Oysters & Cristal - 29/07/2015

With the Mermaid camping with JoeLe up on Loch Linnhe, the Zoekeeper and I decided to trundle up and join them for a dive on the Kentallan Wall. Loch Linnhe itself forms part of the Scotland's Great Glen fault line and the wall is part of a deep canyon that seems to run up the fault line. 

We met up at the campsite and headed to the entry at the Holly Tree Hotel. Where the water was calm and the tide was on a gentle flood. We spent some time constructing ridiculous fourway selfies before finally kitting up and entering the water.

Straight away JoeLe was having some difficulty so he abandoned the dive, but the three of us continued out. Surface swimming about 40m from the end of the pier to the point where the bottom was beginning to disappear. At that point we dropped in over 10m of water and continued the swim to the wall underwater. After a further swim we got to the edge.

Before choosing to tumble down the verticle drop our first significant find was a large Janolus Cristatus - the crystal tipped nudibranch. It's quite spectacular - the Cristal of nudibranchs.

Dropping further we found more, a large conger, saw lots of large fish, sunstars etc. However, the main draw has to be the topography. I've heard a lot of talk about diving the fault line Iceland, but here I was swimming along the very same thing right here in Scotland. And the visibility was superb! It was easily 15m, perhaps more!

We returned to shore entirely underwater and surfaced to be greeted by a variety of people.  We dekitted and headed into the Holly Tree for a quite delicious meal - which included my first taste of oysters. My review can be read on yelp if you are really interested, but given they provide you with the parking it seems only right that they benefit from divers custom.

After lunch we headed to the Slates for an easy second. Which I'm glad of. For the second time I got up close and personal with the elusive male cuckoo wrasse,

Site Entry

A fourway selfie

Janolus Cristatus

Burrowing sunstar

Janolus Cristatus

Janolus Cristatus

Northern sunstar

Common Sunstar

Cuckoo Wrasse

There's No Place Like Gnome - 17/07/2015

It's a lesser known fact that a small, decorated gnome has sat in the corner of my kitchen for over a year. It seemed wrong. As all divers know, gnomes deserved to be with their own kind. So when Captain Al suggested a trip to Capernwray I reckoned my gnome would like the permanent spot with the pig gnomes.

Unusually, Gill.I.Am was keen to go too adding to an assembled cast that also included Jester.

Our plan was to go down, get to the pig gnomes plant the gnome and head back. It was simple. We headed out passing the plane, helo 1, the podsnap and ou to the gnomes, It was nice to see the Mermaid's trophy still there from the last Scottish invasion. After the gnomes we split up. Gill and I headed to Helo 2, the Candida and up into the shallows. Captain Al and Jester headed off onto the abyss. Although, we emerged from the water at almost exactly the same moment.

A wee lunch and a second dip later and we were heading up the road. The weather had held.

Following Al

The gnome

The gnome's new home

Fish

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

Colin The Conger - 11/07/2015

In diving, legend abounds. Saturday at the A-Frames saw a new legend born. Myself, Jester, Captain Al, The Wylie Fox and Sony. Had all decided to have a quick dip followed by "beer and medals" - whatever that means, given Scotland's strict dink drive laws and the complete absence of medals.

Jester and I knew exactly we wanted to do. Regular readers will recall that we spotted some beautiful anemones at a less visited part of the site that we wanted go back and photograph. This was our first chance to do so. the Wylie Fox had decided that she wanted to bumble along behind us, leaving Captain Al and Sony to do their own thing.

Our dive was nice enough. We found the anemones but they were closed over having probably been disturbed by an errant seal or diver. So we bumbled on spotting a nice scorpionfish and some dragonets. It was a nice wee dive.

We came back to the surface after about an hour to find Captain Al animatedly talking about their encounter with Colin the Conger. Well, with no real interest in doing a second dive initially. I quite fancied a wee trip back down to feed Colin. So Al led myself and Sony back in for the second dive. 

As it turned out, he was entirely unable to find Colin again on the second dive. However, Colin found me later that evening......on Facebook. It seems a legend has been born.

Sea Scorpion

Dragonet

Catshark

The Phallacy - 10/07/2015

Being off work and not going on holiday for a significant chunk of this time has its benefits. Diving! Friday saw an unusual cast assemble to dive Seal Reef. The Zookeeper, DLA, Hagrid and myself.

The trip started badly with a heavy infestation of midgies. Fortunately, Hagrid had brought some midge repellent and was happy to share. I can't lie, I was delighted to midge proof my arms and face.

We dived, enjoying the usual life with the highlight being a nice Scorpionfish, but it was the surface interval that provided the most entertainment as young DLA found what can only be described as a stone phallus (side profile). He was delighted with himself. He even took it home as a souvenir. He liked to think that it was a life size version, but that would be a phallacy. The rock was the stuff his dreams are made of.

The wind had also gotten up and passed the 6mph required to dissuade midges from flying.

Dive two saw me put the camera away and lead the troops over to the sites deep reef. A feat made possible by the low tide slack water.

On the way back the Zookeeper and I had a deep discussion about the best diving movies. I'm insisting it's Sanctum.

Camo scorpionfish

Up close

Stone phallus by Laura

Langoustine