Once More With Feeling - 02/09/2018

The end of summer is definitely approaching. The sea may  stay warmer for a few weeks and then starts to cool for winter. With that and mind, myself and Jester headed to St Abbs to dive the Glanmire before doing a shallow dive at Skelly's Hole. 

As usual we were diving with Pathfinder. We were diving to plans on the first dive and as a buddy three. We dropped down in great conditions and went in search of the props. On previous vists, the visibility has made navigating the wreck a little more challenging, but today in around 8m the wreck made a lot more sense to me. It was nice to see it more fully too. Definitely worth the last minute decision to go.

We bimbled around for about 34 minutes, going a little deeper than we had originally planned and headed up doing our deco stops on the deeper plan. Simple. 

After a quick surface interval we headed to Skelly's Hole for a few swim-throughs and out over the gullies. We buzzed about for a bit before surfacing and congratulating ourselves on a very decent days diving.

Prop

Anemone

Lobster

Bloody Henry

Anemone

Werewolf Fish - 26/05/2018

I've done St Abb's already this year, but this time myself and the Wylie Fox were warming up for Scapa Flow in June so we turned our attention to the Glanmire and it's square profile.

Regular readers will know I've done it before in the Rope to Nowhere and Return to the Glanmire. In each case I never exactly covered myself in diving glory. Today I knew it would be different. Firstly, I was pretty dived up and secondly I had learned lessons.

I was right, Wylie Fox and I descended the shot line and dived the wreck and surfaced doing our 10 minutes of decompression on the way up. The dive was quite unremarkable apart from a pleasant snakelocks anemone. That was exactly the sort of experience we both wanted for our Scapa preparations. 

It was the second dive that was to be the standout however. A shallow dive (14m) at Skelly's Hole. I swapped buddies so that I could do some compass work with Walker Texas Ranger. WTR was leading as part of his ScotSAC Sport Diver training. 

The site is pleasant with a series of narrow ravine's and gullies and at certain times of the year home to the Atlantic Wolffish and Lumpsuckers. I've seen a small lumpsucker once many years ago, but an adult has always elluded me and I had never seen a live wolffish.

As we cut our way through the ravines we first saw a large male lumpsucker. It was bigger than I'd expected and way more colourful. It would not have looked out of place in the tropics.

Then one of the other members of our group signalled he'd found something. I'm not sure he knew if it was a conger eel or a wolffish, but it was definitely the latter. 

I surfaced delighted.I can't wait to return at the end of June.

Lumpsucker

Wolffish

Lumpsucker

Dahlia Anemone

Flabellina Lineata

Dahlia Anemone

Snakelocks Anemone

Return to the Glanmire - 09/07/2017

When I last left the deck of the Glanmire amidst the disaster of the Rope to Nowhere I didn't expect that it would be more than two years until I'd make it back given its a two hour drive from the house. OK, I've dived in  Spain, California, Florida, Vietnam, Qatar and deeper wrecks in the Clyde and Egypt, but TWO YEARS?

I was definitely ready tackle my nemesis armed with 32% nitrox and a twinset when Captain Al arranged a boat for the day. 

My buddy was Jester who'd be diving it for the first time. I was confident. I mean, what could go wrong?  We buddy checked and jumped into the water. I casually swam for the rope and waited for Jester. It was then when I heard him say something about something loose.

I looked down and saw my finger spool slowly spinning down. I tried to grab it but and pull it up, but doing that was just slowly tangling me. I called for Jester to unleash his knife and cut it at the clip. The spool was only worth £9 - about the same as the nitrox in my tank and a fraction of the £35 for the days diving. 

It was cut and we were ready to descend, but it spooked me. "Perhaps the Glanmire is my wreck nemesis?" I thought as I descended the rope. This was never going to be a chain of thought that would help me control my breathing as I descended.

At the bottom, I lay briefly on the deck and waited for Jester and to calm my breathing rate. I did, but not before I'd wasted a lot of air. We swam round the deck and about halfway through I watched as Jester started following another twinset wearer. Did he think that was me? I signalled him and realised we had been joined by another diver for the remainder of the dive.

It was just as well too, as sans reel I had no way of putting up the SMB when we failed to find the rope back up and JEster is always notoriously reluctant to offer his!! As we decided to go up I realised we had picked up the Wylie Fox who promptly, and expertly deployed her SMB. Up we went slowly stopping a little longer to cover her deco stop.

Back on the deck of the boat I laughed, it was my nemesis, but I'd won this time. 

A lengthy surface interval later and we were back out the boat diving the shallow Cathedral Rock. It was easy but surprisingly light on really interesting life. Still, we had a good time, of the 9 of us who dived it we all came back out without significant incident.

Lobster

Wylie Fox on the line

Jester Safety Stopping

Sunstar

The Rope to Nowhere - 10/05/2015

Diving St Abbs area on Scotland's south east coast has been on the "to do " list for quite some time. Previous trips haven't suited my hectic schedule, but finally I was able to make it. We were to be diving the Glanmire followed by a shallow scenic dive departing by boat from Eyemouth.

Captain Al and I had had a pre-dive discussions about diving the Glanmire, which lies in 30m. It's a square profile dive which is well suited to a 32% Nitrox mix to extend your bottom time by around 5 minutes. We both plumped for that. Sadly, it meant I had to get one of my tanks O2 cleaned at Aquatron, my local dive shop at short notice, but they were very accommodating!

I won't lie, I was feeling a bit unwell even on the trip over. I took a variety of medications to soothe pending sea sickness, and I knew from previous experiences I'd be fine in the water and while the boat was moving.

Anyways, once on the boat we kitted up and prepared to go in. We dropped in last and went down the line. I felt like I was following a rope to nowhere, then at about 15-20m I started to see the wreck take shape. The current was strong on the line and I knew that if let go before hitting the deck we would be blown off - as happened to my chauffeur for the day Jim and his buddy. 

As we touched down, at 30.1m, amongst the ships boilers I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned round to see Captain Al in a maelstrom of bubbles. On the surface I'd later find out it was free flow. I offered my octopus, but he was well equipped with his pony and we started to ascend. Heading back up the line he seemed to temporarily fix the problem and suggested going back down, but to be honest. I've always erred on the side of caution and, despite his best intentions, I rejected the offer in exchange for both of us making it to the surface without any further problems.

So that was it, my visit to the Glanmire was fleeting. At the surface Captain Al apologised for 'ruining my dive', but in all honesty I think my dive would have been ruined by not making it back to the boat safely. That constitutes a successful dive in my view and, as a bonus, at least we saw the wreck. Moreover Jester had made me promise not break Captain Al prior to the trip. I like to think I held up my end of the bargain.

There were a number of people who while they made it back alive, didn't make it back safely and had to sit the second dive out as their computers had locked them out for failing to maintain safety stops, missing deco stops or some other misadventure. :)

After a brief vomit over the side of the boat I was feeling good for the second dive. For that we entered a small bay behind St Abb's Head and dropped into a fairly shallow 14m to the wreck of the Odense. You can read about through the link, but aside from some metal and a boiler there isn't much left. There are, however, some nice anemones, the odd wrasse, edible crabs and lobsters. Oh, and great volcanic rock formations.

A note to the Glanmire: I'll be back.

Odense

Odense

Dahlia Anemone

Dahlia Anemone

Rocks

Dahlia Anemone

Deeplet Anemone

Captain Al