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. 

Werewolf Fish - 26/05/2018

I've done St Abb's already this year, but this time myself and the Wylie Fox were warming up for Scapa Flow in June so we turned our attention to the Glanmire and it's square profile.

Regular readers will know I've done it before in the Rope to Nowhere and Return to the Glanmire. In each case I never exactly covered myself in diving glory. Today I knew it would be different. Firstly, I was pretty dived up and secondly I had learned lessons.

I was right, Wylie Fox and I descended the shot line and dived the wreck and surfaced doing our 10 minutes of decompression on the way up. The dive was quite unremarkable apart from a pleasant snakelocks anemone. That was exactly the sort of experience we both wanted for our Scapa preparations. 

It was the second dive that was to be the standout however. A shallow dive (14m) at Skelly's Hole. I swapped buddies so that I could do some compass work with Walker Texas Ranger. WTR was leading as part of his ScotSAC Sport Diver training. 

The site is pleasant with a series of narrow ravine's and gullies and at certain times of the year home to the Atlantic Wolffish and Lumpsuckers. I've seen a small lumpsucker once many years ago, but an adult has always elluded me and I had never seen a live wolffish.

As we cut our way through the ravines we first saw a large male lumpsucker. It was bigger than I'd expected and way more colourful. It would not have looked out of place in the tropics.

Then one of the other members of our group signalled he'd found something. I'm not sure he knew if it was a conger eel or a wolffish, but it was definitely the latter. 

I surfaced delighted.I can't wait to return at the end of June.

Lumpsucker

Wolffish

Lumpsucker

Dahlia Anemone

Flabellina Lineata

Dahlia Anemone

Snakelocks Anemone

Storming the Castle - 15/07/2016

So, I've been looking at dive guides to sites I've never dived that are doable after work. One has featured prominently - Carrick Castle on Loch Goil. The castle itself has an impressive history and was even visited by Mary Queen of Scots. Today it is under private ownership and is being restored. However, there is free parking across from the castle and access down to the beach .

The Finstrokes dive guide suggested it was a novice site and it is. However, it is a shallow sloping muddy seabed that when disturbed can reduce visibility to zero. The shallow slope could also make natural navigation that bit harder. So if you are a newb make sure you take a compass in with you!

Jester and I headed in and slowly descended. There wasn't much interesting life, but there was an impressive array of shoes, bottles and sea pens. By the time we got to about 15m my ears were screaming. So we turned and headed back zig zagging as we went.

The highlight came at about 10m when Jester, who was pointing out to me a fascinating tyre and completely missed the fact that there was a decent 20ft  wreck of a small boat about 3m away from him. When I pointed it out I heard him chuckle underwater. 

We returned slowly to the foot of the pier. It was awash with seaweed and starfish.

All in all a decent wee dive. I won't rush back, but I'm glad I've done it.

Arrival

Sea pen

Brandy

Where's my sub?

To the mouth of the loch

To the head of the loch

Nice Bucket Challenge - 31/08/2014

With the Zookeeper and the Announcer away to the Sound of Mull and TDFKAMF's suit in for repair, it fell to a pitying wife to ensure that I could have a dive this weekend.

The first question Gill.I.Am asks about any site is "what stuff's been sunk there?" Yip, she likes 'sunk stuff'. So it was with interest that she'd read my recent posts about St Catherine's sunken speedboat. Moreover, today's site choice also required easy 'into sea run' due to Gill filming her alternative ice bucket challenge.

In short, this meant that I visited Seal Reef, St Catherine's, Loch Fyne for the third time in 11 days.

At the site today were a selection of people from my diving past and present including:

• 4 members of my local ScotSAC club (including Wednesday's buddy Campbell who was now bandaged after a gardening incident)
• 1 former PADI instructor of mine and his buddy
• 3 members of Clydebank ScotSAC

Despite the volume of different groups, the site had quite a cordial feel to it. So, Gill and I kitted up and headed in. With the visibility initially around 2m I missed the speedboat, turned and came back to find it at 20m. Gill later, mentioned she was surprised to see it emerge from the gloom, as she thought I'd given up trying to find it. I think she liked it. My own difficulty finding it in low vis made me think that it could be worth buoying as it's a site often used by scub-newbs who may appreciate a surface guide. 

By the time we got out the water almost everyone had packed up and headed off. Which suited Gill fine as she was still to her glory run into the sea sans drysuit. She did, we had lunch and then headed back. 

Exploring wreck 1

Exploring wreck 2

Exploring wreck 3

Anemones

Whelk

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