Hull of Kintyre - 08/09/2018

I have friends who consider me a depth junkie. I'm really not, but some of the best dives require deep training and a fair bit of commitment. Some time ago when chatting in the pub I had mentioned that the wreck of the SS Kintyre was one of my dive highlights. The Barrman was enthused. He wanted to dive it there and then. Shiny also decided it was special enough to lure him in for a dive.

I promised to keep my eyes peeled for suitable dates. In the end we plumped for Saturday 8th September. High tide was 12.16pm. As such if we entered the water at around 11.15am  we'd nail the tides. The weather forecast looked promising. It all came together as it had once before for Jester and I the previous year.

I was buddying Shiny, the Barrman was with the Wylie Fox and we were joined by one half of Das McLetchies and his buddy John. 

Shiny is always slow at kitting up. I mean, painfully slow. Although, he'll point  out that it means that he has everything just right. And he did, but it meant that we were last in the water and at the back of the queue.

We never saw the rest of the divers disappear down the pipe. Instead, we made our own way down and onto the wreck. Both qualified beyond recreational limits, we headed for the stern and ended up recording 49m. It was a pretty relaxed affair, but made me realise the best bit of the wreck is 40m on the deck. On the way back up along the famous jobby pipe we met the other divers. I was asked if we'd been to the boat. I signalled the affirmative. The rest, it seems, hadn't found it. I never said much about it the dive - nobody wants to be "that guy".

Judge Dredger - 05/07/2018

When a relatively new company Wreckspeditions put up an offer to dive the Greenock Dredger on a warm sunny night, myself, the Wylie Fox and Jester thought it seemed like a decent idea. As a result, we gathered up a further 5 divers to fill the boat. My buddy for the evening was Jim. We were planning for 30minutes at 30m on a 32% mix. The weather, as forecast, was ideal, and we headed out full of optimism. 

As the last buddy pair to enter the water we were charged with making sure that the temporary shot line was free of any blockages. Once Jim and I hit the bottom there was already a fair amount of silt at the touchdown point, meaning I had a bit of a hassle moving the shot to a clear spot. My first attempt failed as in the gloom I didn't know I was dropping it into a second whole. Eventually, after a couple of minutes I felt I got it onto a spot that would be ideal. 

With that Jim and I headed off to the stern of the ship looking for the prop and rudder, before sheltering from the current up the port side to the bow. At that point Jim was getting uncomfortably* low on air. So we began our staged stops 7 minutes earlier than planned.

It was a weird dive, particularly gloomy, as most Clyde wrecks are, but recognisable as dredger with the old hoppers still lying on the deck.

* He still had plenty, 80bar and a full pony, but we didn't want to push anyone's comfort limits.

The SS Kintyre - 17/09/17

When the Wylie Fox asked me if I was interested in diving the SS Kintyre I was immediately keen for a number of reasons. 

1. I could make myself available
2. An experienced diver told me the tide conditions would be ideal
3. The weather forecast looked good
4. It was to be one day shy of the 110th anniversary of the sinking 

It all seemed right and I had wanted to do this dive for sometime and one of the reasons why I had wanted to get the twinset.

It's deep,at around 36m with a long swim out to it from the shore. In fact, by the time you get to it breathing air you are almost in deco. I had asked if it was OK if I brought Jester along for the ride - which Wylie Fox was cool with.

Jester and I as a buddy pair planned as follows:

• Stage 1 - Dive the sewage pipe, if we were both happy by the end of the sewage pipe we'd move to stage 2
• Stage 2 - Dive along the guide rope to the bow of the SS Kintyre, if we were both happy we'd continue to stage 3
• Stage 3 - Dive down to mid ships at around 40m before returning home

Neither of us had any camera equipment - it seemed silly to take it on a dive where people do get into trouble given neither of us had dived it before.

The pipe was pretty, encrusted with anemones and with life all around it, but we ignored it on the way down, along the rope was pretty, but we ignored that too until we got to the bow.

