Sometimes a Dive is a Metaphor - 24/06/2016

While the last few Brits decided whether or not hey wanted to leave the European Union, Jester and I decided to head to Seal Reef, Loch Fyne for a quick dip. In many ways, the weather had been kind to us:

• It was warm
• There was a breeze keeping the midgies temporarily at bay
• There was drizzle, again discouraging the midgies.

So we kitted up and casually headed into the water.

There was a bit of chop and the silt had been stirred up in the shallows. This led to Jester dropping his GoPro and us then having to spend 10 minutes trying to find it in poor visibility. He did, thankfully.

After that we headed down to St Catherine's famous speedboat encountering a small red gurnard and a lobster en route. It was nice. Although dark the visibility opened up and it reminded me of my preferred night diving exploits - dark but clear.

In total we pottered around for an hour finding numerous nudibranchs and yarrell's blennies. It was all rather pleasant until we surfaced and dekitted in a midgie infested hell hole. What a difference an hour made.

Britain choose to leave, Scotland to stay. Scotland now must leave.

Flabellina Lineata

Red Gurnard

Flabellina Lineata

Lobster

Flabellina Lineata

Portencrossing Over - 16/06/2016

Meeting locals

In search of some variation Jester, the Zookeeper and I headed southwest as opposed to northwest for a change of scene. With weather conditions ideal it took us to Portencross, Ayrshire for a dive round the point and into the small bay next to the castle.

If you're into history or an american with a fascination with Scotland, this dive site will appeal. It has a castle, a sunken Spanish Armada galleon  (we never knowingly found it) and a quaint little fishing village.

It's shallow, and requires a light northerly or easterly wind to make diving conditions ideal. We followed the Finstrokes guide to the letter, although our good friend - the Mermaid - recommends a dip around the pier to the north of the castle for a shallow photography dive.

Before entering the water we went for a stroll and met some of the locals. They were a fine mix of local cyclists and high, drunk hippies. It made for an entertaining start to the evening.

We kitted up, continually pestered by midgies, and waded out into the sanctuary of the water. There was a lot of seaweed which made finding interesting life a little tricky. However, we found:

• some good nudibranchs
• tompot blenny
• macropodio rostrata

As a dive I'd probably not revisit again without a site expert (I'd like to actually find and see the wreckage of the galleon) and I'd possibly do a different type of dive at the pier. 

The views

Considering the dive

Polycera quadrilineata

Castle and boat

Polycera quadrilineata

Macropodia Rostrata

Tompot Blenny

Surfacing

Rope to boat

The Gambler - 11/06/16

In diving, as in life, I am relatively risk adverse. My modus operandi is to wait as long as possible before booking to ensure the conditions are as I like them. On occasion this approach means I miss out fully booked trips, but you can't miss what you never had.

After agreeing on Friday night to dive at St Abbs early on Saturday morning. Now, as regular readers will know, I'm great in the mornings. So it was brilliant when my buddy, the Bombay Bad Boy (BBB), agreed to drive. I'd never spent time with BBB before but he seemed like a decent fella and his chat was moderately amusing. It made the drive that much shorter. 

Diving from Eyemouth, the boat headed out to St Abbs Head and Peticowick for some boat dives around the area.  

Dive one saw BBB almost earn a different nickname - The Grim Reaper - as he found dead creature after dead creature. The highlight of his corpse-fest was a dead wolffish, but that find was top trumped by the guillemots dive bombing us during our safety stop.

Diving with a new buddy meant that we had been under for about an hour with both of us cold before we surfaced, neither willing to signal to the other. We chatted back on the boat and agreed that the 2nd dive would only be 30 minutes -a limit that would be too long for me. 

As I went to reduce drysuit squeeze on the second dive my valve stuck and began to over inflate my suit. I disconnected it and put the cap on but not before it sucked in a substantial quantity of cold, North Sea water. It was to be a long 30 minutes.

Back on the boat I explained my slightly erratic behaviour as we warmed up with tea and chocolate buttons. Still it was a good day -  with no sea sickness.

Anemone

Bloody Henry

Dead Wolffish

Guillemot

Anemone

BBB

Sunstar

HArbour friend

BBB's small roll

Dog(fish) Days - 04/06/2016

With the football season a thing of the past (for a few weeks anyway) I returned to Saturday diving. The Something for the Weekend Crew had decided to head to the disputed Dogfish Reef. I've been there twice in two years because of the issues around car parking. However, today's trip was to be eventful and fruitful. 

We parked respectfully at the back of the car park and kitted up. As I headed across and down to the shore I heard a voice shouting at me, I turned and went to meet the guy striding across. His name was Mark and he was the owner of the boatyard and of the car park. We chatted. He explained about the behaviour of groups of divers he encountered.I understood his annoyance. In the end I think we reached a memorandum of understanding. It's worth following the points below if you want to dive here.

1. Call him in advance or pop into the boat yard before you start your day, a bit like with Frank at the Tearooms
2. Don't turn up en masse - keep it to small groups
3. Get changed discreetly - the neighbours don't want to see your junk or half naked torso
4. Clear your rubbish - littering is a crime!
5. Keep the noise down

In short, don't be a dick. I'd say that goes at almost every dive site, but I seem to encounter residents who have experienced the worst of divers everywhere I go.

As for the diving, it was decent enough, but the remnants of slight cold meant that by 18m my ears were screaming and while I slowly got down to 32m, I really wasn't that desperate to do it all again for the same selections of wrasse, dogfish, sunstars and strawberry worms. Captain Al wasn't too keen either so we cleared up the BBQ and let the Merry Maker, Hagrid and Stevo enjoy the water.

On another note, Mark is looking to start a dive charter business around here, look out for it in the near future.

Gnome action

Bloody Henry

Common Sunstar

Captain Al

Bonfire(work anemones) - 02/06/2016

Sometimes life throws you a few curve balls, above and below the surface. Today was one such day. Myself, The Zookeeper, The Announcer and Jester headed tentatively to the Council Yard for a beach BBQ and dive. I say tentatively because the A82 had been shut for most of the day, but had thankfully reopened by the time we got there. However, as we left the A82 to join the A83 a traffic board said it would be closed for our return journey. In any event, this didn't happen either.

We arrived at the Council Yard and got to work building our fire - I say "we", I really mean the Zookeeper - and a sterling job she did too. By the time Jester arrived the burgers were on and food poisoning was on the cards for all of us! :)

The real challenge of the evening was keeping the fire going. The recent dry spell had meant that the ground was baked and the wood all tinder dry and burning fast. Still, the wood collecting kept us busy.

Underwater it never exactly went to plan as either as a descent at a wrong angle meant that we found ourselves in an area of seabed that none of us had ever explored. It was pretty barren silty stuff, but it was the ideal habitat for firework anemones and langoustines and there were loads. 

However, as we progressed I started to sense that I was losing my sense of direction, so having forgotten my compass I borrowed The Announcers - Auntie is always prepared! 

The ascent threw us into the path of a lovely little catshark and a scorpion fish. So, it all ended well.

Finally, at the surface, Mother Nature threw one last curve ball. On the beach - a site specifically chosen for its westerly wind - the wind and smoke from our fire disappeared unleashing Scotlands's miniature hellhounds - the highland midge. It was time for a quick dekit and drive home.

Sun baked ground

The fire

Firework Anemone

Catshark

Scorpionfish