At First Glance - 29/08/2018

I noticed while out for a walk with Gill - a quite unremarkable slipway. Clearly, rarely used. There was no dive guide on Finstrokes, or any other site for that matter. I had hoped it would be a decent training site. What we saw was in the end quite surprising. 

I'd taken Jester to see the site to see if he thought it was worth a dive. It was night and the weather was a bit miserable but he thought it was it too. So, we kitted up buddy checked and headed along the slipper rocks.

We descended through a halocline to about 3m and followed the slope down on a reasonable straight line using a compass*. 

We passed a few fish before spotting our first langoustine at around 7m, our first firework anemone at 10m and then many more. We swam out for around 30 minutes, both of us hoping for a ray sighting. A catshark hunting a langoustine, a sea mouse, more firework anemones.

Then as we started back towards the entry exit point we saw one. A lovely big thornback ray. Back on the surface we emerged entirely satisfied before heading off to find some food..

 

* It was dark and night time. I learnt the lesson a long time ago that in such situations on unfamiliar sites a compass is a thoroughly decent bit of kit to have on your person.

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...

More Than One Direction - 02/06/2018

Amidst the nonsense of training, my buddy (Walker Texas Ranger) and I decided to mix things up and swim in the opposite direction of where we'd conventionally dive at Drishaig Reef. We didn't think much would come of it.

We had expected the reef to end and a silty seabed to stretch on forever. For much of the dive it did. then, as we gave up hope the seabed unfurled its skirts and revealed a curious reef. Small, and stretching over a few square metres it contained a variety of life.

Multiple dogfish lazed amongst the seaweed. Large nudibranchs slugged across the rocks. While highland dancers gently laid their ribbon eggs. It was quite remarkable to see so much life in one small bit of reef.

We surfaced and wondered how many people had ever rebelled against the dive guide. It would seem sometimes there is more than one direction.

Highland Dancer

Flabellina Lineata

Catshark

The Annual 100 - 29/12/2017

It's not every year I make it to 100 dives in a calendar year. To do so, I probably have to do a dedicated dive trip to rack up a few to complement my weekly activities. I hadn't even checked my log book when Jester and I decided to brave the snow and head over to Loch Fyne.

As a precaution we took the Jeep - not one of my usual diving vehicles, but as a 4x4 ideally suited to snow covered roads. In the end it probably didn't matter. The roads were pretty clear, and to get the dramatic snow shot to the right I had to take it off the main road and into a little car park at the top of the Rest & Be Thankful.

The dive site and the water temperature were slightly warmer than they were the day before, which made for a more conducive environment for kitting up.

As it was just the two of us we went deeper and explored for a little longer. We surfaced having enjoyed some nice life and an hour or so underwater. I got home, and filled out my logbook and there it was, dive 455 was my 100th and last dive of 2017.

Once again, I'll leave you with the underwater photography of Jester.

Catshark

Nudibranch

Me

The road we came

The beach

The Darkness - 19/09/2017

Diving at night isn't for everyone. The imagination is a powerful thing and in the darkness people's imaginations often run riot out running even the most reasoned of minds. However, my own love it compels me time and again to introduce it to more people for the first time.

Tonight it was the turn of Freeflow Bob to experience diving in the dark for the first time. I couldn't tell if he was excited about night diving specifically or not.

On the way up I explained a few basic principles of night diving:

• Use a couple of lights to create an entry line for ease of navigating back to the shore - I rarely do this :)
• Dive the site in daylight before diving it at night - I've skipped this a few times too :)
• Don't turn off your torch underwater in case it doesn't go back on - I've experienced this first hand :)
• Carry a spare torch - top tip- I always do this
• Always, always do a buddy check. The incident pit can get so much deeper faster in the dark!

We were all set.

We kitted up and buddy checked at the car before entering the water. We dropped into fairly pleasant, clear, Finnart water. We went down to the big frame before spending the rest of the time looking amongst the wreckage for life.

We saw:

• 
  
• Catsharks
• Nudibranchs
• Lobsters 
• Wrasse
• Cod

Pretty much everything you'd expect to see. However, it was at the end of the dive when I revealed my favourite night diving feature. Encouraging the others to cover the light from their torches we blackened the sea bed then began moving our spare hands in the dark. Lighting up the sea with bioluminescence. If you haven't seen it before I recommend diving at night for that reason. 

You can learn more about the ocean at night here.

I think Ol' Freeflow may have discovered a taste for it.

