The Cold Light of Day - 02/12/2017

After Monday's chilly 2.8c, I was keen to avoid Loch Long when Captain Al, Freeflow Bob, Fast Eddie and myself went diving on a frosty Saturday morning. The experience had taught me that it was worth taking the mobile food kitchen for half time bacon rolls.So when we trundled up to St Catherine's, Loch Fyne we were at least prepared for the cold.

It was Fast Ed's first dive back since he dived with me at Triple Reef in June, so an easy site was required and Seal Reef seemed ideal.

We weren't the only ones there, South Queensferry BSAC were across from the East Coast for some training. They seemed friendly enough despite being BSAC divers. ;)

We kitted up and split into buddy pairs of Captain Al and Fast Ed and Ol' Freeflow and me.

It was pretty uneventful but for a large school of pollack, a cushion star and some bloody Henry's. We swam back to the sure after the 35 minute announcement that Captain Al was feeling the cold. If he was feeling it then, it was about to get a whole lot worse. We swam back to the exit point. As the person leading the dive I noticed the thermocline at 4m and sat beneath it for 3 minutes. Then when the three minutes was up and everyone was clear, I turned and swam hard through the cold.

I could feel it biting at my exposed skin. We got out and I checked my computer... 2.2c!  Not the coldest I've ever experienced but getting down pretty low.

Still the promise of a roll and bacon was enough to get me back to the van. I had ear problems so I sat the second dive out and watched as my friends came back looking a little chilly. 

Day 4 - The Day of Wrecks - 13/01/2016

With an itinerary that contained the Dunraven, two dives on the Thistlegorm and a night dive on the Barge, it was always going to be a wreckish day.

I like the Dunraven as a wreck. It's upside down which is unusual and strangely picturesque. The challenge for me is always to get back to the liveaboard from the wreck. I mean, how far can you make your air last? I reckon it is entirely doable, though I have now failed twice. I should say that we never failed because of low air, but rather we got bored of swimming along the Beacon Rock reef into a current.  As it was we no more than about 60m from the boat. Easily done with 80bar.

Like the Dunraven, I’d dived the Thistlegorm before. The last time I was with the Zookeeper and remember not particularly enjoying the current or the penetration into the wreck. On this occasion, I knew what to expect and so I was far more comfortable on both dives.

The Kingmaker had agreed to lead us in the penetration portion of the dive. It gave rise to one of my heartiest underwater chuckles as he headed into a block entrance and had to reverse out. In fairness to him, he actually did a pretty darn good job after that initial moment, but I still gave him a few metres head start throughout the dive in case it happened again.

The Barge at night was a mixed experience. It’s a good site with lots of Morays, Stonefish, Scorpionfish and nudis, but there were just too many people on it. Our little group of 4 got split up and I took the decision to swim with Trist out of the Barge and wait for it to clear. I think Hell's Kells & Royston did the same thing, but went the opposite way, as we all reassembled ten minutes later with no one else on it.

Dunraven

Thistlegorm Locomotive

Thistlegorm Gun

Kingmaker & The Thistlegorm

Fimbriated Maray

Stonefish

Day 3 - The Narc Shark and the Deep Blue - 12/01/2016

Shark & Yolanda reefs are two of the more spectacular reefs in the northern Red Sea. Although, I sometimes think they are so vast and sweeping that vista sometimes that you miss the life that makes its life there. It was on the this reef that I had my first narc of the week. Dives one and two of the day were on this reef.

I always like to keep my eyes on the deep blue. It's where you see sharks and some of the bigger marine life. Well on dive one I was squinting into the blue and I saw one. Well, I thought I did. It seems it was a turtle, but at 35.5m and working hard into a head current it was definitely a narc shark at the very least. I chased it, until my dive computers started playing the classic hits of disco-electonica sending me up to more sensible depths. Meanwhile, the rest of the group looked on bemused. I rallied at the end of Yolanda and regrouped my senses. It was a great dive though! Back on the boat I was the butt of the jokes. I didn't mind, I saw a narc-shark.

For the Kingmaker, a large Napoleon Wrasse seemed to hold his attention. It's not the best picture, but you can certainly see the scale of it.

Our second dive saw the Kingmaker who knew this reef well take a short cut across 'the saddle' between the reefs in the deep blue. I think the we went into slightly deeper blue than expected because we arrived on Yolanda Reef on the shallow remnants of the Yolanda from which the reef takes its name. We also arrived before everyone else. The upside was that we got to spend a lot longer on Satellite Reef and with a turtle we'd seen earlier.

