The Comeback King - 27/04/2019

It had been almost a year since the Kingmaker dived. I broke him back when we were in Egypt last year on a liveaboard.  I mean, I say "I broke him" but, some kind of stomach bug broke him. I was just the diving conduit there at the time.

Anyway with him about to come on a trip to Kinlochbervie with my club, we felt he should at least do a dive to see if his kit still works. So we headed to Anchor Point for a quickie to 30m. 

We pottered about looking for different nudibranchs. Well I was, the Kingmaker has no regard for nudis. He's a big life kinda guy. It all went. 

Switch Around - 12/08/2018

It’s not everyday when I turn up at a dive site and lend my entir kit to a buddy while I used his. 

We were heading to Anchor Point to help Alex get a little more twinset experience and also enjoy what seemed like my first night dive of the season.

We headed down to 22m spotting a very pleasant little nudibranch before bumping into a dogfish.  Both of us were a little of balance. It’s funny how when using a different BCD you sometimes need to change the angle of dumping air etc..

We came out the water in darkness.

Window Shopping - 01/07/2018

With the camera out of action I headed to Anchor Point with Jester. I was just window shopping for Jester as he took photo after photo after photo after photo. We found all sorts of nudies and catsharks. 

It was two nice dives that sandwiched a cheeky BBQ. Afterwards Gill.I.Am and I headed to Otter Ferry and one of our favourite overnight spots for the campervan.

Shutter Eye - 23/06/2018

When a member of my dive club asked me if I could help her take better photographs. I said yes, but explained that I’m not really that into the details of photography and that where I could really help was by spotting things to take photographs of.

So we headed to Anchor Point  a site with a bit of everything - sandy bottoms, a wall and a rocky reef.

We got the cameras out and went looking...

The Hunt Nudi November - 11/11/2017

After camping out in the van overnight at Firkin Point, Loch Lomond overnight, Gill.I.Am and I headed over to Loch Long where we knew the Barrman and Leigh were diving. We arrived to find them 'chilling' on their surface interval.

We chatted, and I seriously considered kitting up to join them for a quick dive with what was left in my 15l tank from last night. Naturally, the lure of the warmth and a role and bacon kept me out the water for a little longer, but we chatted and had a laugh before heading to the day's main event Anchor Point, Loch Fyne, where the Announcer and Jim were toddling up later in the morning.

In the interim, Gill.I.Am and sat in the van watching John Wick.

Once there we kitted up and headed in for a couple of dives. I was keen see Trichesia Caerulea and spent much of the first dive looking for them, but it was the Announcer who spotted them on our very first safety stop just casually hanging out on some seaweed in the shallows. there were a few of them too.

We also spotted Polycera faeroensis, a huge red gurnard, conger eels, bloody henrys and a few other of my favorites. It was a good day diving.

Haylie's Comber - 09/09/2017

With a brief break in my own amateur football season and Wylie Fox and her very cute dog Haylie looking for a dive day on the beach, we headed to Anchor Point for a splash. 

The weather prior to and the next week had been and was to be miserable. Our phones indicated an eight hour weather window, which we were damn well going to take advantage of. 

We arrived after a leisurely start, and kitted up as Haylie darted around enjoying the sights and smells of the beach.

Before going down we has a brief discussion about how we each dive the site. I, it seems, opted for a left hand sided approach while Wylie plumped for a right hand side approach. Our two dives yielded similar results - something that is hardly surprising given we were on the same reef just traversing it from different sides.

There was plenty of interesting life and my performance underwater earned me an invite to dive one of my bucket list dives.the following week with some far more experienced divers. So it was a successful outing!

Me

Haylie & I

Weather Window

Northern Promise (1) - 17/08/2017

When I suggest to Midge (a diver that the Kingmaker and I met on our last trip to Egypt) that he comes to Scotland to dive I promised a number of things that he'd be able to do, dive and see.

When anyone comes to visit me in Scotland I want them to leave with a good impression. I'm proud of where I'm from. As such I gave Midge some options. He and Miss Hayes (his carer on his first adventure north of Glasgow) chose Anchor Point and Drishaig Reef for day one. Anchor Point was chosen because it is a scenic wall dive and Drishaig Reef because of the firework anemones and potential to see thornback rays.

The weather was always going to be mixed but the dry spells held out long enough for us to have a good time.

