Christmas Came Early - 21/12/2016

A conversation in Aquatron about Frocktasia not ever having seen a cuttlefish led to her and Mad Marx joining Jester and I on some St Catherines' night diving to find ourselves our target.

With Jester working late and the rest of us finishing early we headed up and did sneaky dive before Jester arrived. It was nice enough, but cuttlefish or bobtail squid as they are called in other parts of the world were conspicuous by their absence. My reputation as a cuttlefish wrangler was in tatters.

We emerged and re-tanked and went down again with Jester in tow. Then it happened, I was just swimming down past 10m when I spotted one crouched behind a rock. I signalled and we stayed and admired this stunning little creature for a bit before heading off to enjoy the rest of the site at night.

For Frocktasia it was another diving experience checked off. For me it was two of my lowest ever SAC rate - 12l/m.

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

Fame! I'm Gonna Live Forever... - 02/03/2015

Front Cover

"..I'm going to learn how to dive!"

Now that I've dropped that cheeky little earworm into your head I'll get down to business. Scottish Diver, the official ScotSAC magazine have published an amalgam summary of Posidon's Parlour's Jordanian adventures with Aqaba's Anchor. I've known it was going to be in for a wee while, but quite unlike me I kept it quiet.

So it was with baited breath that I waited for the latest March/April edition to fall through my letterbox. Thus far, it has not arrived, but I knew it was out there as blog readership briefly spiked on its release and TDFKAMF sent me a blurry photograph of it taken on his mobile phone. However, yesterday, the kind chaps at Aquatron gave me a pre-thumbed edition while I was in getting fills (Thanks Mark & Chris). I didn't expect to be quite as tickled as I was to see it in the flesh. 

I eagerly thumbed through it and there it was. The red anemone glowing out from the page. I never wrote the headline, had I done so it would have been far more narcissistic. :) 

I've included a fairly low res version of the article below, but I'd encourage you if you aren't a member of ScotSAC to invest a few quid in either a subscription to the magazine or join the organisation for a free copy. Seriously, it's like £12.50 for 6 issues a year and this month the article "Dougie's Picture Perfect" is accompanied by some amazing photographs.

Remember, you can like Poseidon's Parlour on Facebook too!

The article

Keep on Truking - 28/11/2014

On Friday night I went down to Aquatron, the local dive shop, for a social evening. The entertainment was provided by Rod MacDonald. Rod is a legendary Scottish wreck diver and author of a number of books. His latest book is an exploration of the wrecks of Truk (or Chuuk) Lagoon, in the Federated Sates of Micronesia. 

It's a bit pricey at £30 for the hardback, but the blow was cushioned when I won the raffle - a bottle of Old Puteney Single Malt - probably worth about £30 in and of itself. :)

The evening consisted of a talk then a Q&A session on diving Truk. It was part history lesson part diving guide. I enjoyed it. I'd never heard of the place until very recently, but apparently it was the Japanese equivalent of Pearl Harbor. Basically,the Americans issued a WWII smack down to to the Japanese naval fleet that was mostly based in the area.

The wrecks look fascinating and beautiful.

Rod signed my book and even wrote a poignant message.

Starry Starry Night - 14/11/2014

In my final installment before I head to Egypt myself, the Announcer and Fast Ed headed up to Loch Fyne and the Council Yard. 

As regular readers will know I had been here once before with the Zookeeper as part of an exploratory dive back in August. However, a chance encounter with Lobsterman in Aquatron a couple of weeks ago meant that I had a conversation about the site. He explained about the main boulder reef and a wall to the right. My own experience had taken us down, but in the opposite direction to a shallower smaller reef. My resolve was set I was going to find this reef and wall. Moreover, Aquatron's very own Ace, suggested that there was some fun rubble and a table to be found also. Sadly for Ed and the Announcer they were my virgin site buddies.

We kitted up in some pretty miserable rain and headed in veering slightly to the right. Hitting the table just as Ace had said. We pottered about looking at various edible crabs and dabs then headed down deeper. The visibility incidentally was excellent (6m).

Following a rope we stumbled across the lobster creel and tail of the small reef I'd encountered on a previous dive. Then trusting Lobsterman's advice we went along, staying at 20m I led our band out into the nothingness of the seabed hoping for the boulder reef. Then just when it I was getting a little forlorn I saw it. It was actually quite impressive - far bigger then I expected. We pottered about it until one of his hit 100 bar and then we worked our way back to the shore.

