Return to Capernwray - 14/04/2019

I always chuckle when I go to Capernwray. To me it's just a big swimming pool - ideal for training and an occasional fun day. However, you can always hear people telling bold, daring tales of when they were down to 60 bar and still at the wreck of the Podsnap as though being 15m deep and 50m from shore in confined water is some kind of hair-raising experience. 

Myself and Chairman G had taken a few newish divers from the club to do a little training and also to help some get their numbers up.

First up I took the two least experienced divers in for a wee saunter around the shallow attractions at 8m after teaching some very basic reg skills. The dive was more of a test to check out one of the divers air consumption before taking him a little deeper to the aeroplane on the second dive.

It was dive two where I first saw the sign of nerves. I had Chairman G teach stride entries, then I demo'd it - as an instructor you always have to be in the water first. We sank down, but  I could tell psychology of being deeper was stressing out the least experienced of my trainees so I took him back up and out the water safely. He seemed to love it though.  Asking afterwards about the scariest dives I've ever done - this wasn't one of them.

The Devil

The Devil

Farne Way - 14/09/2017

It’s been a few years since I last dived at the Farnes. Sometimes you forget what it’s like. I mean, you remember the visuals, average diving, seals, the village of Seahouses, but I always forget just how playful and fun loving young seal are.

I was taking young Sarah in for her first taste of seal action. I explained the rule was to always let them come to you.

We did. They came, they posed for photos, they nibbled our fins, they tried to bite our fingers, they played with us. I think 

It genuinely has to be Farne away one of the best places on earth to dive with marine mammals.

The Return of Fast Ed - 09/10/2016

Chuck Norris

With my chest infection all but cleared up, I took the opportunity to join the Something For The Weekend Group down to Capernwray. As always they had an absurdly early start. I mean we met at Fast Ed's new gaff at 6.15am. It is a well documented fact that I don't like early starts. Even in Starbucks I don't have the energy to say my real name. I chose Chuck. Fast Ed chose Norris for the win.

With that, our little band (Captain Al, Fast Ed, Jester and The Jackal - so named because is an international man of mystery) headed south.

The weather was fair and with Captain Al and The Jackal test driving new things myself, Fast Ed and Jester teamed up as a buddy three.

The dive, Fast Ed's first Capernwray, took us from the plane to the Podsnap, to the pig gnomes, to Helo 2 and up to famous Devil and other shallow attractions. In all honesty, I found it pretty dull. Even the new addition of albino sturgeon couldn't save the day. However, it was good to visit my Ninja Gnome, who after a while is starting to wear.

After lunch while kitting up Jester ripped his drysuit cuff. Being noble and the site slightly dull I kept him company on the surface while the others went in for another potter about.

Ninja Gnome

Pig Gnome

Albino Sturgeon

Devil

Fast Ed

There's No Place Like Gnome - 17/07/2015

It's a lesser known fact that a small, decorated gnome has sat in the corner of my kitchen for over a year. It seemed wrong. As all divers know, gnomes deserved to be with their own kind. So when Captain Al suggested a trip to Capernwray I reckoned my gnome would like the permanent spot with the pig gnomes.

Unusually, Gill.I.Am was keen to go too adding to an assembled cast that also included Jester.

Our plan was to go down, get to the pig gnomes plant the gnome and head back. It was simple. We headed out passing the plane, helo 1, the podsnap and ou to the gnomes, It was nice to see the Mermaid's trophy still there from the last Scottish invasion. After the gnomes we split up. Gill and I headed to Helo 2, the Candida and up into the shallows. Captain Al and Jester headed off onto the abyss. Although, we emerged from the water at almost exactly the same moment.

A wee lunch and a second dip later and we were heading up the road. The weather had held.

Following Al

The gnome

The gnome's new home

Fish

The Border Raid (2) - 30/05/2015

With a BBQ chicken burger safely stored in my belly,we al headed for dive two. IT began rather strangely with an underwater stramash - an attempt to take a group photo. Eventually, Jester and I headed down in search of the pig gnomes.

