 11.30pm. I was off the next day and Laura didn't have to start work until after 10 so neither of us were particularly fussed about what time we got back to Glasgow.

As it is, we got to St Cat's and kitted up and entered the water in daylight at around 7.30pm. Before going in we encountered the guys from Evolution Divers, with whom we've shared a few dive sites in recent weeks. Entering as they exited the water, they informed us of great visibility of around 8-10m at various depths - good times!

Ellen the Eel

We entered and hit the reef at about 20m. I was keen to find a conger eel that Laura and I had found on our last trip there (So Much Nature Part 1). My memory and blog suggested we had found it at about 23m, but Laura's (dodgy) memory reckoned it was a good bit shallower so I lead us back up along the reef's edge to 15m, before turning back and heading deeper. Just as I hit 23m, I saw Ed flashing his torch a few metres back at 21m - he'd found it! So there we have it, if we took an average of both Laura and I's estimates we'd have found it straight away. There's a lesson there I'm sure.

After spending a bit of time with Ellen the Eel, we worked our way around the reef spotting various bits and bobs. The star of the show was an unusually shallow Nephrops Norvegicus, also known as the Norwegian lobster, Dublin Bay Prawn, Langoustine or Scampi.
Forty two minutes after entering the water we raced up the beach, switched tanks and threw the assembled kit in the back of the car and drove drysuit clad back to Loch Long....

Langoustine