Campbell's Cream of Fyne - 27/08/2014

Unusually (for a Wednesday), I set off after work to meet Campbell for a dive at St Catherines 2 (Seal Reef). In all honesty, my preference would have been for a different site (my last dive was here), but we had never dived together so a mutually familiar site was probably a good idea.

Campbell is one of the instructors at Eastwood Divers, my local ScotSAC club. He's on a mission to get a few more dives under his belt, so that he can celebrate his 600th dive in the Red Sea at the end of September. I was available to dive with him tonight and, like any ship in storm, I was an acceptable port! 

In the car up Campbell seemed surprised to hear that the site had a small, wrecked speedboat at around 20m. As a result, I offered to guide him down before heading to the reef.

While kitting up I discovered that my tank had only been filled to 170 bar which was a bit rubbish, but I still reckoned I could safely squeeze at least 40 minutes out of that. Campbell was fine with that. It could have been awkward otherwise!

We started well, passing a nice dogfish en route to the wreck where another dogfish was hiding in the buoyancy tank. From there we headed over to the reef to look for critters. Amongst the usual fayre we found a large 'smiling' scorpion fish. My highlight came at the very end of the dive when we almost bumped into a drifting lion's mane jellyfish. I went in close for some pictures, but Campbell, who's allergic to the sting, wisely kept his distance.

Anyway, despite the air shortage I mustered about 47 minutes and a max depth of 23m. A decent dive all round.

Sea toad

Common sea urchin

Green sea urchin

Scorpion fish

Starfish on pointed rock

Lion's mane jellyfish

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

Raining Catsharks and Dogfish - 14/08/2014

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

This evening the Zookeeper and I were both feeling the spirit of exploration. We packed everything into HMS Buffy and sailed like modern day Columbus' or Magellans to the nearest dive site we've never dived. The site was St Catherine's Reef, also known as the Council Yard.

I believe it is typically used as a training site and the Finstrokes guide was a bit vague on instructions and I think some of the comments relate to nearby Seal Reef (St Catherines 2). We therefore decided to park in the lay-by as the yard itself is now permanently locked. You can see the edge of HMS Buffy on the right of the photograph above.

We kitted up, buddy checked and headed in at the shore just down from the car. The initial past of the dive was very shallow, sandy and very red (quite Martian really), then we dipped below a halocline and, although dark, the visibility was decent at around 8m.

Just as I was starting to think that I'd been duped into diving a sand seabed, we stumbled into the first of our 'shark' encounters of the day. In total, I think we had four - or one 'shark' just playing games with us. Then came the reef.

It seems to me that looking from above with the shore at the top of the picture, the reef is a y-shape with a longish tail extending out to the left. We clearly missed the main part of the reef and stumbled onto the reef at around 14m . Some exploration of the tail found some lobster creels filled with small crab reprobates and juvenile offender cod. The lobsters were ubiquitous by their absence. To me it seems lobster creels are the Victorian prisons of the seabed - overcrowded, without compassion and indiscriminate.

We then followed the tail back to the main reef, dipping down to 20m and working our way back up. We saw the usual Loch Fyne life and had a bit of fun en route. 

We agreed that this would make a pleasant night dive with its easy access, large reef and nearby street lights. We are resolved to go back sans soleil.

Pre-dive beach surfing

Catshark snout by Laura

Measuring Catsharks by Laura

Catshark

The crab Barlinnie

  

Facesucker

Catshark

Lobster creel

Spider crab with sea squirt crown

Pipefish

It's Bisque-ness Time - 08/08/2014

Last night we saw loads of lobsters in Loch Long - enough to make a bisque, if you're that way inclined. Today, we decided to go to Conger Alley and Twin Piers hoping to see more and enjoy the current good visibility at that end of the loch.

Our cast today included Cpt Al, the Announcer, the Zookeeper and Gill.I.Am. Gill had only dived Conger Alley once before (with me and in poor visibility) and had never done Twin Piers. I promised her a conger eel, something she had never seen. So, today was going to be a day of firsts for her.

Encountering Cpt Al on the motorway we all arrived on site at the same time. Kitting up the four of us headed into the water. Initially, the visibility was pretty good (6m), then we dipped below a halocline and the visibility rocketed to something in excess of 10m.

As we went down there were visible signs of seal activity (unexplained silt clouds), but no signs of the seal itself. Immediately, as we hit the reef we encountered our first conger eel of the day. It was a little camera shy, but we managed to coax it out. :)

As we continued the dive Gill and I found a massive lobster. At the same time I heard the rattle of the Zookeeper's rattle, she too had found a lobster round the other side of the same rock. 

Approaching the surface there were loads wrasse and pollock all swimming about. It felt like we were in a fish tank. I know, that's not possible in Loch Long. Is it?

After the dive we surfaced to find the Announcer nonchalantly drinking tea on the surface. So we dekitted and headed down to Twin Piers. Cpt Al was feeling tired and decided not to do a second dive but very sacrificially gave us the pleasure of his company as we BBQd up some rolls & sausage and burgers. He's very giving that way. Nothing to do with the prospect of a roll & sausage. Nope, nothing at all. :D

Gazebo & BBQ fun

BBQ done and gazebo down, we substitute Cpt Al for the Announcer and headed in to Twin Piers. Now, I've said before Gill.I.Am likes to see stuff that's been sunk. I thought she'd like the myriad of wreckage that can be spotted on this site. So we went in and headed down to the remnants of the barge where we spotted a rather nice scorpion fish.

We had a nice swim around the reef, finding more congers etc., before heading back. As we emerged from the water after 54 minute Gill had broken her dive duration record. Not bad for a girl who told me a few months ago she didn't like dives longer than 30 minutes.

Gill during safety stop

Scorpionfish

Happy Conger

Here I dive amidst the flowers, only counting life's sunny hours

The Zookeeper

Starfish

Wrasse Never Sleeps - 07/08/2014

The Zookeeper and I had heard of a 20m vis report at the Caves, Loch Long. Even if it wasn't going to be that good there was still the potential for an excellent dive. So, after work, we headed up for an evening dip. At the site we encountered a couple of friendly fisherman visiting from Royston Vasey.

Test driving a new Mares Matrix computer, we kitted up headed down to 24m. The visibility was good, and getting better the deeper we went. Perhaps not 20m, but certainly around 15m.

As we swam along we encountered a load of lobsters and edible crabs in the cracks and nooks of the rock faces. At one point a lion's mane jellyfish flubbed by.

On the turn we found more lobsters, some even posed for photos.Then came the large ballan and cuckoo wrasse - quite a lot of them.

The final twist on the dive was an edible crab trapped in fishing line. Naturally, the Zookeeper took pity on it and began cutting it free. However, unlike some others which are quite happy to be freed, this one took quite a liking to nipping her fingers. I won't lie, it was moderately amusing to watch.

In short, extraordinary vis and a fun evening. Although, photos were limited after both the Zookeeper and I developed camera issues.

Lobster by the Zookeeper

Me midwater by the Zookeeper

Sea squirts

Plumose anemones

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