Switch Around - 12/08/2018

It’s not everyday when I turn up at a dive site and lend my entir kit to a buddy while I used his. 

We were heading to Anchor Point to help Alex get a little more twinset experience and also enjoy what seemed like my first night dive of the season.

We headed down to 22m spotting a very pleasant little nudibranch before bumping into a dogfish.  Both of us were a little of balance. It’s funny how when using a different BCD you sometimes need to change the angle of dumping air etc..

We came out the water in darkness.

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

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

Midletters From America - 06/03/2017

Last Friday was the annual safety lecture at my ScotSAC dive club. At the meeting I was asked by one diver if I had ever dived the Strachur War Memorial. My answer was no, but it got me thinking, why haven't I dived this site?

So last night as Jester and I met up at Costa I asked him if he fancied a new dive site. He shrugged in his usual noncommittal way. So I asked again, this time showing him the Midletters dive guide on Finstrokes. He was up for it.

We arrived at the site on a splendid evening and began kitting up. Our presence attracted the attention of a local who was made more curious by the fact that we were about to dive in the dark. We chatted - he was pleasant old fellow - and then he headed in to sit by the fire thinking us to be a little crazy.

Our dive plan was simple head straight down to 30m and then zig-zag back up.

We headed in. It was a long shallow decent  that without a compass could prove to be a little disorientating to a new diver or, indeed, someone with exactly 367 dives under his belt. On the way down I saw a few firsts (it's unusual these days in Loch Fyne).

• gutter worms
• razor clams
• Loligo Vulgaris - European Squid

I couldn't get Jester's attention to photograph them largely because he was busy with a very compliant (almost to the point I thought it might be dead) cat shark.

After 29 minutes of pretty much constant finning we reached a depth of 18m. I realised the dive plan was out the window so we turned and headed back. Not because I feared a shortage of air, but because I knew the cold would start to get the better of me on the way back if we continued down much longer.

As we swam back, the featureless bottom meant that navigation without a compass was difficult, but as long as the depth gauge kept falling I knew we were going in the 'correct' direction. As we approached our safety stop at 5m we both noticed that the shore was much steeper than where we entered the water. This meant that we were somewhat off course.

We surfaced facing a caravan that neither of us recognised. We scanned in the dark for the reflective surface of the speed signs we were parked next to and knew we had surfaced halfway to America or about 100m from the entry. Ooops.

With limited life I wouldn't hurry back, but for newbies who can work a compass it's a pretty easy, shallow dive. The surface part of the sight is quite pleasant too. Did I mention......dive with a compass.

Loligo Vulgaris - European Squid by Jester

Colin The Conger - 11/07/2015

In diving, legend abounds. Saturday at the A-Frames saw a new legend born. Myself, Jester, Captain Al, The Wylie Fox and Sony. Had all decided to have a quick dip followed by "beer and medals" - whatever that means, given Scotland's strict dink drive laws and the complete absence of medals.

Jester and I knew exactly we wanted to do. Regular readers will recall that we spotted some beautiful anemones at a less visited part of the site that we wanted go back and photograph. This was our first chance to do so. the Wylie Fox had decided that she wanted to bumble along behind us, leaving Captain Al and Sony to do their own thing.

Our dive was nice enough. We found the anemones but they were closed over having probably been disturbed by an errant seal or diver. So we bumbled on spotting a nice scorpionfish and some dragonets. It was a nice wee dive.

We came back to the surface after about an hour to find Captain Al animatedly talking about their encounter with Colin the Conger. Well, with no real interest in doing a second dive initially. I quite fancied a wee trip back down to feed Colin. So Al led myself and Sony back in for the second dive. 

As it turned out, he was entirely unable to find Colin again on the second dive. However, Colin found me later that evening......on Facebook. It seems a legend has been born.

Sea Scorpion

Dragonet

Catshark

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

Raining Catsharks and Dogfish - 14/08/2014

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 

This evening the Zookeeper and I were both feeling the spirit of exploration. We packed everything into HMS Buffy and sailed like modern day Columbus' or Magellans to the nearest dive site we've never dived. The site was St Catherine's Reef, also known as the Council Yard.

I believe it is typically used as a training site and the Finstrokes guide was a bit vague on instructions and I think some of the comments relate to nearby Seal Reef (St Catherines 2). We therefore decided to park in the lay-by as the yard itself is now permanently locked. You can see the edge of HMS Buffy on the right of the photograph above.

We kitted up, buddy checked and headed in at the shore just down from the car. The initial past of the dive was very shallow, sandy and very red (quite Martian really), then we dipped below a halocline and, although dark, the visibility was decent at around 8m.

Just as I was starting to think that I'd been duped into diving a sand seabed, we stumbled into the first of our 'shark' encounters of the day. In total, I think we had four - or one 'shark' just playing games with us. Then came the reef.

It seems to me that looking from above with the shore at the top of the picture, the reef is a y-shape with a longish tail extending out to the left. We clearly missed the main part of the reef and stumbled onto the reef at around 14m . Some exploration of the tail found some lobster creels filled with small crab reprobates and juvenile offender cod. The lobsters were ubiquitous by their absence. To me it seems lobster creels are the Victorian prisons of the seabed - overcrowded, without compassion and indiscriminate.

We then followed the tail back to the main reef, dipping down to 20m and working our way back up. We saw the usual Loch Fyne life and had a bit of fun en route. 

We agreed that this would make a pleasant night dive with its easy access, large reef and nearby street lights. We are resolved to go back sans soleil.

