The Cold Light of Day - 02/12/2017

After Monday's chilly 2.8c, I was keen to avoid Loch Long when Captain Al, Freeflow Bob, Fast Eddie and myself went diving on a frosty Saturday morning. The experience had taught me that it was worth taking the mobile food kitchen for half time bacon rolls.So when we trundled up to St Catherine's, Loch Fyne we were at least prepared for the cold.

It was Fast Ed's first dive back since he dived with me at Triple Reef in June, so an easy site was required and Seal Reef seemed ideal.

We weren't the only ones there, South Queensferry BSAC were across from the East Coast for some training. They seemed friendly enough despite being BSAC divers. ;)

We kitted up and split into buddy pairs of Captain Al and Fast Ed and Ol' Freeflow and me.

It was pretty uneventful but for a large school of pollack, a cushion star and some bloody Henry's. We swam back to the sure after the 35 minute announcement that Captain Al was feeling the cold. If he was feeling it then, it was about to get a whole lot worse. We swam back to the exit point. As the person leading the dive I noticed the thermocline at 4m and sat beneath it for 3 minutes. Then when the three minutes was up and everyone was clear, I turned and swam hard through the cold.

I could feel it biting at my exposed skin. We got out and I checked my computer... 2.2c!  Not the coldest I've ever experienced but getting down pretty low.

Still the promise of a roll and bacon was enough to get me back to the van. I had ear problems so I sat the second dive out and watched as my friends came back looking a little chilly. 

Rollercoasters - 04/02/2017

Ronan Keating once sang that life was a rollercoaster. I hated that song. Diving today also seemed like a bit of a rollercoaster. I had finally decided to finish my ScotSAC Master Diver qualification - a process that I began about 4 years ago. 

Crossing over from PADI Recue Diver was a relatively simply process that included:

• 4  lectures
• Underwater Kit removal
• Expedition organiser
• 2 assisted ascents from 20m
• 2 assisted ascents from 30m

However, finding time to do it on a day when the club had instructors available proved more challenging. Getting time to do the 30m ascents proved particularly challenging. So with the bit beneath my teeth at the start of the year I arranged with the Barrman to organise a day of Master Diving training.

My willing instructor was Andy. Our plan for the two dives was to signal out of air, ascend from 30m to 6m at a nice slow rate. hold a safety stop and then descend straight back down and make our way back to the shore - twice.

The first dive saw me being the recipient of the donated air. I hate breathing off someone elses octopus. Unless of course it was a real emergency in which case I'd be more than happy to do it!!

We went down passing a lovely cushion star on the way down. Once at thirty odd metres I gave the signal and up we went. Now I had forgotten to turn off the deep stops on my computer so we spent a couple of minutes at 15m before continuing up to 6m. Then it was straight back down to make out way back to the shore,

The surface interval was delightful as the American made us bacon rolls.I had two.

The buddy check, saw us highlight how my regulator wasn't really optimal for sharing without a strange kink in the hose. I'll need to swap that over for future dives.

2 hours later we were back in repeating the exercise only this time I was donating....down, up, down, up. I emerged a ScotSAC Master Diver.

Celebrating a masterly dive

The Calm Before the Storm - 02/01/2016

The first dive of the year proved to be a very calm experience. Jester and I had joined the SFTW crew for a trip to St Catherines, Loch Fyne. When we arrived we were not the only ones. In fact, the site was hoachin'. So much so that Jester and opted for our occassional deep (40m) night route round the reef to avoid the inevitable poor vis in the shallower parts. 

It was a great decision. We never saw another diver until we met Cptn Al at 10m. It was a mutually beneficial moment as I spotted a nice cushion star and Jester a sea lemon. We pointed them out and continued along our safety stop.

Alone again in the shallows Jester spotted one of my favourite nudibranchs - Eubranchus farrani.

It was a lovely 60+ minute run. I've attached some pictures taken by Jester below so that you can share the love.

Cushionstar

Sea Lemon

Eubranchus farrani 

The Deep & The Disaster - 17/08/2016

At the dive club one of the members was saying he needed to get in a few dives below 30m to work towards his ScotSAC Master Diver award. Myself and Campbell volunteered to go with the Bearded Mountain Man of Cambuslang to help accomplish the task.