Saw some nice stuff too, Brittle stars, scorpionfish, mackerel, cod, scallops etc. Worth some more exploration. I've made a crap map of what I now think the site looks like.

However, the real highlight came at the end/ As we finally emerged, the clouds had cleared and we enjoyed an unspoilt view of the Milky Way and numerous shooting stars. It was spectacular affair.

Kitting up

The Ace Table of Sacrifice

Edible Crab

Toilet Dabs

Encrusted Cone

Creel

"Dude, get that light outta my eyes!"

Total Eclipse of the Loch - 02/11/2014

A rare free Sunday gave me the opportunity head up to St Cats, Loch Fyne with Captain Al, TDFKAMF, the Vice President and Van der Brett. It took a little longer than usual to get there as the quickest road was still shut due to landslips (fortunately, it was open by the time way came back). 

We were the first people to arrive at the site, but a small group arrived from Splash Sports and a couple of guys from Bo'ness Sub Aqua Club. In addition, en route I'd spotted my own dive club diving a Twin Piers, Loch Long. I took the right course of action as I later heard that the visibility at the site was rotten.

By way of contrast, our visibility was terrible in the first few metres, but increased to around five below six metres. However, it was pitch black so it felt like we did two night dives as though it were a total eclipse of the loch. There was a nice array of life about on both dives. Life included:

• nudibranchs
• pollock
• cod
• scorpion fish
• pipefish

Emerging from the first dive boasting about the things we saw we started joking about a range of improbable spots (hammerheads, turtles, humpback whales etc). Which gave Van der Brett the opportunity to tell us about the time a encountered a great white shark while teaching in South Africa. When asked what he did he explained in great details that he tried not to look like a seal. There is a valuable lesson in there somewhere.

In dive 2 I took the opportunity to dive down to around 38m - a new depth record for me. This also allowed me to test the deco functionality of my Mares Matrix. It worked an absolute treat. Taking me to safety stops at 12m and 3m. The next test is to start using it with Nitrox.

That said, the best moment of the two dives was when TDFKAMF was a attack by an angry Yarrell's Blenny. Apparently, it was provoked by another inconsiderate diver!

However, the highlight of the day came when we returned to Aquatron at the tail end of their sale weekend and as well as my fills and usual banter I also got myself a bargain on a super sweet new Fourth Element Thermocline top as well as bumping into the Mermaid! Add to all this the fact that I recovered my lost Arctic sock (misplaced at the A-Frames on Thursday) and I'd say it was pretty darn good! Happy days.

Sealoch Anemone

Nudi

Squat Lobster

Cod

Greater Pipefish

Scorpionfish

Scorpionfish

The Power of ZAF - 21/08/2014

Gentle Ben and  dive date!

It is a little known fact that the cumulative energy caused by the coming together of the Zookeeper, the Announcer and Frewbowski can form a gravitational singularity so powerful as to cause the planets to align and weather patterns to shift. We call this the Power of ZAF. 

Nature, as anyone who has dived with us will know, respects this power and, like the opening the scenes of the Lion King, comes to pay homage when we enter the water. Humans too aren't immune and without realising can be drawn to the source of the gravitational singularity  even before it occurs.

So, when we finally arrived at Seal Reef, St Catherines we found two cars. The first car belonged to Gentle Ben of Aquatron, who was on a romantic dive date... with a real live lady called Lyn. I was already a little giddy from the funky smell of my Fourth Element Arctic undersuit and the fact that the rain had departed permitting the sun to come out, and immediately sensed the seeds of romance floating in the air. I ensured the atmosphere was conducive to love.

Then I noticed the other divers in the water. They too, clearly drawn to the site by the power of ZAF. Turns out it was two members (Campbell & Marion) of the ScotSAC club of which I too am notionally a member. 

Our plan tonight was to head down to the wrecked speedboat, look for catsharks to add to the Scottish Shark Database and generally carry-on in and around the reef. In total, we found and sexed (it's far less sinister than it sounds) five small spotted catsharks, but en route we found the wreck, a stunning firework anemone, played with some langostines, found a nice big conger eel and beautiful cushion star.

On the way back we saw an excellent assortment of little critters including a long legged spider crab (Macropodia rostrata) and a host of rock cooks.

This was a great dive (24m and 5-6m visibility), on a brilliant evening with average company. ;) The Power of ZAF is strong indeed.

