Le Retour à la Ruelle de Conger - 30/01/14

So after last week's misadventure we returned to Conger Alley. This week I was accompanied by Laura and West Coast Divers own, Avril Keith, AKA The Mermaid of Kilmarnock.

Avril is a legend in West of Scotland dive circles, it's like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon - except Avril can be gotten to in two every time. If you live, or dive on the West Coast of Scotland Avril's West Coast Divers page on Facebook is a great place to find buddies and chat.

As always, there was new kit on display with Avril proudly displaying her new 7mm Waterproof H1 Hood purchased ex-ante from Glasgow's oldest dive locker, Aquatron. Now, concerning this hood, I'd just like to say I think it's the best on the market. I myself have two. If you're cold water diving it's an essential piece of kit and it's safe to say that the Swedish know a thing or two about cold water.

I was also test driving a new toy, a 12l cylinder borrowed from my local ScotSAC branch. I haven't dived with a 12l cylinder in Scotland in about a year and I forgot how heavy they are compared to my cheeky 10l cylinders. However, it did help with my side mounted pony which can be awkward with my little 10s - February may see a purchase.

The following should go without saying in every dive report from now on.

• We had quality banter that descended into the gutter, rapidly.
• We ate sweets, lots of sweets.
• We did a buddy check - it's important, and even though I don't mention it doesn't mean it doesn't get done.

Entering the water we quickly dropped below the thermocline (5-7m), made sure everyone was OK and headed down just past 20m to the reef for which Conger Alley is famous. Once there the plan was to find stuff and hope Beryl the Seal turns up (she didn't).

At the reef we slowly worked our way up to the top at about 10m. En route we found:

• Octopus
• Conger Eels
• Loads of Wrasse - Corkwing, Goldsinny etc
• Weird Worms (you can tell my naturalist skills are limited)

In short this was a nice, relaxing, hassle free dive with two eagle-eye buddies who pointed out lots of cool stuff that I couldn't see even with a torch pointed on it.  :) Good times.

Weird tentacled worm creature

Big conger eel