The Quadrocentenarian - 06/08/2017

My own 400th dive took place with little fanfare - it was a pretty unimpressive dive with little to talk about. The Mermaid, however, had gathered quite a troop on top of those already visiting the A-Frames. 

Due to the weather (and the site) I had only wanted to do one dive on arrival and so most of the gang went for a splash and emerged with news of highland dancers and good visibility. Buoyed, I kitted up preparing to dive with the Mermaid on what would be her 400th dive.

Now, I suppose, it shouldn't have been a great dive. At best it should have been an average dive, but Poseidon himself was smiling as the Mermaid joined the 400 club. The visibility at site was easily around 6m and the water was tail end of summer warm at around 13c.

This drew forth life and, as had been noticed by Jester on an earlier dive, highland dancers - a nudibranch that neither of us have seen in a while. 

The Mermaid had a whale of a time (sans cetaceans) and emerged a quadrocentenarian and what's more, she only fell over once. She might be getting used to this diving malarky.

The Squad and Did's Death Box

 

400

Closed anemone

Pink spotted sea cucumber

Highland Dancer

Conger

Emerging Quadrocentenarian

Triple Threat - 10/06/2017

Ed mourns the loss of his 'latte'

With Scotland playing England at football (soccer for my American friends), Fast Ed and I decided that we would do just one dive slightly further afield than we'd normally go and then head back to get us home in time for the game. 

We had made a shortlist of three sites, but in the end decided on Triple Reef. We decided to follow Peter Gunn's suggested route in the comments of the guide.

The day didn't start well for Fast Ed who lost his latte to carelessness and also forgot his giant baby romper (undersuit). 

We crawled along the B8000 looking for the site we found it. Had a quick exploration and then kitted up.

Now both Fast Ed and I have a few dives under our (weight) belts and the guide was reasonably accurate. However, there was a triple threat even for the more experienced recreational diver.

1. The entry/exit is hazardous it's not worth pretending otherwise. I did it with my twinset and I won't lie the walk up was especially hard work.
2. It was all a little deeper than expected, with longer swims from point to point. As such decompression (for those who wish to avoid it) is a real risk if you are taking a leisurely approach..
3. We dived it mid flood and the current, particularly at around 15m,was seriously strong. Resulting in an increased SAC rate.

All this said, it was a great dive. The site was hoaching with fish, edible crabs, a conger eel, anemones. All with great visibility.

Back on the surface we took a little time to plot some additional, nearby sites in the sat-nav for a future trip.

Cushion Star

Northern Sunstar

Dahlia Anemone

Common Sunstar

Have You Ever Seen The Rain - 03/06/2017

Sometimes large groups of divers at a site make it impossible to do what you want. My plan with Ben had been to dive the A-Frames, but the presence of a local dive school had meant that there was no parking by the time we got there. As such, we headed round Loch Long to Twin Piers - a site Ben had never dived.

When we arrived we walked from the cars to site entry and I explained how the site works. It's pretty simple.

• Enter the water to the right of the piers and turn left
• Drop to 7m to see the truck axle
• Keep swimming left and drop to 12m to see the barge
• Hit the reef and look for congers
• Swim back in the shallows until you hit the piers

Ben seemed fairly comfortable with that.

Sticking to my guide for the site we found a few conger eels, but far more importantly we saw no rain. Apparently all the rain showers fell while we were underwater.

The Shallows - 26/03/2017

ScotSAC has a similar structure to PADI. Where PADI has an Openwater diver, ScotSAC has a Branch Diver. While at each level ScotSAC divers have a longer training time, they also tend to have a richer set of competencies but  a greater number of restrictions in the early stage. For example Branch Divers are required to dive with someone more qualified ScotSAC diver (a sport diver or master diver) when not out with an instructor training.

This is a good thing and it means inexperienced divers shouldn't find themselves in positions where they are putting themselves in any significant danger and will always have a more experienced buddy in the early stages.

Today I had volunteered to dive with one such diver in my club. He was restricted to 15m as a Branch Diver. I had suggested Twin Piers:

1. As a site he had never dived
2. A site where there are some cool things to see within the depth range

We arrived at the site in the midst of the three days of Scottish summer sunshine and bumped into a few of our Kilmarnock ScotSAC cousins. We chatted and got a vis report. It wasn't good.

They were right, I abandoned my plan to try and find the old truck axle and instead lead us down into the dark but relatively clear area around 15m.

On the first dive we did OK, spotting the small wreckage of a the barge, a lobster and a conger eel. 

The second dive was to be a little shorter largely so that I could get way with using just the one tank. By the time we re-entered the water the tide had gone out and the visibility had improved. It meant we had a nice wee descent through the big pier to the truck axle and by the time we were on the reef the we could see around 5m below us.

It was an almost perfect day for it and it meant a new diver could get another couple of dives under his belt and another 1hr 25 minutes logged underwater in the shallows.