Firework anemone

Firework anemone

Langostine

Langostine

Boat bow

Hiding cod

Dogfish / Lesser spotted catshark

Edible crab

Conger eel

Red Cushion star

Red cushion star

Macropodia rostrata

Camo crab

Let There Be a Back Up Light - 28/06/2014

With the end of the month rapidly approaching, I found myself with a little spare cash and a need for a new back up torch since my last back up died a few months back involving an incident with concrete and a clumsy fool.

I went into Aquatron last week and had a look at a few and decided to do a little research in between watching football matches throughout the week. The main protagonist in my search was a Subgear Prolight Sp30. 500 lumens, 9000 lux, sealed head with 50,000 hour led burn time, triple o ring and a 14-18ht battery life. 

A number of shop patrons and staff had used and loved the Prolight for sometime. It's always good when complete strangers highly endorse a torch. Not that I don't trust the views of staff, but let's not lie - they have a vested interest in selling you stuff.

To many people it would be a primary torch, but when you dive with a Mares EOS 10R - a torch that fuses life into stone - even the above impressive stats aren't that exciting. :)

A brief look at the shop today and a very decent price match and the deal was clinched.

I should be a hand model.

Going Deeper - 18/05/2014

Having been away with work I haven't been diving in about 10 days. Meanwhile my pals have been diving in various locations an have been very smug about it on social media websites.

Today was my first chance to get wet. Myself and Mr Fallsoveralot were meeting at Aquatron before potentially heading to the Caves. While at the shop, in walked Fast Ed who happened to have his kit in the boot of his car. A few smooth words of seduction and he was willing to abandon his wife for the afternoon to join us. :)

So we headed up to the Caves only to find the small stream in full flow and visibility likely to be poor. We therefore headed further down the road to the A-Frames to do a dive that would break his depth record, but stay within the limits of his training (30m).

Leading the dive out in poor visibility my plan had been to dive to the big frame, then head down past the deep frame before turning back once we reached our desired depth. In the poor visibility however and fairly swift current I missed it. Instead, we ended up overshooting and heading down to around 29m  before turning back and hitting the deep frame and what I normally call frame 2.

The depth and different route meant we encountered plenty of sea cucumbers, peacock worms, a firework anemone and a decent array of fish and crabs. Sadly, Ed also spotted fishing lure, and I found a plastic bag (floating at 20m) from East Dunbartonshire Council ironically promoting greener more sustainable behaviour

In total it was 45 minutes and by the time we surfaced the rain and poor vis was enough to dampen our enthusiasm for another dive. However, Grant recorded a whopping 29.2m on his computer - smashing his depth record.

Peacock worm

Pink spotted sea cucumber

East Dunbartonshire logo

Clean environment

Peacock worm

Hermit crab, dead man's finger and sea squirt

Buried edible crab

An Unexpected Journey Part 1 - 08/05/2014

As regular readers will know, on a previous outing Laura and I scouted out the access to the lesser dived part of St Catherines, Loch Fyne. However, St Catherine's 3 - Bottle Bank is also a much contested site between divers and local residents who rightly have concerns about a minority of divers who persist with antisocial behaviour.

Laura and I had planned to dive the site, but chance comments by Martin and Ben in Aquatron made us wonder if we could keep all camps happy by diving the length of the shore between St Catherine's 2 & 3.St Catherine's 2 being the less contested site that features regularly on this blog.

Our new plan was to build up kit at St Cats 2, drive along the lane to the St Cats 3 entry, I'd drive back to St Cats 2 before walking the 500m back to the kit and Laura. We would then enter the water, dive the reef before heading as far along the shore as our air would safely allow. Still following?

Specifically, we were going in diving to 20m heading NE to the reef, working our way up the reef to 10m, where we would leave the reef and head NE to our distant exit point. At 80 bar we'd start to ascend to 5m and at 40 bar we'd surface.

Our Plan

The plan was set and it appeared as though it had appeased Poseidon himself as a pod of porpoise and a seal frolicked offshore and the tide flowed in our favour.

As we dived we encountered catshark after catshark - I mean loads of them. The dive came alive in a fun way when Laura who was feeling a bit floaty in her new undersuit grabbed what has now become known as her "Gandalf stick". Feeling a bit left out I too grabbed a piece of driftwood and continued our Unexpected Journey.

We almost made it too. We came up about 50m short of the target only to see Fast Ed cruising the lane in his car looking for us or perhaps something more sinister - you never can tell with that boy. We signalled with torches and we chatted from afar as the tide gently swept us to our destination. 

Butterfish

The Gandalf Stick

Catshark

Nudibranch

The distance travelled