The third and fourth dives of the day were at Beacon Rock. The highlight of the dives here was getting to dive on the wreck of a liveaboard that sunk here a few years ago. There really wasn't that much to see. Although Hells Kells did spot a warted nudibranch of some kind.*

Turtle

Kingmaker & Napoleon Wrasse

Turtle

* I know, it's amazing how nonchalant you become about some of the diving very quickly.

Day 2 - Carnatic, Marcus and the Alternatives - 11/01/2016

The Carnatic is considered one of the oldest wrecks in the Red Sea having sunk in the 19th century. It's really rather beautiful. Though, as I discovered, it's a tight fit up at the bow. I kind of wished I'd lost a few Kgs before going in. While swimming round it towards the end of the dive The Dangerous Brothers had spotted a nice nudibranch - a wart slug.

The Marcus, also known as the Tile Boat, was without the doubt the surprise of the trip. I'd never heard of it before, but she turned out to be a fine wreck with some great life and swim throughs. As it's name suggests it was laden with tiles when it went down. The tiles are still there today and all stamped "Made in Italy".

We were all a bit sceptical about the Alternatives. All of us had dived it before and didn't have a lot of positive things to say about it. So when it emerged that the last two dives of the day were on this reef we were a bit disappointed. As punishment, we asked for the dive guide to join us on the first one. He actually, made the most of a very average Red Sea dive site spotting barracuda, a turtle, scorpion fish and a nice nudi.

The night dive saw me choose to forgo any photographic activity as I instead buddied a relatively novice diver. Having no idea how he was in the water I opted to keep an eye on him. As it is, Kung Fu Trist turned out to be a very competent diver - a credit to the BSAC club that trained him. He ended up joining myself, Royston and Hells Kells for the next few night dives.

Carnatic Propeller

Inside Marcus

Crocodile fish

Lion fish

Devil Red Scopionfish

Blue spotted ray

Midge's nudi

Reef life

Stonefish

Day 1 - The Poseidon Adventure begins - 10/01/2016

The day began, as all liveaboards do, with a check dive. The reef (Poseidon) was pleasant, somewhat like an aquarium, but with nothing of any great interest. It was, afterall, a check dive.

It was to get better with a move to the Giannis D – one of the reasons for my trip.* The Giannis D ran aground and sunk in 1983 and has been sitting at a 45 degree angle confusing divers ever since. It's really quite disorientating, I personally began using my torch and bubbles  as a plumb line while penetrating. It's a great wreck and at a little more than 20m very accessible.

While inside the wreck we lost the Kingmaker amidst the dazzle of Royston's lights. Knowing he was no longer inside the wreck, the remaining three of us emerged and had a look for him. Now when you lose your buddy you tend to stick to standard buddy separation procedure, but on this occasion we asked ourselves what would the Kingmaker do? We took a gamble and headed to the shallower bow of the boat where we found him snuggled in like a cuckoo with another buddy pair - panic over, dive saved. It made me wonder though....

Our third and final dive of the day was a night dive on the Sha'ab Abu Nuhas reef itself. I took the opportunity to have some with an inexpensive UV torch I'd been given for Christmas. The down side was that this meant I'd have to dive with a yellow filter on my camera - something which I'd never done before. IT definitely messes with the white balance of the camera. As such I have no fluorescing photographs. I do, however, have some nice little video clips and some non UV but yellow filtered pictures of Spanish Dancers!

To add even more colour to the experience, the Kingmaker was using a red filter on his video light. Apparently, it doesn't scare the reef life quite as much and so you see a bit more on the dive.

Kingmaker

Hell's Kells

Fish & Coral

Giannis D bow

Porcupinefish

* I've done a Red Sea Liveaboard before and I have dived much of this itinerary before. However my last boat was wooden hulled and poor weather meant she wasn't able to make the crossing over to Sha'ab Abu Nuhas.

Return to the Red - 09/01/2016

I'm doing a liveaboard with Blue O Two Blue Melody on the Red Sea. Based out of Hurgahda, Egypt, she is considered one of the better boats in the BO2 fleet.

I am diving with some blog regulars the Kingmaker and Bridget (who I've taken to calling Hell's Kells) and a chap we met on the boat who we'll call Royston. He's a BSAC diver from Bristol who, it appears, doesn't actually breath.

On the boat are a collection of great characters from all over the UK. Midge & Russ -  the Dangerous Brothers, the lads from Leeds Scuba and whole who host of others who I'll mention as we go on.

Back: Me, Midge, Kingmaker,Royston
Front: Hell's Kells & Ahmed

A Quick Dip - 26/05/2015

It was an eclectic bunch of divers that turned up to dive at the A-Frames, The Mermaid had put out an invite on West Coast Divers and a few folk had turned up.

