Gurnards & Not So Fast Cars - 24/08/2016

With what seemed like the last glimpse of summer, the Zookeeper, Jester and I met up for a twilight dive in Loch Fyne. This wasn't our original plan, but parking at our chosen site was full. 

We kitted up in fast fading but brilliant sunshine, buddy checked on our march down the beach and skipped into the water. 

It seemed like the fates were with us as we landed on our first huge catshark of the day. I haven't seen one for a few months. So it was nice to reacquaint myself with an old friend.

As we continued down in search of an alleged firework anemone that Jester is convinced is down there, my torch caught a glimpse of what I think was a seal. Moments later there was a flurry of large fish swimming towards us using us for shelter. This confirmed my theory. However, the initial sighting never materialised into a full blown encounter, sadly.

Instead, we stumbled along the bottom chasing langoustine and gurnards before hitting the reef and heading up to the shallows. 

It was, however, catsharks that were the atars of the show as we encountered at least two and the largest one twice. They were very relaxed around us especially as Jester approached with his National Geographic-esque camera set up.

We emerged 67 minutes later, hampered by hunger and cold on my part, packed up and cruised home behind some not so fast cars. 'Twas a good night.

Catshark

Red Gurnard

Cushionstar

Catshark

The Deep & The Disaster - 17/08/2016

At the dive club one of the members was saying he needed to get in a few dives below 30m to work towards his ScotSAC Master Diver award. Myself and Campbell volunteered to go with the Bearded Mountain Man of Cambuslang to help accomplish the task.

We met up at our usual spot and headed to Loch Fyne for some fun and games.on what was probably the last sunny day of summer.

We kitted up in the warm, relatively midgie free glow of the sun and headed into the water after a buddy check. I should point out that all of us were trying out or using new pieces of kit including the BMMC who was using a drysuit he had hired from Aquatron while his own Otter suit was away for repair. So we were acutely aware that we were only going deep if all of us felt comfortable. As it was, we did and we pottered down to 32m before turning and heading back. It was all uneventful and we even managed to spot a particularly nice cushion star.

Back at the surface the world had changed. Midgies were swarming to such an extent that we spent most of the interval in floating in the warm water away from our nemesis. The sun was setting and by the time we reentered the water to dive we were going to be night diving.

Again, checking everything was OK we headed in and down. As we approached 10m disaster struck. My own drysuit hose stuck on - which I quickly removed and replaced solving the problem - Campbells mask started giving him grief and I looked round to find BMMC floating to the surface, looking like the Michelin Man. I looked round at Campbell and we both signalled "up".

At the surface we found BMMC with a stuck on drysuit inflator valve - something he'd never experienced before.I took off the hose and it seemed it was the valve on the suit that was stuck, rather than the hose.

We called it and went home.

Cushion star

Mark A-ah! Saviour of the Universe - 07/08/2016

"Mark! A-ah! Saviour of the Universe"

OK, so perhaps I'm exaggerating a little. However, when you arrive on site and you realise you've forgotten your drysuit, then a guy called Mark let's you use his because he's done for the day - it's pretty sweet and you do feel a little indebted. Jester too felt this, as we went on to have an excellent dive which would never have happened without the intervention of Mark. 

The guys from Aquatron were packing up for the day when we arrived. They reported pretty poor visibility, but the incoming tide was bringing fresher, cleaner water.

Feeling a little awkward in Mark's snuggish suit, we entered the water and went down. The visibility, it seems , wasn't as bad as the guys had made out in fact, it was alright - probably up to 4m.

We swam from frame to frame hitting a very definite thermocline at around 20m. We bimbled along staying deep enough, for long enough, that my computer ordered a deep stop.

The visibility was clearing constantly and by the time we exited the water, despite the wind and the rain, even the shallows had cleared up.

A good day. All thanks to Mark.

Bloody Henry

Anemone

Bloody Henry

Scallop

Edible Crab

Back to Life, Back to Reality - 05/08/2016

With my one month sojourn to the USA complete, this week it was back to the hard grind of work and scuba diving locally. Jester picked Seal Reef, St Catherines as our spot. While packing the car I noticed that my tank was out of test so if I did two dives then I'd lose out on the ability to dive at the weekend. So while Jester was keen on two dives, I wasn't so much.

As it is we did one nice 57 minute dive down to 37 metres. The vis was chronic in the first 6 metres, but cleared up markedly as we got deeper. To the extent that actually it was like doing a really clear night dive.

We saw some nice crustaceans, but the nudibranchs stayed hidden. 

Afterwards we headed to the pub leaving the fishermen to the beach.