We met up at our usual spot and headed to Loch Fyne for some fun and games.on what was probably the last sunny day of summer.

We kitted up in the warm, relatively midgie free glow of the sun and headed into the water after a buddy check. I should point out that all of us were trying out or using new pieces of kit including the BMMC who was using a drysuit he had hired from Aquatron while his own Otter suit was away for repair. So we were acutely aware that we were only going deep if all of us felt comfortable. As it was, we did and we pottered down to 32m before turning and heading back. It was all uneventful and we even managed to spot a particularly nice cushion star.

Back at the surface the world had changed. Midgies were swarming to such an extent that we spent most of the interval in floating in the warm water away from our nemesis. The sun was setting and by the time we reentered the water to dive we were going to be night diving.

Again, checking everything was OK we headed in and down. As we approached 10m disaster struck. My own drysuit hose stuck on - which I quickly removed and replaced solving the problem - Campbells mask started giving him grief and I looked round to find BMMC floating to the surface, looking like the Michelin Man. I looked round at Campbell and we both signalled "up".

At the surface we found BMMC with a stuck on drysuit inflator valve - something he'd never experienced before.I took off the hose and it seemed it was the valve on the suit that was stuck, rather than the hose.

We called it and went home.

Cushion star

Wet 'n' Wildlife - 12/05/2016

After the weekend's heroics it was back to a more sedate shore dive with the Zookeeper and Jester. We piled everything into The Beast and headed west. In the end we lazily plumped for St Catherine's, which on a fine night is ideal for high jinks.

Having kitted up quickest, I was getting hot. I headed into the water and waited. The vis seemed promising, around 4m. Once all were ready we headed down. The Zookeeper thought I was narc'd when at the deepest point of our dive when I started knocking my malfunctioning camera off a rock. In fact, the memory card was malfunctioning. Naturally, banging it on a rock resolved the situation, though made me look crazy. Them's the breaks, but you get to enjoy a 2nd rate photograph of a northern/purple sunstar.

We worked our way back up nice and slowly seeing a few nice creatures en route.

As we surfaced, the discussion centred on those who emerged wet. Jester it seemed emerged cold and wet enough that he feared he'd lost an appendage while the Zookeeper was also had a wet bum. I felt relieved that I was dry. I smugly smiled internally.

Sunstar

Nudi

Scorpion fish

Nudi

Cushion star

When Life Gives You Sea Lemons... - 18/02/2016

So, as the old saying goes, when life gives you sea lemons make sea lemonade! Or something like that. 

Tonights diving adventure was held at the Council Yard, Loch Fyne. This site is actually a little bereft of life, but every time I've dived it it has thrown up a couple of nice things. This time, with the Zookeeper, was no different.

The dive started badly with the zookeeper, switching undersuits and was hopelessly buoyant. We decided discretion was the better part of valor and she headed back to the car for some extra weight. Eventually after about 10-15 minutes in the cold surface water we went down. 

We followed the edge of the reef out into the middle of the loch, where at about 30m it ends. At this point I shone my torch a little deeper and spotted the firework anemone. It was the first point in the dive when I thought , 'yeah, I'll take a picture of that'.

As I said, the reef is a little lifeless, but I always seem to get decent visibility here and I quite enjoy some navigational challenges. 

At 31m and a couple of minutes from deco we turned and headed back up to the shallows. It was on route here when I spotted my first ever Sea Lemon. I've seen them before, but always spotted by someone else. My first solo spot for the sea slug win!

When we got to the surface Jester was there, but Neither the Zookeeper or I could face a second dive in the cold. I offered my apologies and we went to the pub where, by way of apology, I bought the chips.

Firework Anemone

Sea lemon

Cushion star

The Long Way Round - 25/10/2015

With my ear still ringing from Thursday night's dive, Jester and I decided on a wee dip in Loch Fyne. We opted for the over dived St Catherines 2 due to the shelter the trees would provide from the rain (this was ultimately moot as the rain eased up).

