The Deep & The Disaster - 17/08/2016

At the dive club one of the members was saying he needed to get in a few dives below 30m to work towards his ScotSAC Master Diver award. Myself and Campbell volunteered to go with the Bearded Mountain Man of Cambuslang to help accomplish the task.

We met up at our usual spot and headed to Loch Fyne for some fun and games.on what was probably the last sunny day of summer.

We kitted up in the warm, relatively midgie free glow of the sun and headed into the water after a buddy check. I should point out that all of us were trying out or using new pieces of kit including the BMMC who was using a drysuit he had hired from Aquatron while his own Otter suit was away for repair. So we were acutely aware that we were only going deep if all of us felt comfortable. As it was, we did and we pottered down to 32m before turning and heading back. It was all uneventful and we even managed to spot a particularly nice cushion star.

Back at the surface the world had changed. Midgies were swarming to such an extent that we spent most of the interval in floating in the warm water away from our nemesis. The sun was setting and by the time we reentered the water to dive we were going to be night diving.

Again, checking everything was OK we headed in and down. As we approached 10m disaster struck. My own drysuit hose stuck on - which I quickly removed and replaced solving the problem - Campbells mask started giving him grief and I looked round to find BMMC floating to the surface, looking like the Michelin Man. I looked round at Campbell and we both signalled "up".

At the surface we found BMMC with a stuck on drysuit inflator valve - something he'd never experienced before.I took off the hose and it seemed it was the valve on the suit that was stuck, rather than the hose.

We called it and went home.

Cushion star

Bonfire(work anemones) - 02/06/2016

Sometimes life throws you a few curve balls, above and below the surface. Today was one such day. Myself, The Zookeeper, The Announcer and Jester headed tentatively to the Council Yard for a beach BBQ and dive. I say tentatively because the A82 had been shut for most of the day, but had thankfully reopened by the time we got there. However, as we left the A82 to join the A83 a traffic board said it would be closed for our return journey. In any event, this didn't happen either.

We arrived at the Council Yard and got to work building our fire - I say "we", I really mean the Zookeeper - and a sterling job she did too. By the time Jester arrived the burgers were on and food poisoning was on the cards for all of us! :)

The real challenge of the evening was keeping the fire going. The recent dry spell had meant that the ground was baked and the wood all tinder dry and burning fast. Still, the wood collecting kept us busy.

Underwater it never exactly went to plan as either as a descent at a wrong angle meant that we found ourselves in an area of seabed that none of us had ever explored. It was pretty barren silty stuff, but it was the ideal habitat for firework anemones and langoustines and there were loads. 

However, as we progressed I started to sense that I was losing my sense of direction, so having forgotten my compass I borrowed The Announcers - Auntie is always prepared! 

The ascent threw us into the path of a lovely little catshark and a scorpion fish. So, it all ended well.

Finally, at the surface, Mother Nature threw one last curve ball. On the beach - a site specifically chosen for its westerly wind - the wind and smoke from our fire disappeared unleashing Scotlands's miniature hellhounds - the highland midge. It was time for a quick dekit and drive home.

Sun baked ground

The fire

Firework Anemone

Catshark

Scorpionfish

A Midge Too Far - 22/05/2014

brutal ˈbruːt(ə)l/ adjective: savagely violent.

People often talk about 'the brutality of war'. I don't want to offend anyone or trivialise the concept, but yesterday's dive was brutal. Not because of the cold, the visibility, the depth or a strong current. Nope, none of these things. It was an enemy far more insidious. An enemy who lured us out before attempting to destroy us. I'm talking, of course, of the Highland Midge.

Midgies as we call them locally, are voracious little predators who last night were swarming in their thousands. Kitting up at Anchor Point, Loch Fyne was so unpleasant I did everything with my hood and gloves on just to minimise their opportunity to feast on my tasty blood.

Laura had to kit up twice because of a hose issue, so while it was rectified I swam out into the loch and waited for her to return with the correct gear - it was horrific. I genuinely felt sorry for her having to spend more time than was necessary on the shore.

To the dive then, well as Anchor Point is a fair bit further away from Glasgow we had agreed we'd do one long dive with the possibility of a second on the way home (the midgies put pay to that idea). As you know if you are a regular reader, I've dived here before. Last time was a bit rubbish, although a fun day. Today the visibility was only slightly better ranging from 2-4 metres at different points.

We headed out on a heading of 320 degrees until we hit our desired depth of 23m and began to work our way back and forward along the reef. Interesting life was at a premium. A few goldsinny, a flatfish, the odd scallop, crabs, squat lobsters. From our perspective it wasn't great, although the underwater topography was quite interesting.

We knew exiting the water was going to be grim. I dekitted and packed up the car in my drysuit, hood, gloves and mask. Only whipping them off at the last moment, before diving into the car and speeding off with the windows down in an attempt to suck the midgies out the car. It worked.

Knowing that the Mermaid of Dundonald (Avril) was heading to St Cats with K-Pep her dive buddy, we stopped there for five minutes to see if we could meet them. They hadn't arrived yet.

As we drove the rest of the way home I saw a brown flash in the distance. It was Avril. We stopped on the road (it's not a busy road) chatted for a bit, warned them of their pending doom and then sped off back to civilisation.

If you want to learn more about midgies or work out if they are going to bad or not. You can use the Midge Forecast website (midgeforecast.co.uk) - it's not entirely accurate however.

Burrowing common star

Bloody Henry

Partial Urchin Eclipse

Camo Crab

Sea squirt illuminated