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

Mbili Theluji Gatis - 29/01/2015

There are times in my life when my mind, to avoid the partial misery or boredom of my surroundings, switches off and my imagination takes me to a happy place. Tonight was one such time.

When I'm cold I sometimes remember my second wedding anniversary when Gill and I climbed a small hill in rural Tanzania and watched the sun set over the distant East African Great Rift Valley. It was winter, but I still remember the warmth of the sun's dying rays hitting my face.

Tonight I found myself in that place, only I was accompanied by TDFKAMF and Fast Ed.

I assume most of you don't speak Swahili (neither do I to any significant level) so I'll translate the blog title - Two Snow Piers.

Recent cold weather had meant our trip to Twin Piers, Loch Long was a snowy affair. We kitted up in the cold and headed into the water. Straight away TDFKAMF had a free flow and also a drysuit problem which ruled him out. I think he'd later be thankful.

So Ed and I headed down to 25m passing the chassis of an abandoned vehicle and the remains of the old barge before finally stumbling across some life on the reef.

As we returned, the shallower we got the closer we came to lingering snow melt. It was cold (4-5c). Swimming back at 5m I went to my aforementioned special place.

Curious Conger

Baby Conger

Horny Hermits

The Ice Hood Cometh - 24/01/2015

With more bad weather cancelling my regular Saturday morning football I took the opportunity to go diving with Captain Al and co. I left the house a little late so found out where they diving and headed to Conger Alley, Loch Long. In my head, I was only doing one dive before blitzing down the road. That dive was going to give me the opportunity to test out my new Waterproof H1 Icehood.

Now, the Icehood has been described by my "friends" variously as a:

• gimp mask
• scuba burqa

The reality, of course, is that it's both but if it keeps my face warm when passing through our winter thermoclines I can handle the abuse. :D

I kitted up with Captain Al and dived as a three with his buddy, Braveheart, who was test driving a new pony configuration. In addition, Pat G and Robert buddied up.We headed down in 5c water down to 25m where it warmed up, but not sufficiently for the congers to want to emerge from their holes. Instead the reef thronged with ballan wrasse and rock cooks.

The first dive ended a little prematurely with an uncontrolled ascent at 10m, I went up with Capt Al to make sure everything was fine. It was.

Getting to the shore Al decided he was done for the day so I buddied Braveheart for a reconfigured pony combo test. I ditched the Icehood to test the difference between having it and not. The dive passed without incident. 

I really noticed the difference not wearing the hood. My face felt the familiar sensation of cold burn, which most cold water divers will empathise with. I hadn't experienced this on the colder first dive. So, yeah, it works. Although I can't give any recommendation as to it's ease of putting on, it's a bit of a faff.

I never really took any photos.

Loch Long

Waterproof Icehood

Bloody Henry

'S'no Laughing Matter - 17/01/2015

The drive to Loch Long

The weather so far this year has been a bit, erm, dismal. Add to that the fact that Turkish Airlines had the cheek to lose one of my suitcases containing my regulators and you'll understand why diving hasn't been that high on the agenda. However, my football team had a week off so I resolved to dive....no matter what.

Despite the snow we had swithered about heading across the Rest & Be Thankful to Loch Fyne, but some heavier snow overnight convinced us to stay local and visit Loch Long.

The route to Finnart took us over what is known locally as the Military Road. The road climbs a not insignificant height and by the time we reached the top, the road was a whiteout. Fast Ed led the way as he was the car most likely to have to turn back (Captain Al and I both have 4x4s). We made it safely to the site. Where all five of us (The Merrymaker and TDFKAMF were also there) kitted up.

I was using a makeshift kit of hire regs and a borrowed torch and to be honest I couldn't get comfy - it just wasn't my usual set up. Regardless, TDFKAMF and I buddied up and headed down. I won't lie, it was cold (head hurtingly so) and the visibility was pretty poor (1-3m). Despite that, we saw some nice things:

• Scorpion fish
• Bloody Henry
• Dragonet
• Macropedia rostrata
• Nudibranchs

On the way back up, the safety stop was grim. The temperature bottomed out at an optimistic 5c.

I decided to duck out of the second dive. Which, with hindsight, was a great decision. By the time we headed home, the roads had beenl ploughed and gritted - that made Ed's life easier.

Scorpion fish

Fan worm

Bloody Henry

Surfacing

Review of the Year 2014 - 06/01/2014

When I began writing the blog I had, in my head, targeted around 60 dives. However, the call of the sea was strong and I ended up doing around 130 dives. It was great.

The highlights were many and the lows few.

I saw some great life both here in Scotland and overseas. Including:

• Male cuckoo wrasse
• Cuckoo ray
• Devonshire cup coral
• White tip reef shark
• Spanish dancers

I decided to pull together my favourite 5 dives of the year. It was hard, but here they are.....

1. Fast Ed's first Beryl encounter (January)
2. Spanish dancers in Jordan (July)
3. The Zookeeper and I on Dive number 2 at the Farnes (September)
4. Encountering my first male cuckoo wrasse with the Announcer (September)
5. Sharks with the Zookeeper in Egypt (November) 

Have fun in 2015 and remember to dive like your making love : Keep it safe, sane and consensual.

It'll Be Just Like Beggar's Canyon Back Home! - 01/01/2015

Today was the day when Gill.I.am was finally doing the deep dives of her PADI Deep Speciality with Aqaba's Anchor in Jordan. We were going to be doing two dives to 40m today. The first at the Power Station and the second down a deep canyon near the wreck of the Cedar Pride. 

As the Power Station was to be Gill's first dive down to 40m I never took the camera even though this would be our best chance of seeing a shark. The site reminded me a lot of Dogfish Reef / Furnace Quarry back home for a number of reasons including:

• Steep slope straight down
• Popular with fishermen
• Lots of discarded fishing line and litter on the reef

It was comforting to know that we all face the same problems.

The dive went well without being too eventful. We saw stonefish, mantis shrimp and morays but no sharks or turtles.

We went to the second site where they were also running a rescue course. I got to be the panicked diver and got to shout for help theatrically in both English & Arabic. I was told my performance was excellent. The guy passed.

Our second dive took us down a deep canyon and as we hit 40m we finally struck gold for the day. A whopping 1.4m green turtle. I got excited, started taking pictures and gunned through my air at depth.  Fortunately, Abood the DM was carrying a spare cylinder so I borrowed that for 50 bar and a few minutes of deco. :)

Abood enjoys a fresh beverage

Turtle

Turtle

Cedar Pride

Starry Puffer

Gill and Diver