It was to be a challenging dive as I was without any dive lights which really limited depth and photographic opportunities. However, our bimble was to ultimately last 71 minutes - my longest dive of the year.

Our pre dive chat had been about the absence of nudibranchs in the water of late. A trend which seemed like it was continuing until the eagle-eyed Jester caught sight of one just a few millimetres in length. It's pictured below. Photographed using super macro and even then it's still to small to focus on.

Also making a rare appearance of late were a cushion star and the delicate macropodia rostrata.

The water was definitely starting to chill for the winter. 9c, brr.

Eubranchus Farrani

Cushion Star

Cushion Star

Macropodia Rostrata

Freaky Friday - 27/03/2015

After a week of reading scare-monger stories about Dogfish Reef and the Quarry at Furnace on a certain social media story relating to the ongoing dispute with a crazy guy, we decided that we'd head to Dogfish Reef to reclaim the space.

Myself, Captain Al, Jester and Stew all headed there. We arrived at the site after some Starbucks japery. We kitted up under the watchful gaze of the crazy resident and his wife and headed in. No hassle, no threats - just watchful gazes.

We entered the water at low tide, which was ideal as it allowed two of our party to legitimately head down to the gnome garden at the end of the mat (27m) before heading back up the reef. 

I'd promised Stew dogfish, but what he actually got was a strange proliferation of cushion stars. Oh well, them's the breaks.

After some chat we headed round to St Cat's where three of us executed a fantastic buddy separation procedure in a silt cloud as we all headed off in different directions. Not the best of dives to be honest.

Return To Deeper Reef - 19/02/2015

In the post The Dive That Never Was I explained that the Kingmaker led me to a new part of Seal Reef which I'd never been to before. Tonight, armed with my 15l tank and Fast Ed as a buddy, we decided to return to the same bit of the reef.

On entry we encountered three emerging divers who told us to persevere with the poor visibility as it improved greatly beyond 10m. They weren't wrong. As we dropped through the halocline the visibility went from around 1-2m up to 4-5m. We turned and headed for the main reef, aided by a swift moving current which made light work of the swim. I appreciated this given I was still stiff from football and circuit training two days earlier.

We ecountered the second reef. The life on it was much the same as the main reef, but it was nice to explore new nooks and crannies. As we bottomed out at 32m we bumped into a nice little firework anemone (pictured below), then a large amount of rope. By this stage we were approaching deco (decompression limits, not the Portuguese footballer) so we began making our journey home doing a deep stop for good measure.

Once again, the current had turned and we were ably assisted back to our entry stopping for a few photographs on the way.  

On the surface we looked at our computers. While both Fast Ed and I have been considerably deeper we both recorded high average depths for the dive of over 18m. Even on some of my deepest dives beyond 40m I haven't recorded such a high average depth.

As we emerged we found more divers arriving. Sergeant Chris and The Wolf (so named because of a fancy dress costume he wore at Halloween one time). We shared some chuckles before Ed and I headed back to the Malt & Myre for a meal*. Good times.

The hungry scallop

Firework anemone

Firework anemone

Rope

Cushion star

* No matter what you order, even if it is just a bowl of chips or a glass of cola, the waitress always says, "Enjoy your meal". For no particular reason this always tickles Ed and I who like to think that with the addition of sauce and vinegar on the chips we have a three course meal.

Welcome to Hoth - 30/01/2015

For those of a more nerdy disposition, you'll remember Hoth. It was a frigid planet. Well, today TDFKAMF and I headed over the snow covered Rest & Be Thankful for Loch Fyne. We had much grander plans at the start of the week, but we wondered, with more snow forecast, if the B8000 would even be passable. In the end we plumped for a couple of dives at Seal Reef, St Catherine's.

The water was pretty flat calm and the weather was fine. We kitted up aware that we were both going to be diving with some unfamiliar pieces of kit, did our buddy checks and headed down to our desired depth of 30m. I had also plumped to keep my ice hood dry until the second dive I mean how cold could it get?

I took my camera in a pocket in case we found something good, but TDFKAMF didn't so the moment we saw anything interest we marked the depth and agreed to go back on the second dive.  We stayed down for about 45 minutes and found some nice cushion stars.

