Deep Peace - 15/05/2017

It always amazes how on a perfect night how calming diving is. It takes on an almost spiritual quality when it all goes right especially as you go deeper. Tonight was one of those nights.

The Zookeeper, Jester, the Kingmaker and I had all headed over to Seal Reef . The weather forecast had been for rain and strong winds. We hadn't objected to the wind - wind keeps the midgies at bay - but the rain wasn't that appealling. However, the forecast had hinted at a possible window between 6pm and 8pm right when our activity at the site would be at it's peak and we hung onto this hope.

On site, it was dry, calm  and the loch (as it sometimes does) lay still like a millpond.  We kitted up and headed down. The visibility was excellent around 7-9m. 

As we bottomed out at 40m I felt the deep peace, before turning and heading back up 

Myself and the Zookeeper led us down to the bottom of the 2nd reef at 40m  before turning and heading up into the crater to the old rope and the magnificent firework anemone that sits there. Then came the nudibranchs, Flabellinas, Limacia clavigera and sea lemons and in the shallows a beautiful corkwing wrasse hung around, nervously protecting its eggs.

We surfaced all agreeing that it was one of, if not the best dive of the year in Scotland. We dekitted and drove home. Then the rain started. We all won at life, which was funny as much of our predive chat focused on who would win a fight between the Zookeeper and the Kingmaker. All but the (even doubtful) Kingmaker reckoned the Zookeeper would ease it in three rounds.

Bloody Henry

Langoustine

Sea Cucumber

Firework Anemone

Yarrell's Blenny

Limacia Clavigera

Cushion Star

Sea Lemon

Corkwing Wrasse

The Five Dive Weekend Part 2 - 15/06/2014

With three dives bagged the day before, today was to be a more sedate affair. Two dives with Mr Fallsoveralot (name change coming soon as he didn't fall once - yet again). Previously, he had expressed a desire to try out Drishaig Reef, Loch Fyne and as I hadn't dived Loch Long in a few weeks I fancied one there.

With my tanks filled at Aquatron, we headed up later in the morning. When we arrived at Drishaig there was a car there already. Our initial thought was that there must be other divers there but we soon learnt that they were fishermen. I went down and chatted and explained that he was wasting his time as there were hardly any fish in this bit of the loch, and told him of my dive plan so that I wouldn't get snagged in his line. He was really nice and really thankful for the information on the underwater terrain. When we got out the water he was gone.

We followed the same dive plan I've done the last few times at this site. Dive down to 30m turn right and swim to the right until you find the firework anemones and then slowly work your way up and back. It worked a treat. Grant was delighted to see, and photograph, the anemones. My own camera wasn't doing so well, as I'd cased it up in quite a humid environment and as I dived it condensed on the inside. Few pics were taken.

Once done we dekitted and headed for the Caves, Loch Long, but on arrival all the spaces were full with fishermen. So we headed round to the A-Frames. Rumours of poor visibility over the last few weeks had obviously discouraged people, as the place was empty.

We kitted up and headed in, attracting a lot of attention from Sunday drivers who were all keen to know what we were diving for. "Fun" was typically my answer.

The visibility was great around 5m, loads of great life and plenty of fish. Cuckoo Wrasse, Corkwing Wrasse, Cod, etc. Navigating from frame to frame was easy. We had a rare tear.

Though we surfaced quite far from the entry/exit point as my compass was literally spinning all over the place towards the end. Thus ended (from a diving perspective anyway) the Five Dive Weekend.

Mr Fallsoveralot

Celtic Feather Star

I loved this wee guy. See the video below.

Mr Fallsoveralot

Coiled Firework at Drishaig

From Wrasse-ia with Love - 17/04/2014

Frewbowski, The Zookeeper & The Announcer

Andrea, Laura and myself went to Furness to dive Dogfish Reef, Loch Fyne. Laura (henceforth known as the Zookeeper) hadn't dived the site in years and Andrea (to be known as the Announcer) had never dived here.As for me, I haven't dived there since March 2013 when I set my depth record of 32.8m while doing my PADI Deep Diver Speciality. It was the last bit of PADI training I did.

Tonight was to be a more sedate affair with our plan to go down to around 20m. We had agreed, however, that should we something deeper, but within our depth limits, we'd go down to investigate. :)

Before going in Laura was up to some photographic high jinks. Naturally, I was happy to participate.

The Zookeeper, The Announcer & Frewbowski

We began the dive at low tide which meant a troublesome stagger over the rocky entry. Once everyone had safely entered, we dropped down to 22m. As we swam along I noticed an outline out the corner of my eye. It was slightly gnome-ish. Signalling to the others I dropped down to discover the legendary Dogfish Reef Gnome Garden. Now gnomes divide divers. I quite like them as long as they tastefully placed. This particular 'garden' is a bit haphazard for my tastes, but not everyone has my artistic eye for detail.

Once we'd all taken some snaps we headed off back up the rocky reef to search for sea life. First up was a nice common sunstar, but then the fish started appearing. Schools of pollock, corkwing wrase, ballan wrasse, goldsinny, leopard gobies. In fact, it was the most fish diverse dive I've had in Scottish waters. If it weren't so green and cold in the water I'd have thought I was somewhere tropical.

We maxed out at around 26.5m and had a very pleasant 40+ minutes.

Shrimp

Spiny star

Goldsinny

The Announcer and The Zookeeper

Zookeeper

Announcer

Sunstar

Big creepy gnome

Little gnomes

Plans Are Nothing, Planning Is Everything - 27/02/2014

Buddy check

Kitting up

I'm sure it was Dwight Eisenhower who said that "plans are nothing, planning is everything". Well our plan had been to dive Craggen (or Fisherman's Point as it is also called) on Loch Long. The site, which none of us had ever dived, has a boulder reef from 20m down to 32m that we though was worth having a look at. We followed the map and instructions down to the entry point only to be thwarted by low tide. It would seem the site can only be dived at a state of high tide. Otherwise the entry would be difficult and the exit nigh on impossible. So with our dreams of exploration dashed we headed back to the A-Frames.

Laura & Oil Terminal

The kit up felt more like an episode of Oprah or Dr Phil, with some of the boys having a prolonged group therapy session - diving can be like that. Once kitted however, Laura & I double teamed Pat G to dive as a three and Fast Ed and Sergeant Chris teamed up.

Entering the water there seemed to be a current gently taking us up to ward the head of the loch, which was good as there was a huge oil tanker moored in the oppposite direction which underwater made a lot of noise.

Descending rapidly through the thermocline we headed north to the big frame, at 11m I started to feel a strong down current that continued throughout the dive making the return to the surface more work than I expected. At the frame we saw the usual bloom of peacock worms - they never fail to impress me.

Moving from frame to frame we had an excellent carry-on underwater, with me starting a kind of Charlotte's Web for seas urchins, with my new political slogan "Don't eat my gonads." Never a truer word has been spoken in jest.

By this stage we had lost Chris & Ed, but we were pretty sure they'd be OK - Chris had a compass and was trained to use it by the finest military corp in the world (Dad's Army)!

Further on I found a disgarded toilet which provided some comical photographic opportunities - you can tell really interesting sea life was at a premium tonight. :)

As we started fighting the current to make our ascent, we started to encounter some better life in the shallows. Including scorpion fish, colourful wrasse and flounders. Yet another decent dive hitting 21.3m for 41minutes, which given the cold (my computer logged 6c) was probably about 5 minutes too long.



Laura taking pictures

Scorpion Fish

Corkwing Wrasse

Stuff

Save our urchins!