A Simple First - 03/01/2016

Sometimes what is passe to the experienced diver can be something quite cool and interested to those less experienced. That was the case today when I was joined by Bridget and Dougie for a swim around St Catherine's Seal Reef. Neither diver had ever been near the small wreck.

So with almost every site from Glasgow to the Rest & Be Thankful chock-a-block we went to the small boat. The pair of them swam around it for a time before we began the swim to the reef.

For me, the reef offered more interesting times with a nice northern sunstar and a shy conger eel. I'm still without torches which is a bummer, but hopefully that will be sorted soon.

A Return to Form - 02/05/2015

I start this blog with an apology. The month of April saw me do a few dives but they were pretty unvaried. Sorry. Despite May having a bland scuba beginning it will reach a crescendo of excellence. So, stay tuned in and true to the faith!

Anyway, back to today's 'adventure'! Today with a rare Saturday morning off, I headed with some regulars (The Announcer, Jester, Cptn Al, Didier, and a Lawyer). Myself and the Announcer teamed up to as a buddy pair and plopped into the cool waters of Conger Alley, Loch Long for a quick dip before I returned to Glasgow to take in the unique brand of football that is Partick Thistle.

It started badly and improved drastically. The visibility was initially poor and The Announcer was having trouble with her regulator. Once sorted, we swung over to the other side of the reef where the visibilitity increased from 2m to around 6m. 

We pottered around for three quarters of an hour. It was all very pleasant with a nice array of life and to top the day off Partick Thistle won 3-0.

Conger 1

Sea Cucumber 

Bloody Henry

Sea Lemon

Ballan Wrasse

Conger 2

Check That Suit! What Suit? Gimp Suit! -

Today was a dive of a different kind for me. I was diving with someone I met on my recent liveaboard - Bridget. So named for her propensity to explete and working in PR.

The outing started comically with Bridget attracting, what seemed to me to be, the amorous advances of a socially awkward diver as we kitted up. It was painful to watch.

Bridget was testing out a new neoprene, as she calls it, gimp suit. It marked a move from someone diving in a hired trilaminate suit to a neoprene suit. It was also her first dive in the postmodern tropical waters of Loch Long at Twin Piers. 

Today I added a little extra weight to my set up after an experience with the Zookeeper trying out a new drysuit at this very site a year ago. So, when we went into the water and she couldn't get down I slipped an extra few kilo's into her BCD which had her sinking in no time.

The visibility to 15m was surprisingly good (5-6m), but deteriorated rapidly below that depth.

We made our way round the piers, past the old truck (8m), through the wrecked barge (15m) and onto the reef. En route I'd picked up a clappy-doo for sacrificial purposes to lure out the big conger eel. It went down a treat. :) Much to the delight of Bridget who'd never seen a conger eel in her previous Scottish dives. 

On the way back, Bridget was clearly still getting use to the new drysuit and it seemed to me was struggling to get the air out. I held her down for the safety stop and as we got a few metres from the shore let her go gently. As she rose the valve was automatically purging excess air.

I've been fortunate and had the same drysuit as when I did my drysuit speciality, more than three years ago. I can imagine a new suit can take some time to get used to. I mean, I don't even like diving with a different torch. I am, though, a creature of routine and habit.

On the basis that this was more of a check dive I never really took any pictures.

Conger eel

Plumose anemone

Mbili Theluji Gatis - 29/01/2015

There are times in my life when my mind, to avoid the partial misery or boredom of my surroundings, switches off and my imagination takes me to a happy place. Tonight was one such time.

When I'm cold I sometimes remember my second wedding anniversary when Gill and I climbed a small hill in rural Tanzania and watched the sun set over the distant East African Great Rift Valley. It was winter, but I still remember the warmth of the sun's dying rays hitting my face.

Tonight I found myself in that place, only I was accompanied by TDFKAMF and Fast Ed.

I assume most of you don't speak Swahili (neither do I to any significant level) so I'll translate the blog title - Two Snow Piers.

Recent cold weather had meant our trip to Twin Piers, Loch Long was a snowy affair. We kitted up in the cold and headed into the water. Straight away TDFKAMF had a free flow and also a drysuit problem which ruled him out. I think he'd later be thankful.

So Ed and I headed down to 25m passing the chassis of an abandoned vehicle and the remains of the old barge before finally stumbling across some life on the reef.

As we returned, the shallower we got the closer we came to lingering snow melt. It was cold (4-5c). Swimming back at 5m I went to my aforementioned special place.

Curious Conger

Baby Conger

Horny Hermits

The Crazies - 09/11/2014

I hadn't really planned on diving this weekend, but in an unusual combination of buddies today I dived with K-Pep and TDFKAMF. We met up with no idea of where we were heading only knowing we wanted to take our chances with Loch Fyne. In the end we plumped for the hotly disputed  Los Furnace (pronounced fur-nach-ay). Although, most divers simply call it Dogfish Reef.

