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

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

End of the Night - 21/04/2016

With the Announcer requiring an early start and Jester working late (as always), the Zookeeper and I decided to dive twice with each of them at Conger Alley, Loch Long.

We kitted up and headed in, enjoying a dogfish and a few sea lemons as we pottered about. I'dforgotton half of my undersuit, but I really wasn't feeling the cold too much. We surfaced, switched tanks and, like a true wrestling tag team, the Announcer switched out for Jester who was waiting for us when we surfaced.

The second dive, was much the same, if a little deeper. With the exception of the reluctant appearance of a curled octopus. There were no Beryl related surprises to give Jester a scare.

However, the cold was starting to gnaw away at me. I was really feeling it. When I surfaced it was mostly dark, but there was enough ambient light to see the entry/exit. It was the end of the night diving season.

Catshark

Sea cucumber

Butterfish

Yarrell's Blenny

The 1st of Octopus - 01/10/2015

September ended with glorious weather, blood moons and lunar eclipses. October began no less spectacularly, from a scuba perspective. The Zookeeper and I headed to La Ruelle de Conger for a cheeky night dive. The skies were clear and the autumnal air was crisp. Ideal for diving in my opinion.

I was test driving my new Oceanic OCI in Scottish water for the first time and also a new Mares Eos 12RZ torch.

As we stood at the waters' edge looking out onto the moonlit darkness buddy checking, the Zookeeper asked the universe for a gift. Quite specifically, an octopus just hanging about in the open. We've seen one before here, twice, but its pretty uncommon and even more so to see them out in the open. However, one can ask!

We headed down, the Zookeeper didn't have her camera and I'd poorly fitted my Sealife  into the case so only three buttons were working. It wasn't going to be a photographic masterclass.

As we hit the reef at around 20m we spotted some of the usual life, dragonettes, the ubiquitous congers. Then as we swam over some rocks the Zookeepers torch went mental. I looked up and saw it. There, bold as brass, was a curled octopus sitting on top of a rock just chilling in the autumnal darkness,

As I mentioned previously my camera wasn't fully functioning. The problems I had were:

1. I couldn't switch off the flash
2. I couldn't change the focus settings
3. I could only switch from basic photography to video.

With this in mind I switched to video mode and began filming our little pal.

After the encounter we Hi-5'd before bobbing back slowly to the surface. We surfaced to discover the Milky Way glowing in the night sky and extraordinarily dense bioluminescence. We played in it for a few moments before declaring it the dive of the year thus far.

As for the kit, it all worked admirably. I love the variable beam of the Mares torch.