We kitted up at Anchor Point with both my Anglo companions already in awe of the scenery at the surface. Impressing them was going to be easy. :)

As we went down Miss Hayes seemed to be having a problem with her BCD, with Midge unable to fix a problem that I'd already noticed, I quickly sorted it. I think it helped her trust me as a guide. After all, she hadn't ever met me before and I could tell they were concerned about depth being that most of their UK shore dives were about 6m.

We went down and I instantly spotted two conger eels (something that was on Midge's list of wanna sees) and a large strawberry deeplet anemone. We pottered about looking at the array sea stars that were on show. We surfaced yards from our entry point. From then on they were hooked on Scottish shore diving.

Our second dive took us across to Drishaig Reef where I guaranteed them the opportunity to see firework anemones  and the potential of thornback rays. Sadly I failed on the thornback ray front....today.

I left them to head north to their campsite while I raced back to Glasgow to get our tanks refilled for day two.

Midge enjoys the view

Cofeve - 07/08/2017

It may sound like something that something that US President Donald Trump would tweet but one of the joys of Anchor Point, Loch Fyne is that it is home to Cuthona caerulea - one of Scotland's more colourful nudibranchs with its vibrant blue and yellow frons.

This evening Jester, Jim and I headed out to find Cuthona amongst other things. There was a little doubt about how the weather hold up and if it did if the midgies would strike. As it was the weather was glorious. To such an extent that even the jellyfish has opted to sunbathe after high tide.

We kitted up, thankful for the a small breeze keeping the evening midgies at bay and buddy checked in the water before dropping down.

We headed straight to the bottom of the wall and began working our way back up in a fairly brisk current. It made taking photographs fairly challenging, but as always Anchor Point proved to be bountiful. First in terms of bloody henrys and cushion stars then as we hit the nudibranch sweet spot I spotted Eubranchus Farrani before bumping into a nice gully complete with dahlia anemone and Cuthona Caerulea. I was pleased. This was thew first time I'd spotted CC without buddy assistance.

We continued and eventually surfaced through a maze of lion's mane jellyfish tentacles. It was a nice dive. Now is good time to grab a cup of cofeve and head to a Scottish sea loch.

Cushion star

Eubranchus farrani

Bloody Henry

Deeplet anemone

Cuthona caerulea

Nudi's Are The New Black - 13/05/2017

Like any social activity, meeting people is one of the interesting aspects of diving. Today saw me meet up with two divers with whom I have never dived - Michael & Ben. On this occasion my experience (in terms of dive numbers) was more than double that of my two buddies combined. Therefore, I felt an expectation to deliver a positive experience for them. An expectation that ultimately resulted in a 15% increase in my SAC rate.

Not wanting to dive in Loch Long after my experience earlier in the week, meant that I was looking to head to Loch Fyne where both buddies had only dived at Seal Reef, St Catherines. However, with the mistaken belief that a local PADI dive school was about to descend there en masse (as they tend to do) we decided to go to Anchor Point.

I had encouraged both Ben & Michael to read the Anchor Point finstrokes guide in preparation so that they knew what to expect - a courtesy that I expect as a bare minimum when I go out with less experienced divers - and they had. I mean, I really don't mind showing people the ropes, but at least take a little responsibility.

We kitted up and buddy checked in the shallow water to avoid the midgies, which it seems are now starting to hatch for the summer and headed down towards the bottom of the wall passing the odd scallop, nudibranchs, anemones, sunstars, bloody henry's. It was a really nice dive. 

Back on the surface we chatted before heading back in doing the same dive again this time with a slightly shallower trajectory along the wall. It paid dividends with a every pleasant if rather timid conger eel.

I think my buddies liked the site and will probably be back.

Deeplet Anemone

Sunstar

Polycera faeroensis

Polycera faeroensis

Flebellina Lineata

Polycera faeroensis

Bloody Henry

Polycera faeroensis

Return to Anchor Point - 24/04/2017

Jester had wanted to dive Dogfish Reef, but my preference was to return to Anchor Point and further explore the wall that the Kingmaker had fully introduced us to a couple of weeks before.

We buddy checked and dropped down to around 30m and the bottom of the wall. The tide was ebbing and creating a considerable current that made for an excellent drift. 

As we glided along we spotted a couple of types of nudibranch as well as a few sunstars and Yarrell's blennies. It really was a cracking dive. I won't say too much more but I'll leave you with this picture of Cuthona caerulea taken by Jester.