Double Trouble - 28/06/2017

Double Trouble is, simultaneously, perhaps one of the worst Elvis movies and also the title of another terrible movie from the 1990s, but that doesn't deter me from using it as a blog title to describe my first dive on my new twin set.

My buddies were Captain Al and Jester and we had chosen the Slates because I had agreed to show the site to a group of divers from Scuba Leeds on their annual pilgrimage to the west coast sea lochs (or "locks" as they call them 😃 ). My plan had been to dive my first dive with a 15l tank and then have a shallow splash with the twins before heading down the road.

In the end Captain Al advised me to get a bit of time with them to start to get used to them before doing any formal training. So, I jerry rigged up a regset that was a representation of a Hogarthian/DIR twinset regulator set and set about testing my system before doing any formal training in it. I've been using the Rectotec blog as background reading as well as discussing it with more experienced technical divers.

PLEASE NOTE: I am a relatively experienced diver with experienced buddies, I do not recommend this kind of ad hoc experimentation for inexperienced divers!

For those interested in the geekier side of it I dived:

• manifolded twin faber 12l
• Scubapro horseshoe wing
• Steel backplate
• jerry rigged regulators

Anyway, once kitted up I realised that I'd need to make some adjustments as I couldn't  reach my knobs on the dive, so that meant that in reality I was really just getting used to diving the wing with what was in effect a single cylinder.

The result was that I wasn't really into taking many photographs, but the weather, light and visibility were all so good that I took a few snaps.

Dive one saw us spend the best part of an hour at around 15-20m spotting ling, cuckoo wrasse, dogfish, nudibranchs and sunstars. 

The first thing I noticed is that the dump valves weren't effective given their position, and to get the best out of the hose dump I really had to be in a fairly upright position. It meant that on this dive there were a few minor buoyancy issues on this dive. Which, by the time we shallow dived the bay on dive two I had rectified, despite breathing the twinset down to just 40 bar ( a common tipping point or so I'm told).

Anyway, decent little learning experience with fine buddies.

Dogfish / Catshark

Common Sunstar

Flabellina Lineata

Northern Sunstar

Northern Exposure - Part 1 - 28/04/2017

With summer nearly upon us my club, Eastwood Sub Aqua Club, has planned a trip to Loch Sunart in the Scottish Highlands. Despite its relative close proximity (around 140km as the crow flies) it takes almost four hours to get there due to a combination of traffic, ferries and single track roads. As such, we took the opportunity to stop two thirds of the way up at The Slates, Loch Leven.

 

The Slates is one of my favourite dives and I was especially excited for two reasons:

1. I had finally managed to repair my camera
2. I was going to be the buddy of Campbell who was returning to diving after a medical break

We took our time and kitted up making sure the Chairman (Campbell's new nickname) was comfortable before checking kit and heading into the water. We were keeping it shallow (20m) and it really paid off with a nice catshark, pink spotted sea cucumbers, sunstars and a compliant ballan wrasse. The Chairman was performing admirably and seemed pretty comfortable, but as we started our ascent he signalled he was cold - not surprising, the bottom temperature was about 4c.

 

We surfaced and dekitted, where he decided to call it quits for the day. With a number of other divers also doing the same it meant that it fell to myself and the Barrman to restore the pride of club. We kitted up, buddy checked and headed down.

 

As we reached about 12m I looked right and spotted one of the most brazen octopus' I had ever seen. Sadly, the Barrman hadn't seen it and as I fiddled with camera I realised he was about to fin right over the to of it. I violently shook my torch but sadly it was too late to prevent a silt tsunami.

 

I kept my eye on the octopus and waited for the cloud to disperse as much as possible, but it was too late to great picture. I mean, I got a snap, but I was later accused of simply having photographed a red rock by a rather mean spirited Shiny.

 

We continued round enjoying the pleasant drift and admiring a lovely selection of Devonshire cup corals, before emerging cold and ready to enjoy the warmth of the cars up to our base for the weekend, Resipole.

Sunstar

Catshark

Sea Cucumber

Anemic Bloody Henry

Ballan Wrasse

Red rock - curled octopus

Devonshire Cup Coral

Sunstar

Detours in the Dark - 20/03/2017

When the Gandalf of the Internet and Kingmaker turn up in what feels like GotI's mobile command vehicle, you know your going to have a little fun.

When we got to the A-Frames, our chosen sight for the evening, I was nominated as the dive guide.  I made a bold promise which in the relatively poor vis seemed to be a little optimistic given that for the first 14m you were unable to see much beyond a metre. So instead we ambled  aimlessly for about 35 minutes into an area where we rarely go.

