Scapa Flow Day 3 - Mary Poppins - 11/06/2018

Day 3 on board the MV Karin was going to follow a very similar pattern to the previous day. 

Step 1. Dive a German High Seas Fleet Cruiser

Step 2. Eat

Step 3. Dive a a blockship

Our plan was therefore to dive the SMS Coln and then dive the Tabarka blockship.

I was settling into the routine, the diving while deep and technical was actually pretty straight forward.The Coln passed without incident for myself and the Wylie Fox. It was impressive and to someone who isn't a 'wreck guy' was fairly recognisable. We had spent about 40 minutes below 30m before starting to come up doing around 20 minutes of deco. Simple.

However, it was the shallow Tabarka that through me for a spin and reminded me how things can change quickly. Diving as a four, we had waited for slack water. I had WF's advice ringing in my ears - just get to the wreck an meet me there. 

So, I junmped in and got down. I was joined by the Landlady then the Barrman. We headed as a three towards the wreck where we met up with WF. We explored the inside, saw the boilers of the old steamer then headed towards the exit. The kelp was flat and the tide was running fast. 

The skipper had mistimed the tide and so the dive plan needed to change. WF and I put up an SMB as did the others. We emerged on the leeward side of the tide at which point WF's SMB acted as a sail and swept her away with the surface current. It was almost magical, a bit like Mary Poppins. This left me in a bottom current going the opposite direction and effectively on my own. I watched the others struggle with their own SMBs before deciding to go it alone.*

I popped up my own SMB and enjoyed the instant feeling of being whisked away. It was fun. Some time later I surfaced. It had been quite a ride. 

Coln Gun

Nudi

In the Tabarka

In the Tabarka

* I don't recommend solo diving, but myself and WF had agreed that as we both had redundancy the usual look around for a minute didn't apply. It's debatable if it's right or wrong, but we work on the presumption that we're solo diving anyway.

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 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

Plans Are Nothing, Planning Is Everything - 27/02/2014

Buddy check

Kitting up

I'm sure it was Dwight Eisenhower who said that "plans are nothing, planning is everything". Well our plan had been to dive Craggen (or Fisherman's Point as it is also called) on Loch Long. The site, which none of us had ever dived, has a boulder reef from 20m down to 32m that we though was worth having a look at. We followed the map and instructions down to the entry point only to be thwarted by low tide. It would seem the site can only be dived at a state of high tide. Otherwise the entry would be difficult and the exit nigh on impossible. So with our dreams of exploration dashed we headed back to the A-Frames.

Laura & Oil Terminal

The kit up felt more like an episode of Oprah or Dr Phil, with some of the boys having a prolonged group therapy session - diving can be like that. Once kitted however, Laura & I double teamed Pat G to dive as a three and Fast Ed and Sergeant Chris teamed up.

Entering the water there seemed to be a current gently taking us up to ward the head of the loch, which was good as there was a huge oil tanker moored in the oppposite direction which underwater made a lot of noise.

Descending rapidly through the thermocline we headed north to the big frame, at 11m I started to feel a strong down current that continued throughout the dive making the return to the surface more work than I expected. At the frame we saw the usual bloom of peacock worms - they never fail to impress me.

Moving from frame to frame we had an excellent carry-on underwater, with me starting a kind of Charlotte's Web for seas urchins, with my new political slogan "Don't eat my gonads." Never a truer word has been spoken in jest.

By this stage we had lost Chris & Ed, but we were pretty sure they'd be OK - Chris had a compass and was trained to use it by the finest military corp in the world (Dad's Army)!

Further on I found a disgarded toilet which provided some comical photographic opportunities - you can tell really interesting sea life was at a premium tonight. :)

As we started fighting the current to make our ascent, we started to encounter some better life in the shallows. Including scorpion fish, colourful wrasse and flounders. Yet another decent dive hitting 21.3m for 41minutes, which given the cold (my computer logged 6c) was probably about 5 minutes too long.



Laura taking pictures

Scorpion Fish

Corkwing Wrasse

Stuff

Save our urchins!