Cuthona caerulea

 

The site

Bloody Henry

Nudibranch

Another Dive on the Wall - 27/03/2017

Whenever I do certain dives I have certain tunes going round in my head. Tonight diving at Anchor Point with Jester and Kingmaker was one such time. 

I've dived here a few times, and only once would I say I'd really enjoyed the dive and that was last year. Even then I'd never really done so well in terms of exploring the wall, always tending to head too far north to catch the wall at depth.

When I suggested it as a location I wasn't sure Kingmaker was convinced of my assertion that it was only 15-20 minutes by St Catherines - he actually tested me on the way home and it was pretty much 20 minutes.

Anyway, after my alleged poor navigation last Monday this week the pressure was on Kingmaker to deliver. I could sense he was feeling it too. Why not Jester for lead diver I hear you ask. Good question, I suspect it's because he's a lazy wee bandit!

We went in and headed down hitting around 25m  at low tide. Still in a silt bed, Kingmaker was floundering then, by luck, he found it. He whirled in celebration. I offered a congratulatory high five.

The wall was covered in life, but unfortunately many of the anemones were closed, but we managed to spot some nice bloody Henry starfish, devonshire cup corals and an excellent little nudibranch which when I first saw I almost mistook for a sea squirt.

All in all it was just another dive on the wall. 

Despite the pleasant surface weather the water remained cold at just 4.4c.

All photos care of Jester,

Devonshire Cup Coral

Greater Spotted Frewbowski

Nudibranch

Bloody Henry

The Last Hurrah of Summer - 29/08/2016

Monday 29th August 2016, is pretty insignificant to us Scots, but for our friends south of the border it represents one of the last hurrahs of summer. You see the last Monday in August is for most in England a Bank Holiday. As such it presented an opportunity for me ol' mucker from Leeds, Josh, to come up to Scotland for a dip.

This time Josh was joined by Ricky and I brought Jester along for the ride. The weather forecast had been for rain, but the weather gods were with us we enjoyed nothing but pleasant sunshine.

After meeting at Glen Loin we headed to Anchor Point, Loch Fyne where we kitted up, buddy checked and headed. I had before the dive made a list of all the things that it was possible to see here including the list o the exceedingly unlikely, including:

• Pod of dolphins
• Basking shark
• Types of whale

I then went on to say that it was more likely we wouldn't any of these things and we all laughed.

Anyway as he headed down we bumped into the first of a series of large catsharks. When I signalled shark Josh and Ricky looked at me with hint of 'that guy's crazy'. Then they saw it. Their first sharks in British waters. OK, they are spectacularly small in the grand scheme of sharks in the sea - but they are sharks.

I'd have taken a picture of the encounter if it hadn't been for the fact that I'd put my camera in the housing upside down!!!

Back on the surface we all agreed it had been a great dive with visibility around 10m. From there we had a spot of lunch, before driving back along Loch Fyne to Loch Long and the Caves. Jester and I weren't too fussed about this dive, but Josh was keen to do it and I hadn't dived in about a year. 

It actually turned into quite a nice dive, with a nice sea lemon, a few anemones and lobster etc. That said the visibility was a lot less - around 3m

All in all, two great dives with some tolerable buddies and some fantastic weather. I suspect this will be the last diving hurrah of summer.

Sea Lemon

Closed Anemone

Open Anemone

Bloody Henry

What's the Point? - 29/09/2014

The Zookeeper, the Mermaid, the Money Monster and I had planned to go to Gortien Point, but at the last gasp we changed our minds and headed to Anchor Point.

The Money Monster, a new character in my blogging adventure, is a rebreather diver and as a native french speaker - every bit the Jacques Cousteau of Glasgow's south side.

The site was ideal as the Money Monster had brought his temporary ward, Bertie the Labrador.

We did two dives the first to the right of the site and a second to the left for some fluffy photography, Although, it was only me and the Mermaid as the Zookeeper had a drysuit leak and the Money Monster had a cell error while preparing for dive two.

The vis was a pretty consistent 3-4m, which meant there was enough life to keep us interested. Including:

• sunstars
• seven armed starfish
• dogfish
• nudibranchs

Still experimenting with macros, I'll leave the pictures to do the talking. :)

Closed Anemone

Dogfish

Sunstar

Bloody Henry

Plumose Anemone

Feather stars

Lion's Mane

Nudibranchs

Hermit Crab

Nudibranch Eggs

Seven Armed Starfish

Featherstar

Bertie Playing