It was magnificent, some people say it's deteriorated considerably, but it is still proud and ghostly as it emerges from the gloom. When I got to it I reached out and touched it - admiring it for a moment. I looked round to see Jester offer me a handshake. He must've felt the same way.

We continued off down along the port side spotting nudibranchs and little schools of fish. I could of stayed there for longer ( I certainly had enough air in the end), but a plan is a plan and we turned heading back.

It's a long dive with plenty of deco. In fact, I felt that one of our companions (K-Pep)  had the right idea with a nice O2 rich 'travel gas' and air on the wreck. It certainly meant that he didn't have to hand about for 15m at 3-5m at the end.

All in all, it was a memorable success.

Done

Entry

Going in

Going down

It Flooded - 03/11/2016

OK, so not every diving experience is perfect. I think we can all agree on that. 

Tonight wasn't a great night. It started with a getting kitted up at St Catherine's in the dark, buddy check and descent down to around 8m. At which point Jester and I paused to take a picture of a cuttlefish. You can see my picture below. At that point I noticed some water inside my Sealife camera housing and my camera starting to misbehave.

I knew what was going on. I immediately went for the surface, left my camera on a rock and headed back in to continue the dive. We swept down by the bottom of the reef to around 31m and then back up the far side enjoying gurnards, nudibranchs, more cuttlefish and the resident cushion star. None of which were photographed by me. 

Instead I took up photobombing. Jester hates it. I love it. If you have a photography daft buddy here's how to do it.

1. Enter stealth mode - switch off torch 
2. Swim round buddy in the dark - they'll think you're still behind them 
3. Approach head on as they compose the photograph
4. Sit 1m from the target
5. Await strobe flash 
6. Boss it Zoolander style

We returned, I collected my camera and dekitted to confirm what I already knew. It had flooded, but not horrifically. 

I took it home, nursed it back to health, couldn't get the battery to retain charge. So I've ordered a new battery for £4 on ebay. 

The Last Cuttlefish Photo

Photobombing is fun

Beagles About - 18/09/2016

Beadle's About was a pretty crass TV show here in the UK during the eighties and nineties. Basically it's presenter would play stress inducing pranks on the public before coming in disguised to remove the tension and allowing hilarity to ensue. Today, our adventures on K-Peps RHIB were pretty similar for me. 

Jester and I had agreed to meet K-Pep for a dive out of Largs on his boat. Once we were there we decided on one of the Clyde's most famous wrecks - The Beagle.

The Beagle collided with another boat in 1865 only a year after her launch. Much of the structure has rotted away over the years, but you can definitely still make out the structure of the boat with most of the hull still intact. She lies upright in about 32m.

The day started well with a smooth ride across the channel to Great Cumbrae , but as we neared the wreck site the swell picked up. As Jester and I kitted up  a couple of Minke whales passed by the port side of the RHIB. It was surely a good sign, but when the handle on my tank broke any good feelings I'd picked up vanished - I was nervous.

I won't lie, whenever I do a new site I get a nervous tingle - it's part of the reason why I do it - but I'm also fairly confident that I don't like small boats, a swell and descents down a rope to nowhere. It's probably my trinity of bad conditions. As such, both Jester and I opted to leave the cameras on the boat. 

Then just as I was about to roll in, K-Pep said something. Something that inspired confidence and caused my nerves to dissipate. Here's what he said, "You'll come back laughing." I've been here loads of times and every time it has been true, I have come back laughing.

At that, I went to the line and dropped. I found myself at 20m before I realised Jester was 5m behind me and struggling to equalise. I waited a moment and then he was there. Down we went and we were on it. A wreck that has quietly sat here for 150 years waiting for me. It was recognisable as a boat. The hull was intact, the stern clearly visible. The point where the Napoli had pierced her hull could still be seen. The only difference was that today it was crawling with sea life:

• nudibranchs
• cod
• anemones
• cup corals

I wished for a moment I had my camera, then I remembered how I'd felt on the surface. 