Pre-dive beach surfing

Catshark snout by Laura

Measuring Catsharks by Laura

Catshark

The crab Barlinnie

  

Facesucker

Catshark

Lobster creel

Spider crab with sea squirt crown

Pipefish

Anniversary Plunge - 26/07/2014

Today Gill and I have been married for 13 years. To celebrate I woke Gill up at 7.00am, packed the dive kit in the car and sped up to the A-Frames, Loch Long for a quick dive before heading back to Glasgow to enjoy the Commonwealth festivities and a farewell lunch for a friend -  I know, I'm an incurable romantic. :/

The site was already busy when we arrived as a result of the presence of Deep Blue, an east coast based school. Fortunately, as they were all students we kitted up quickly and entered the water before they could get in to ruin the vis (which as luck would have it was good). 

Gill had been wanting to go a bit deeper than she normally goes, so our plan was to go down to around 25m hang about for a bit and then come back.

The dive started well with a large dogfish in the shallows, before we headed down  to 25m in 6-8m vis. To be honest I've only visited the deeper frame once or twice, but Gill had never been there so it was a novelty for her.

The whole dive I was using Gill's reg set. Her mouth piece is uncomfortable and her SPG leaked air constantly. I'll b glad to get my Mares Abyss Navy back.

Gill swimming round the big frame

Angry crustaceans

Bloody Henry

An Unexpected Journey Part 2 - 08/05/2014

I'm assuming you read Part 1, so I'll just continue with the narrative....

We came ashore high as kites because, regardless of what people think, we had just enjoyed an excellent little adventure. With Fast Ed set to continue our adventure, we prepared to dive the regular St Catherine's dive site. We entered the water determined to find some Conger Eels.

Dropping down to around 20m we stumbled across a lovely red cushion star before finding a large but shy conger eel. However, the dive highlight for the Zookeeper and Fast Ed was a spooked catshark that swam straight at my face. Naturally, I jumped. Even underwater I could hear Ed and Laura laughing. I felt like Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss' character from Jaws) when he finds the remains on the Orca.

Matt Hooper - The reason why most of us dive

Then came the edible crabs. A couple of them roaming freely over the reef. I've never seen that before. The carry-on continued as Ed unleashed his true inner self as he wrapped a length of seaweed round his neck like a Eurovision-esque feather boa - it seemed appropriate.

Edible crab

Jaws

Comb Jelly

Cushion star

Conger eel

Cushion star

An Unexpected Journey Part 1 - 08/05/2014

As regular readers will know, on a previous outing Laura and I scouted out the access to the lesser dived part of St Catherines, Loch Fyne. However, St Catherine's 3 - Bottle Bank is also a much contested site between divers and local residents who rightly have concerns about a minority of divers who persist with antisocial behaviour.

Laura and I had planned to dive the site, but chance comments by Martin and Ben in Aquatron made us wonder if we could keep all camps happy by diving the length of the shore between St Catherine's 2 & 3.St Catherine's 2 being the less contested site that features regularly on this blog.

Our new plan was to build up kit at St Cats 2, drive along the lane to the St Cats 3 entry, I'd drive back to St Cats 2 before walking the 500m back to the kit and Laura. We would then enter the water, dive the reef before heading as far along the shore as our air would safely allow. Still following?

Specifically, we were going in diving to 20m heading NE to the reef, working our way up the reef to 10m, where we would leave the reef and head NE to our distant exit point. At 80 bar we'd start to ascend to 5m and at 40 bar we'd surface.

Our Plan

The plan was set and it appeared as though it had appeased Poseidon himself as a pod of porpoise and a seal frolicked offshore and the tide flowed in our favour.

As we dived we encountered catshark after catshark - I mean loads of them. The dive came alive in a fun way when Laura who was feeling a bit floaty in her new undersuit grabbed what has now become known as her "Gandalf stick". Feeling a bit left out I too grabbed a piece of driftwood and continued our Unexpected Journey.

We almost made it too. We came up about 50m short of the target only to see Fast Ed cruising the lane in his car looking for us or perhaps something more sinister - you never can tell with that boy. We signalled with torches and we chatted from afar as the tide gently swept us to our destination. 

Butterfish

The Gandalf Stick

Catshark

Nudibranch

The distance travelled

Fyne & Dandy - 16/04/2014

Laura gets the BBQ burning

As you'll know from my previous post my last dive attempt was aborted. Today I headed back to St Catherine's, Loch Fyne for a couple of evening dives. I was accompanied by Mr Fallsoveralot and Gillian on dive one and Grant and Laura on dive two.

Dive one began with a slow descent down to 10m, but Gill was having real trouble equalising so after about 10 minutes she aborted and returned to shore. Once I saw she was safely out of the water Grant and I headed back down, this time a bit deeper.

Visibility was excellent and as we worked our way around the reef I spotted a large Long Spined Sea Scorpion. Undoubtedly the star of the dive, it hung around for quite a while.

Back on the surface I turned to see that Laura had arrived and that the BBQ was smouldering. However, the BBQ was to be the focus of our activities. Thankfully, Laura showed impressive pyro skills and got it going in the drizzle. I then did the manly meat cooking and we had an impressive selection of sausages and burgers.

Dive 2 was to follow the same route as dive one but gave us a different selection of sea life. Including a large sepiola atlantica (cuttlefish) and one of the biggest dogfish I've ever seen (80-90cms). As Grant said, "I;m classing that as a shark dive." He even had a chance to touch it. It was very docile.

On either dive, however, there was no sign of the eel that we'd encountered last week.

Dogfish (Catshark)

Sea Scorpion

Sea Scorpion

Cuttlefish

Grant