Quint & the Seapen Graveyard

I had considered diving the the Old Cemetery 1 and 2 for sometime. However, something always came up and I never got round to it. So, when I got a message last week from my old dive instructor asking me if I wanted to go dive. I told him about my plan to head to Loch Leven camp with my new van and awning before heading to the Old Cemetery for a couple of dives. He seemed game.

The Old Cemetery has two dive sites - Cemetery 1 to the right and Cemetery 2 - to the left. Based on the guide there is the potential for all kinds of camping fun and shenanigans. However, times have changed. Parking in the lay-by is now restricted to three hours. Probably, judging by the number of beer bottles around the site, because of antisocial behaviour. Still, three hours was enough for us.

Quint and I kitted up and choose the easiest access to the beach we could find which coincidentally turned out to be the entry point for Cemetery 1, but given we wanted to do the second dive it meant that we were required to go down and turn right. 

It is probably true to say we spent too long going down and not enough time swimming left. We seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time looking at seapens standing on the seabed like a continuation of the cemetery on the surface. 

However, we eventually hit the wall we were looking for - it bottoms out at about 20m, so don't go too deep! Once there I saw an octopus, nudibranchs and a nice collection of seastars. We returned via the wreck of a little wooden skiff.

Feeling we had seen pretty much all there was to see in the area we headed back round the loch to the Slates for something a little, well, erm, deeper. 😃

Quint & I

Loch Leven

Testing the camper

Bouncing Bombs and the Wrecks of Loch Striven - 27/08/2017

Panoramic view from the Ferry

When I suggested to member of the club that we could do a little getaway and BBQ at Loch Striven I wasn't sure how many people would come given how inconvenient it is to get to. So I sold it on the promise of an introduction to wreck diving. However, at around the same time the BBC and BSAC very kindly cobbled together a news story that included one of the loch's most famous episodes.

Sir Barnes Wallis designed the 'highball' during WWII to allow aircraft to better attack large battleships, but the design and principle would ultimately used to more famous effect in the Dambuster raids.

Today there are still highballs on the bed of the loch, but our plan was to dive the shallow wrecks of a small WWII landing craft and a barge at a depth of 12m at Brackley Point. The shallow depth means that our ScotSAC Branch divers can enjoy two nice little wrecks.

With a number of people requiring to complete a variety of different training tasks, the Land Lady had decided to take control of the operation and earn her expedition organiser stripes. That allowed me to take a back seat and just dive with our only willing branch diver - Freeflow Bob.

We all arrived and pitched up for the day at what, it seems, is a very popular site for outdoor enthusiasts of all ilks.

We made friends and went diving. Freeflow Bob led me through our buddy check and took me down to 12m and off we swam. Almost instantly we hit wreckage and then swam along a relatively bland sandy bottom. We returned underwhelmed, but Freeflow Bob had managed to take a few snaps.

Our second dive a couple of hours later was to the right which offered up a larger, more identifiable wreck.

Back on the surface there were BBQs, frying pans with burgers, happy children and kayaking. It really was a fun day. We'll be back.

Dive site

Near the surface

Fun on the beach