After a wee BBQ we kitted up with our more conventional set ups and went down to the boat before back to the reef for the photo opportunities. We kept the dive shorter fearing that the semi cooked BBQ sausages would be squirting out of us within the hour. As it was, we both held fast!

I asked rhetorically, "How cold could it get?" Well, it bottomed out at 3C, 276.16 K or 35F. Yeah, pretty cold. 

On the drive home the conversation veered towards our early memories of Star Wars....and Hoth.

Flabellina

Cushion Star

Highland Dancer

Dragonet

2nd Cushion Star

The Power of ZAF - 21/08/2014

Gentle Ben and  dive date!

It is a little known fact that the cumulative energy caused by the coming together of the Zookeeper, the Announcer and Frewbowski can form a gravitational singularity so powerful as to cause the planets to align and weather patterns to shift. We call this the Power of ZAF. 

Nature, as anyone who has dived with us will know, respects this power and, like the opening the scenes of the Lion King, comes to pay homage when we enter the water. Humans too aren't immune and without realising can be drawn to the source of the gravitational singularity  even before it occurs.

So, when we finally arrived at Seal Reef, St Catherines we found two cars. The first car belonged to Gentle Ben of Aquatron, who was on a romantic dive date... with a real live lady called Lyn. I was already a little giddy from the funky smell of my Fourth Element Arctic undersuit and the fact that the rain had departed permitting the sun to come out, and immediately sensed the seeds of romance floating in the air. I ensured the atmosphere was conducive to love.

Then I noticed the other divers in the water. They too, clearly drawn to the site by the power of ZAF. Turns out it was two members (Campbell & Marion) of the ScotSAC club of which I too am notionally a member. 

Our plan tonight was to head down to the wrecked speedboat, look for catsharks to add to the Scottish Shark Database and generally carry-on in and around the reef. In total, we found and sexed (it's far less sinister than it sounds) five small spotted catsharks, but en route we found the wreck, a stunning firework anemone, played with some langostines, found a nice big conger eel and beautiful cushion star.

On the way back we saw an excellent assortment of little critters including a long legged spider crab (Macropodia rostrata) and a host of rock cooks.

This was a great dive (24m and 5-6m visibility), on a brilliant evening with average company. ;) The Power of ZAF is strong indeed.

Firework anemone

Firework anemone

Langostine

Langostine

Boat bow

Hiding cod

Dogfish / Lesser spotted catshark

Edible crab

Conger eel

Red Cushion star

Red cushion star

Macropodia rostrata

Camo crab

Let's Take A Look At What You Could of Won - 01/08/2014

In my not so distant youth there was a darts based TV show called Bullseye. Bullseye, with hindsight, was a terrible TV show. However, each week it had an epic but rarely won prize that was either a caravan or a speedboat. Today TDFKAMF and I headed to St Catherines 2 for two dives. The first, a deeper dive down to around 30m and a second to the once coveted Bullseye prize - the St Cats Speedboat.

Our first dive threw up some nice life including a nice dogfish and a red cushion star amongst the usual life  in great visibility. However, it was on the second dive when the fun really began. I'd only been to the speedboat once before and that was on a night dive with Big Al and Batman, so today was a first during the day. After locating it and a quick swim around we headed along to the reef. As we swam along I noticed a couple of fine fishing lines floating in the tide, then another couple. After a few seconds I began to realise that these were the longest tentacles of a Lion's mane jellyfish.

I signalled to TDFKAMF the potential hazard just as the main bell came into view about 8m away. Not wanting to miss the opportunity to have a good I look and gauge the size of the bell, I negotiated my way around the tentacles and up to the bell. Grant stayed seabed and very kindly took some snaps (below), my camera had some condensation inside the case.

I estimate the bell to be between 60-70cm, the total tentacle length easily in excess of 8m. It was a great dive and a nice way to mark Grant's 50th.

Me approaching the Lion's Mane by Grant

Me rounding the speedboat by Grant

Dogfish

Red cushion star

Red cushion star

Let's have a look at what you could of won

50 dives and counting