The Mermaid (natch), Captain Al, Jester, Edward BSAC and too new young guns with just a few dives under their belts. I teamed up with Jester, determined to work on my weight.

We kitted up and headed down, the dive wasn't the best we've ever had, but it the vis was decent and a suspected seal sighting were enough to convince me to go down for a second look. The second dive, being later in the evening, was darker which meant that more of the life was coming out to play.

I had also decided to go in with a few less kilos after doing a weight check with an empty tank at the end of dive one. It seemed to work a treat.

After having whipped round a few of the frames we encountered a lovely little stickleback and yarrell's blenny. There were perhaps the dive highlights. Their presence at around 5m at meant that our safety stop was accomplished without evening knowing. There was no sign of the seal.

Sea squirt

Whelk

Sea Cucumber

Squatie

Ane-moon-e

Stickleback

And finally, Bloody Henry by Jester (too beautiful not to share)

The Loch Long Road to Recovery - 27/04/2014

Panoramic view of A-Frames entry and 29 Steps

Today I had time to sneak in a cheeky dive between spending time with Gill and playing funky bass at church in the evening. As such, Mr Fallsoveralot accompanied me on a dive at the A-Frames, Loch Long. 

As regular West of Scotland divers will know, visibility in Loch Long has been terrible in recent weeks. The cause of this may well be seasonal, but the deterioration also coincides with a series of blasts further up the loch where the UK keeps its nuclear arsenal. As such, Facebook pages and newsgroups have been awash with poor visibility reports including one of my own! We decided with no credible reports in recent weeks we'd take the plunge.

The site was slowly clearing of people by the time we arrived, and a few discussions revealed that at least three BSAC branches had been training. Moreover, my local dive shop, Aquatron, were also running a PADI Openwater course less than 100 yards along the shore. As such I feared that visibility would be poor.

As we entered the water we descended through the halocline with visibility of around 5m. We reached the first A-Frame with visibility of around 4m. Moving from frame to frame as we reached the 3rd frame we passed through a cloud of what I think was our own silt being swept out by the current which reduced visibility to less then 50cm. However, staying close to Mr Fallsoveralot we finned for around 10m and eventually emerged from the cloud and back into some decent viz.

As we returned to shallower water the visibility improved to around 7m.

I never took my camera on the dive, but Grant did. I spotted some nice sea cucumbers amongst the usual selection of critters. Moreover, Mr Fallsoveralot never fell over once. I put it down to him using a dumpy 12l cylinder for the first time.

Sea Cucumber (taken by Grant)

Be Thankful and Rest -23/02/2014

Grant kitting up for dive two

I had agreed to go diving on Sunday with Laura and Grant. Our plan was to go to the A-Frames, Finnart for two dives - it's a great novice site. I had initially thought about driving over the Rest And Be Thankful to St Catherines and Loch Fyne, but had heard that the local dive school, with whom I learnt to dive, were heading there. Upon arrival at Finnart we found the car park jam packed and scuba divers bobbing around like flotsam and jetsam. So we continued around the loch to Conger Alley, a suitable site for the whole group (Fast Ed, Big Mack & Sergeant Chris subsequently joined our plans although Big Mack was suffering from bad food the night before and decided to provide some shore cover).

Once parked, I noticed a couple of people messing about with dive kit across the road. A quick conversation revealed that one of them worked for Aberdeen Watersports and they were down diving the site for the first time. I gave them some pointers and left them to themselves. Afterwards, I heard they had a great dive including a seal encounter at around 20m.

The first dive was a relatively sedate affair down to about 17m with little life about. We later heard about the seal and, as regular readers will know, that always scares the life away from a reef. 

After a sandwich and a bit of Ed-baiting we headed in for our second dive (19m). It started well with the discovery of a small lumpsucker. As neither Laura or myself had seen one before we had no idea what it was, I guessed wrongly at John Dory. On the dive I also found a nice little butterfish and a well camouflaged, large edible crab that surprised Grant somewhat (yes, I heard him squeal - very manly). However, it was Grant that was to emerge from the sea the hero after finding a bungee finstrap that Ed had lost on the first dive.

On route home I found out the Rest And Be Thankful had been closed at midday as a result of a landslide (they're quite common up there). So all in all conger Alley was a good choice as we got to go home, be thankful and rest after two decent dives.
I'm afraid I took no pictures, as I forgot my camera, but I've sneakily pealed some off Facebook so you can have something to look at. Most of them are surface antics.

Laura self portrait in pre-dive rain

  

Pre-dive contemplation

Fast Ed & Sergeant Chris

Yippee ki yay mother lumpsucker! 