"Hotly disputed?" I hear you ask. Yip, there is a crazy guy who lives next to the dive site who has been enraged by various groups of divers and fishermen - I suspect quite rightly. As a result, he has taken it upon himself to be the private guardian of the public car park blocking it off from everyone. "How do you know he's crazy?" Well, for one, he's got a flagpole erected in his garden. I mean, who puts a flagpole in their garden? Exactly, crazy folks. Secondly, he was animatedly bouncing around his window watching us like any normal crazy person would. Finally, when he did come out he had pretend conversations on his mobile phone. Exactly what you'd expect from a crazy person or indeed, an extra from The Crazies.

We arrived later in the day, taking considerable advantage of the improving weather and arrived in the late afternoon. Meaning our second dive would be a night dive. While kitting up I realised that I'd forgotten my thermal leggings - this was going to be cold.

Dive one was a plop down to 30m to the gnome garden before working our way back up. In all honesty other than a lot of cod and nudibranchs in the shallows there wasn't much happening. As a result, I only took a few pictures (below).

By the time the second dive came about I 'd decided I wasn't taking my camera in. In fact, as the chaps will testify, I wasn't even that keen on putting myself back in. However, I bravely struggled on. Thankfully, I did.

The second dive (a night dive) was a far more life filled affair. (They always are aren't they?) The site lived up to its name with a fairly impressive large female dogfish, two conger eels including one, which I almost rammed head first, which was a good 30cm outside of its hole. It was behaving far more like a garden eel if you've ever seen one. Add to that a nice sunstar and a wee scorpionfish and I'd say it was a much better dive. Curse my poor camera decision making!! At some point, I'll maybe share K-Pep's photos as he took a camera in and got a cracking shot of the curious conger.

For those who are wondering, yes it was cold. 9c with half an undersuit isn't too much fun. Some would say I'm crazy.

Cod

Sea Squirts

Bloody Henry

Nudibranch

After dive one

Planning Is Everything, Plans Are Nothing - 06/11/2014

I think it was Eisenhower who once said "plans are nothing, planning is everything". It is a saying that has stuck with me for some time. Today was one of those days when it really came home to roost. The original had been for the Zookeeper and I to do a deep dive at Conger Alley, then a shallower fun dive with Clan Mcletchie (of the Frocktasia Blog notoriety) at Twin Piers. Well, personal circumstances scratched Clan Mcletchie off the plan, then weather warnings and torrential rain dampened our desire to do two dives.

In the end we still headed to Conger Alley, Loch Long to do our deep dive, but as we began our dive our plans were to change again as an ominous shadow passed through the furthest reaches of our torch beams. It seemed a large seal (possibly Beryl) was going to be buzzing us for the duration of the dive. 

Instead, our plans changed again. The deep dive went out the window and we were going to watch out for the seal as it used our torches to hunt. Of course, her presence meant there was little life to photograph.

The seal had a number of near passes including one through the legs of the Zookeeper. The video below is the only footage I managed to get. After a while she left us to enjoy the remainder of dive at which point some of the other life emerged including:

• Conger eels
• Lobster
• Edible crabs
• Wrasse

Turns out Eisenhower was right.

Edible Crab

Peek-a-boo Conger

Plumose Anemone

Wrasse

Hunt for Red October - 12/10/2014

Today's trip to the Caves, Loch Long was a tale of two dives with one setting up the fun for the other.

As member of my local ScotSAC I occasionally dive with my local branch. Today I was with two new buddies who I'll nickname the Hook and Starfish. Hook's an experienced seadog with over a thousand dives while Starfish is newly qualified youngster. In the dive my job was to swim at the back and help keep an on Starfish.

We kitted up and headed down. I was glad to see that someone had added to the rope that TDFKAMF and I set up couple of months ago. Although weathering and use has taken its toll. It probably needs retied. Anyway, as I've said before, the entry to the Caves is tricky and, with her parents looking on, Starfish coped admirably.

We plopped in, got settled and then dropped down to 10m before going all the way down to 27m+. Fortunately, the vis was good (6-8m). We made our way through the dive finding some nice anemones and ballan wrasse. Towards the end of the dive I noticed a massive lobster under a rock, but Hook and Starfish had already gone by so I thought I'd revisit it on out 2nd dive.

On the surface we chatted about the dive and I mentioned the Lobster. It was at this point Hook got his name as he produced his lobster hook. I commented about the size and Hook explained that if they are too big there not fit for consumption as the meat is too tough. On this dive the hook was merely for luring out the lobster and seeing just how bog it was - not for catching.

So began the Hunt for Red October - a lobster the size of a submarine!

We dived a pretty similar profile and on the return we began our search. Taking account the of the incoming tide, we adjusted  the depth that I spotted the monster. As I was using a 10l tank I was starting to run pretty low on air when I finally found it again. It was as big as I remembered. I took video footage of Hook trying to lure it out, but you don't get to be a lobster that big without being a bit cannie.

At the surface Hook confirmed that he was way to big for consumption, but we still have no idea just how big he actually is.

Deeplet anemone

Ascending

The view when surfacing

Conger eel

Bloody henry

Beadlet anemone

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