Breda & Butter - 20/07/2018

When the Barrman suggested I could join him to dive the Breda I was happy to jump at the chance. I was off that week and happy to head to North Ledaig Caravan park with my campervan for some fun and games.

Just as we launched the Zodiac, another dive boat appeared at the wreck and troop of divers all jumped in. We hoped it wouldn't be too big a deal. It wasn't, we never saw any of the other divers at all.

It's a big ship, standing up right in around 30m of water, the deck was around 8m off the seabed and the seabed itself is littered with the detritus from the wreck. So, it's quite a nice profile to dive the seabed round the ship and then come up onto the deck and spend the rest of the dive there.

There were some nice highlights:

• a conger lurking amongst the wreckage
• an octopus who seemed to object to me clearing some discarded fishing lures
• nudibranchs
• the solid cargo of cement the ship was carrying

A little before we ended the dive I looked at my computer and noticed I had a couple of minutes of deco. I asked the Barrman what he had....well, he had lots. So we headed up my SMB to the surface where I swithered about leaving the Barrman to do his 15 minutes on his own. I didn't of course, that would be the sign that I'm a terrible buddy/human being, but I did still think about it.

I emerged from the water experiencing sinus squeeze brought on by my emerging wisdom teeth. For me diving was done for the day, but it was worth it. 

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