The result was that we saw a clutch of young catsharks and a free swimming baby conger eel - which caused GotI to exclaim through his rebreather.

With no real idea of where we were, we took stock and swam back towards our entry point. As we did we found a couple of the a-frames. The frames, that if we'd hit them in the zero vis earlier in the dive all my promises would have been fulfilled.

As it was GotI was delighted, he'd never seen a free swimming baby conger eel. The Kingmaker was typically nonchalant - to be honest he's gotten grumpy in his old age, I'm not sure what impresses him these days. I think he liked my selfie surprise.

Selfie surprise

Giant Shark vs Mega Octopus - 18/10/2016

With the Mermaid determined to get a few more twinset dives under her belt before heading up to Scapa for a liveaboard with her teckie other half, we headed to Loch Long and Conger Alley for a couple of day dives.

It was to be two dives defined by two creatures often featured in B-rate horror movies including Giant Shark vs Mega Octopus. However, neither encounter was as one would expect in the world of bad cinema.

The first dive saw us head down to 25m. While en route down the Mermaid was scanning with her torch when I caught a glimpse of the octopus. I was surprised at first, I've never seen one in Scotland during the day. I signalled to Avril and we stopped to watch this deep sea monster before moving on to enjoy the congers, wrasse, lobsters etc.

The journey back was a little eventful with the Mermaid being slightly under weighted. I'd gone down a little overweighted to compensate, which proved to be useful as I held her down on the safety stop. That's what buddies are for.

The second dive saw us go in looking for an illusive firework anemone, but instead turned up a gentle catshark along with the usual reef life.

Great fun.

Just hanging around

Leaving

Smurf

Conger Eel

Catshark

Gurnards & Not So Fast Cars - 24/08/2016

With what seemed like the last glimpse of summer, the Zookeeper, Jester and I met up for a twilight dive in Loch Fyne. This wasn't our original plan, but parking at our chosen site was full. 

We kitted up in fast fading but brilliant sunshine, buddy checked on our march down the beach and skipped into the water. 

It seemed like the fates were with us as we landed on our first huge catshark of the day. I haven't seen one for a few months. So it was nice to reacquaint myself with an old friend.

As we continued down in search of an alleged firework anemone that Jester is convinced is down there, my torch caught a glimpse of what I think was a seal. Moments later there was a flurry of large fish swimming towards us using us for shelter. This confirmed my theory. However, the initial sighting never materialised into a full blown encounter, sadly.

Instead, we stumbled along the bottom chasing langoustine and gurnards before hitting the reef and heading up to the shallows. 

It was, however, catsharks that were the atars of the show as we encountered at least two and the largest one twice. They were very relaxed around us especially as Jester approached with his National Geographic-esque camera set up.

We emerged 67 minutes later, hampered by hunger and cold on my part, packed up and cruised home behind some not so fast cars. 'Twas a good night.

Catshark

Red Gurnard

Cushionstar

Catshark

Bonfire(work anemones) - 02/06/2016

Sometimes life throws you a few curve balls, above and below the surface. Today was one such day. Myself, The Zookeeper, The Announcer and Jester headed tentatively to the Council Yard for a beach BBQ and dive. I say tentatively because the A82 had been shut for most of the day, but had thankfully reopened by the time we got there. However, as we left the A82 to join the A83 a traffic board said it would be closed for our return journey. In any event, this didn't happen either.

We arrived at the Council Yard and got to work building our fire - I say "we", I really mean the Zookeeper - and a sterling job she did too. By the time Jester arrived the burgers were on and food poisoning was on the cards for all of us! :)

The real challenge of the evening was keeping the fire going. The recent dry spell had meant that the ground was baked and the wood all tinder dry and burning fast. Still, the wood collecting kept us busy.

Underwater it never exactly went to plan as either as a descent at a wrong angle meant that we found ourselves in an area of seabed that none of us had ever explored. It was pretty barren silty stuff, but it was the ideal habitat for firework anemones and langoustines and there were loads. 

However, as we progressed I started to sense that I was losing my sense of direction, so having forgotten my compass I borrowed The Announcers - Auntie is always prepared! 

The ascent threw us into the path of a lovely little catshark and a scorpion fish. So, it all ended well.

Finally, at the surface, Mother Nature threw one last curve ball. On the beach - a site specifically chosen for its westerly wind - the wind and smoke from our fire disappeared unleashing Scotlands's miniature hellhounds - the highland midge. It was time for a quick dekit and drive home.

Sun baked ground

The fire

Firework Anemone

Catshark

Scorpionfish