We pottered about for 20 minutes before the spectre of deco began chasing us back up the line. As we did deep stops and safety stops we messed about chuckling to ourselves. Then, just like that, we were back on the RHIB laughing - just as K-Pep had said.

With the weather worsening and Stugeron not taking full effect on one of our party we headed back to the marina with a win tucked safely into our log books.

Afterwards we went into Nardini's and had an ice cream. When in Largs...

The size of his head

Nardini's

Penetrating the Lady Isabella Barque (2) - 08/05/2016

Now, you may recall in my previous post I explained how Jester and I were now cocky, experienced Scottish RHIB divers, well my cockiness was quite misplaced. As I prepared myself to meet the Lady Isabella Barque I rolled or, perhaps, slipped backwards into the water on what was one of the worst boat roll entries ever made. Even as I sank, I heard the gentle ribbing of K-Pep ringing in my ears.

Lady Isabella Barque was once a graceful sailed barque carrying a load of nickel ore, now she lies in the shallow waters off the southern tip of Little Cumbrae, I wasn't expecting much (I think K-Pep intentionally talked her down) but she was rather beautiful. As Jester and I moved round over her seaweed heaving ribs, we spotted sunstars, three varieties of nudibranchs, ballan wrasse and edible crabs. 

Nearing the end of the dive we finally found the remains of her narrow holds and, being a gentleman, I gently penetrated, popping my head in to have a look. There was little to see though.

After we had all dived her, we spoke of how much we'd all enjoyed the dive. The calm waters, on a point that is often exposed, made for a great second dive. As wrecks go she's incredibly shallow sloping from two to fifteen metres. Jester rated her in his top five dives. K-Pep, who'd last dived her 15 years ago, was also highly complimentary. It seems, that despite lying on the seabed for more than 100 years, the Lady Isabella still has her charms.

The blast home was a much more choppy affair and I regretted, my decision to partially remove my drysuit instantly as the spray soaked my face and shoulders. As compensation Mother Nature threw one last curve ball - a lone porpoise.

And with that, we returned to base.

Lady Isabella

Lady Isabella 

Candy striped flatworm

Nudibranch

Sunstar

Lady Isabella 

Lady Isabella

Candy striped flatworm

Penetrating the Lady Isabella Barque (1) - 08/05/2016

Trail Island at Little Cumbrae

With the offer of joining K-Pep on his RHIB for the day and an almost perfect weather forecast, Jester and I headed down to Largs for a couple of  RHIB dives. Now, I've dived of a RHIB before, but never in Scotland and never in my drysuit - neither had Jester. Add to that that I'm no great fan of boats having suffered from seasickness many times and I am therefore not shamed to say that I was a little nervous.

As we blasted out from Largs to the island of Little Cumbrae I could see the Hunterston Bubble, something which had been on my Scottish to do list for some time. The bubble is caused by super heated sea water being pumped out from the nearby nuclear power station and has peaked my interest since I first saw it on Google maps when they began publishing satellite images.   

Honesty in diving is always the best policy, and K-Pep took us to Trail Island for a scenic, pick-your-own-depth, easy  wall dive. Once kitted up and in the water I felt my usual diving mojo flooding back. As we started down the tiered Inca like terracing we saw a lot of our usual favourites, but in huge quantities:

• Devonshire cup corals
• nudibranchs
• cushion stars
• a cuckoo wrasse hiding (hiding because Jester had chased it into a hole)

It was great. We surfaced as cocky, experienced, Scottish RHIB divers. While we chatted and watched a seal, K-Pep enjoyed some sub-aqua quiet time before we headed to for our rendezvous with the Lady Isabella Barque.

Cushion star

Sea Squirts

A very bloody henry

Nudibranch

Nudibranch