Now, I have attempted to fin to these before with a small 10l tank using the direct midwater approach. Needless to say, on that occassion I failed. Today was different. I was using a convaluted route, but it meant that I had way-markers.

The route was - plane, podsnap, cannon, pig gnomes. It was fool proof!

As we hit the back wall of the quarry we intentionally turned the wrong way to ensure we hadn't overshot them to the left. We hadn't. We turned back and began swimming watching as out air slowly dwindled.

Then, they appeared. They were impressive. Giant dancing pigs and gnomes, lot's of gnomes. We hung around for a wee bit before beginning a journey back that took us by the Candida, the Helo2 before moving up onto the shallow plateau.

We made it back safely, only to find out that we were the only ones willing to squeeze in a third dive. We said goodbye after a snack and headed back in. This time it was a short dive to the Cessna where we were joined by some freedivers. They never came close enough for us to play some fin grabbing tricks on them.... the only downside of the day.

Dancing Pig

Dancing Pig

Pride of place

Gnoming

Jester pig groping

Swimming

Cessna

Bowsprit

The Border Raid (1) - 30/05/2015

Today a large group of 11 charged across the Scots-English border to make a Scuba raid at Caperwray Quarry. I've dived here a few times over the years, but Jester, my buddy for the day has not. On that basis it was quite fun to take the lead and go round some familiar and previously unseen attractions.

The crew consisted of The Mermaid, Captn Al, Das Von Winklehoffs, the Thomson Twins, the Mexican, BT and Dave Lee Arbuckle.

Jester and I had decided to adopt a three dive strategy, while the rest ultimately plumped for two. The Mermaid was also planting something at the infamous pig gnomes - an area of the quarry I'd never seen before. 

Kitting up it was decided that the Von Winkelhoffs would come with Jester and I. The first dive saw us swim through the plane, before exploring the Podsnap and some of the shallower attractions towards the end. One half of the Von Winkelhoffs seemed to be having a few equalisation issues. So progress, especially at the start was slow.

The plane itself was like a busy traffic junction with various groups defying the great British convention of queuing for their swm throughs.

A couple twists and turns later we were back at the entry. Jester and I both had over 100bar, so we lift the Von Winkelhoffs to make a safe exit while we went on and sought out the Devil, Lord Lucan and Shergar for Jesters initial induction.

After the dive we came out chatted with the other groups and hit the cafe for some snackage.

However, it was dive two, that brought us to the pig gnomes and the Mermaid's deposit.....TBC

Hoss

Sturgeon

Devil

Carol

Feeding The Beast - 15/10/2014

After an evening that any gourmand would jump at L'Enclume, Cartmel the night before, Gill.I.Am and myself became providers when we hopped over the M6 to Capernwray Quarry for a post breakfast dive. 

Regular readers will know I've been here before, but prior to today I had never fed the beasts, and by beasts I'm referring to the large sturgeon, trout and perch that like to familiarise themselves with divers.

We kitted up, buddy checked and in the shallows Gill videoed me feeding the fish (it costs £1 in the shop for a small bag). It was fun, but not quite as dramatic as I hoped. 

We then headed down to the Gypsy Moth plane where Gill did her first ever swim through. Thereafter that we just swam about from attraction to attraction. 

It's quite fun, but not really much to write about. :) I'll let my wee video do the talking.

Podsnap wreck

Perch

Gill

The Poseidon's Parlour Seal of Approval - 26/09/2014

Yesterday I meandered down to the Farne Islands, England with Ace Divers. A few chums had been booked on the trip for quite sometime, but I heldoff until I saw the weather report. It's a risky approach in terms of availability, but I've never  regretted not being there when the weather is poor.

My buddy for the day was the Zookeeper, with the occassional appearance from Alky-Fras who was solo diving but hanging around us every so often.