I'm not sure what he's doing...you decide

Bicentennial Woman - 13/02/2014

Tonight was Laura's 200th logged dive. To celebrate myself, Laura, Andrea, Fast Ed, Pat G and Sergeant Chris all left Glasgow a little earlier to do two dives at the A-Frames. As regular readers will know you can expect to see:

• Peacock worms
• Scorpion fish
• Pipe fish
• Wrasse
• Cod
• Lobsters 
• Crabs

Leading the dive down to the large frame at around 20m, I decided to make a trip along the other frames. I've rarely done this, instead we prefer to spend my time at around 10-15m were most of the life is, but tonight was to be different.

Once at frame 2 we were joined by a 7th celebrating diver - Beryl the Seal!! Now, I've never seen her this far down the loch, so it was a pleasant surprise for Laura's 200th. Amongst the group neither Pat, Andrea or Chris had ever encountered Bezza ( I feel I can call her that as we've gotten so close over the last few weeks). I'm told Andrea screamed upon seeing her in the water, though I never heard her. I did see her frantic torch flashing however.

Laura and I immediately executed Plan Beryl - ascend to 15m to conserve air and prolong the seal encounter - which was done with military precision much to the delight of Sergeant Chris. What followed were a number of very pleasant interactions with our big pal.

After the dive Andrea had to get home for an early start and Laura had a leaking drysuit so decided to call it quits, but the boys all agreed that it would be nice to go in, repeat the same dive, hoping for more seal action, but it was not to be. In fact, the best bit of life I found was a large scallop.

In short, this dynamite little night diving session with its unusual seal encounter will live long in the memory and was a fitting marker for Laura's 200th logged dive.

Peacock worms

Peacock worms

Beryl

Scallop

Sea loch anemones

Peacock worms

You Dive and Learn and Dive Again - 6/2/2014

It is clear that the lure of Glen Douglas Road End, Loch Long as a dive site is unequivocal. The troop consisted of Me, Laura Ed, Sergeant Chris, Ally, Pat G & Grant. We were kind of like a platoon of crack Navy Seals, without any discernible skillset. As Ally and Pat were both ScotSAC divers from my club they buddied up, as did Chris and Ed, while Laura and I double teamed Grant and went in as a three.

Glen Douglas Road End (yes, the site is at the end of the road through Glen Douglas from Loch Lomond to Loch Long, though technically it's called Tulloch Road) is an interesting site in that it is home to cuttlefish, firework anemones and scorpion fish. In addition, it benefits from a number of fairly steep drop-offs so divers can get a lot of depth very quickly in a pretty safe environment. The only real downside to the site is access. There is no Finstrokes guide.

Accessing the site begins with kitting up, crossing the road, climbing over a crash barrier, slipping on the muddy slope, descending an almost sheer drop, then, depending on the state of the tide, staggering across a rocky riverbed and into the water. In short, to even the most experienced of divers it can be pretty stressful. Before inviting Grant, a 12 dive PADI AOW veteran, I should have considered this. Another site with easier access would have reduced the stress of entry on what would be a prima nocta dive and first experience away from the safety of an instructor*. Lesson 1 - respect inexperience.

Upon entry the G-man was having trouble with some of his kit and was struggling to descend, so Laura and I took a bit of time to help him into the water. Fortunately, I had sensibly stuck an extra kilo of shot in each of my BC pockets.  Regardless, we went in sometime after the rest of the Scooby Gang which was to prove handy later on. 

Now, I still like seeing starfish and crabs, however I've lost my initial wonder, but as we finally got Grant down and under the water I watched as he started to take an  interest in things I now take for granted:

• hermit crabs
• the stickiness of starfish
• velvet swimming crabs
• squat lobsters
• comb jellyfish
• a barnacle encrusted Buckfast bottle

I started looking for things that I wouldn't normally bother with. I picked up a squat lobster to give him a closer look, I shone my torch through the jellyfish, I looked for painted gobies. All of which were fascinating to the newbie eye. Lesson 2 - what seems dull and commonplace to me may be a marvel to someone else.

On exit, the other guys who had entered the water earlier had finished up were starting to wonder why we'd been gone so long, so our return navigation was aided by torches being shone one the surface. This was handy as topographically there isn't much to guide you at GDRE.

We never saw the cuttlefish or scorpion fish we were looking for, but the highlight was a magnificent Bloody Henry starfish. They're not particularly rare, you can see four in a dive or none in the next 20 dives, but regardless their magnificent purple hue still makes me smile.

Bloody Henry infused with orange light

Grant's first underwater photo

* I say, away from the experience of an instructor, in our midst we had qualified BSAC, ScotSAC and PADI Openwater instructors and a PADI Divemaster, but tonight they were just divers.