It Cod Have Been Worse - 03/06/2014

As part of Gill's preparation for diving later in the month on holiday, we headed to Conger Alley, Loch Long. At the outset I had made some pretty grand promises about the life we'd find there (octopus, conger eels, etc.). However, it became apparent very quickly that the visibility was going to make it too dark for Gillian to want to go particularly deep (18m). 

The water was filled with large particulates that looked a little like green rain freeze-framed mid fall. Very peculiar. Just as I thought this was going to be a rubbish dive the life (albeit not what I'd originally promised) started to appear. The viz meant I never bothered taking pictures of moving objects. 

First up was a Firework Anemone (below), I snapped it with my camera still in blue water setting meaning it had a red filter. It now genuinely looks like a firework, then the plumose anemones & sea cusumbers, then came the fish - goldsinny, large ballan wrasse, scorpion fish, two spot goby, dab, rock cooks, sticklebacks and magnificent cod. And not just one or two, but loads of fish. All out munching on whatever the green streaks were. Even the moon jellyfish were in on the act!

Right at the end I saw something long and thin dart away from me at speed. I suspect it was a european eel or a small ling. I must look it up in my book. 

I only took a couple of pictures and Gill wasn't too fussed about taking any either. As dives in bad vis go, it cod of been worse. *groans*

Firework anemone

Closed plumose anemone

The Loch Long Road to Recovery - 27/04/2014

Panoramic view of A-Frames entry and 29 Steps

Today I had time to sneak in a cheeky dive between spending time with Gill and playing funky bass at church in the evening. As such, Mr Fallsoveralot accompanied me on a dive at the A-Frames, Loch Long. 

As regular West of Scotland divers will know, visibility in Loch Long has been terrible in recent weeks. The cause of this may well be seasonal, but the deterioration also coincides with a series of blasts further up the loch where the UK keeps its nuclear arsenal. As such, Facebook pages and newsgroups have been awash with poor visibility reports including one of my own! We decided with no credible reports in recent weeks we'd take the plunge.

The site was slowly clearing of people by the time we arrived, and a few discussions revealed that at least three BSAC branches had been training. Moreover, my local dive shop, Aquatron, were also running a PADI Openwater course less than 100 yards along the shore. As such I feared that visibility would be poor.

As we entered the water we descended through the halocline with visibility of around 5m. We reached the first A-Frame with visibility of around 4m. Moving from frame to frame as we reached the 3rd frame we passed through a cloud of what I think was our own silt being swept out by the current which reduced visibility to less then 50cm. However, staying close to Mr Fallsoveralot we finned for around 10m and eventually emerged from the cloud and back into some decent viz.

As we returned to shallower water the visibility improved to around 7m.

I never took my camera on the dive, but Grant did. I spotted some nice sea cucumbers amongst the usual selection of critters. Moreover, Mr Fallsoveralot never fell over once. I put it down to him using a dumpy 12l cylinder for the first time.

Sea Cucumber (taken by Grant)

It Was The Best of Dives, It Was The Worst of Dives Part 2 - 10/04/2014

Now as you know, that last dive was, to use a three letter acronym, PDG! (pretty darn good). For the second dive we had galloped across the Rest & Be Thankful to Twin Piers, Loch Fyne. By the time we had parked, rekitted and entered the water it was 9.15 and dark. So with strobes and torches on we began to descend.

By the time we reached 6 metres I was questioning if there was much point continuing as the visibility was less than 50cm. Laura convinced me to persevere by the time we reached around 10-12m the visibility had increased from zero to poor (2m). Navigating to the reef I barely saw any life - even on the reef it was scarce. Then finally, after reaching the reef, I saw a beautiful little sea cucumber, then a conger eel, then a dab, then a scorpion fish, then another sea cucumber. Don't get me wrong, it was still a terrible dive in terms of visibility, but the sea cucumbers made up for it!

The return was an awkward trip back through the poor visibility. We came out the water at 10pm, just in time for Ed to get up the road in time for bed.

Pink Spotted Sea Cucumber

Dab

Twin Fears – 20/02/2014



As mentioned earlier my main fear was that we’d see nothing on this dive and Laura would be able to gloat that she provides the ‘animal magic’on our dives. However, in Poseidon’s Parlour there are fears, of which we do not speak. These fears haunt the minds of many divers. One such fear is hideously bad visibility.

 



Swimming crab

Entering the water at Twin Piers first, Andrea and I noticed that as we rinsed our masks the water was, at best, murky. As the others (Big Mac, Fast Ed, Merry L & Pat – Sergeant Chris was there, but had forgotton his weight belt and gallantly offered to provide surface cover rather than stuff his BCD with scrounged lead) entered the water I had a quick dunk under to check out the visibility, it was tolerable 2-3m, the result of the storm the night before.

Progressing the dive we encountered some mid water velvet swimming crabs and a nice looking dogfish before hitting the reef at around 15m. Splitting off in search of congers and the like, Andrea and I enjoyed a relatively pleasant dive, but Poseidon’s currents were about to wreak havoc upon the dive.

As we reached around 20 minutes the tide had brought all of our silt onto the reef just before we all congregated around some of the larger conger friendly rocks. The resulting silt storm was horrendous.

I lay still counting torches and strobes with my own light blocked by my palm - it always amazes me what you can see in the dark without your torch. Attempting to read my computer I estimated my visibility at less than 40cm. I saw a number of the party ascending before discovering Andrea and Pat for a very relaxing 5m swimming safety stop home.

Regardless of the visibility disaster I still had fun. I didn’t take many photos – what’s the point in bad viz? However, I still saw some young scorpion fish, a coiled conger, wee swimming crabs and had a bit of fun in the murk.

Let it be known that I’m not afraid of the dark. J

Plumose Anemone



Blue Mussel Colony