If any of you have never been there before the Farne Islands are group of islands of the North East coast of England. In diving terms they are notable for two things:

• a selection of over 40 shipwrecks
• a colony of over 6,000 grey seals

Our diving for the day was focused on the seals.

I've dived here before on a couple of occassions and it was that I first met the Zookeeper last year. So I was pretty familiar with what was going to happen. :)  Due to tides, we dived the same spot twice but had quite different experiences.

The first dive averaged about 6m and it took us about 15 mintes before we had our first close encounter, but when it happened it happened in the usual style - fin nibbling. I was busy filming one nibbling the Zookeeper when I felt a tug on my own. I looked round to see two, one on each fin, like a pair of comedy seal skin slippers.

From then on in it was seal interaction gold. I was diving a 15l tank (thanks Campbell) so even after an hour underwater I still had 150 bar left!

After lunch and a cup of tea I was  ready for a more scenic dive, but most of the people wanted more seals - can you ever have enough?

The tide was in so the dive site had changed somewhat. Most people hung around the main seal entry exit point, but we went off on a wee adventure. We found some nice stuff too:

• an octopus
• a bloody henry or two
• millions of nudibranchs
• more seals
• loads of common lobsters
• squaties etc

Ahter my experimentation with macros last week I started trying to photograph the nudibranchs. As I did I felt a mouth round my head. Sadly, the Zookeepers camera battery had died, but it seems I was wearing a seal like a top hat. We stayed down for 58 minutes.

Nobody on the boat was seasick largely thanks to Stugeron.

The Zookeeper is excited

Scorpiofish 

Nudibranch

This One Goes to 11 - 24/09/2014

For those of you who have never seen Spinal Tap there is a glorious moment when rock legend Nigel Tufnel explains how his amp goes to eleven. It is an amazing scene. Well this week I'm going to take it to 15. 15l that is. 

As I'm boat diving at the Farne Islands, I thought I'd try out out a bigger tank. So I'm borrowing one of Campbell's. I'll let you know how I get on. In the meantime, enjoy the scene!

Capernwray Capers - 28/06/2014

Kitting up

Today was my first diving foray outside Scotland this year. The venue was Capernwray Quarry in Lancashire, England. Capernwray is, in essence, a training site. However, it can be fun and frustrating in equal measure for the more experienced diver. I haven't visited in about two years. 

Joining me for todays capers were Captain Al, Merry L and the Vice President. Merry L doubled as my chaufeur and dive buddy for the day as we embarked on discovering all the underwater attractions.

Dive one took us down to one of the more interesting features - the plane. After a quick swim round we all took a turn swimming throught the plane before heading of to the Podsnap, the oil rig, the sump and a few other boats. Below, Merry L can be seen swimming though.

After a tasty BBQ Chicken Burger in the centre cafe Dive 2 was to take us to the Diving Bell. However, en route we got split up and while Captain Al and the Vice President went on to enjoy a gnome-tastic dive, Merry L and I headed on to the more comical exhibits - Lord Lucan, Shergar, the Devil, Thunderbird 4 and a few wee boats. 

After some more snacks Merry L and I decided to do a third dive, while Captain Al and the VP opted to call it a day. Our 'quarry' on this occasion was to be the legendary Holy Grail of Capernwray, the mysterious Pig Gnomes. We found them. I never photographed them. Nor shall I reveal what we found, in case someone else wishes to seek them out for themself. However, it's safe to some will love them and others will hate them.

Towards the end of the dive I successfully snatched defeat from the jaws of victory with some dodgy compass readings. I surfaced with 70 bar to find myself at the wrong side of the quarry. Cue long surface swim back.

Great fun, great company and another three dives in the log book.

Fast Ed couldn't be there today, but I think there's a likeness.

Merry L riding Shergar

Shergar

Merry L working off the toastie

Perch

The VP swims through

Preparing to land

Swim round