Scotland is awash with ancient battle sites where clans genuinely clashed in the bloodiest of fashions. However, today Pilmuir Quarry was the scene of a battle of a different type. We had originally planned to dive Seal Reef, St Catherines, but storms and inclement weather meant that the club had decided to dive their Pilmuir Quarry.
I had arrived already in my drysuit (the site is 5 minutes from the house) and was planning to dive with Claire to do one of my required skills for the ScotSAC Master Diver rating. Today it was full kit removal and swim at 10m. I wasn't worried about this, but some of the guys on the surface had mentioned that they'd taken a few attempts to do it - a bit like a driving test. As a result, I was starting to feel some nerves.
As we went in the water Claire and I dropped down and swam out. The vis was pretty good, but the temperature was cold. Claire's computer registered 2c while my own registered a tropical 4c. Once in a suitable space Claire signalled for me to demonstrate the skill. I removed the kit, swam with it in front of me, then rekitted once I done it for sufficient time. Putting the kit back on was a bit of a struggle with numbing fingers but I'd succeeded. Box number 1 ticked.
When we got back to the entry point we found the rest of the group mulling about having not dived. Victims of the Battle of Pilmuir Quarry, as the cold wreaked havoc on the regulators - particularly those with Scubapro regs which, despite being cold water rated, don't seem to actually like the cold. My Mares Abyss Navy and Claire's Apeks regs fought valiantly and won.
I never took the camera underwater, but I took a few surface pictures to show the flooded car park, the hail and the ice on the surface. They say, in Scotland, that March either comes in like a lion and out like lamb or vice-versa. Here's hoping that's us done with the lion.
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| Ice on the quarry |
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| Flooded car park |
