Gurnards & Not So Fast Cars - 24/08/2016

With what seemed like the last glimpse of summer, the Zookeeper, Jester and I met up for a twilight dive in Loch Fyne. This wasn't our original plan, but parking at our chosen site was full. 

We kitted up in fast fading but brilliant sunshine, buddy checked on our march down the beach and skipped into the water. 

It seemed like the fates were with us as we landed on our first huge catshark of the day. I haven't seen one for a few months. So it was nice to reacquaint myself with an old friend.

As we continued down in search of an alleged firework anemone that Jester is convinced is down there, my torch caught a glimpse of what I think was a seal. Moments later there was a flurry of large fish swimming towards us using us for shelter. This confirmed my theory. However, the initial sighting never materialised into a full blown encounter, sadly.

Instead, we stumbled along the bottom chasing langoustine and gurnards before hitting the reef and heading up to the shallows. 

It was, however, catsharks that were the atars of the show as we encountered at least two and the largest one twice. They were very relaxed around us especially as Jester approached with his National Geographic-esque camera set up.

We emerged 67 minutes later, hampered by hunger and cold on my part, packed up and cruised home behind some not so fast cars. 'Twas a good night.

Catshark

Red Gurnard

Cushionstar

Catshark

Sometimes a Dive is a Metaphor - 24/06/2016

While the last few Brits decided whether or not hey wanted to leave the European Union, Jester and I decided to head to Seal Reef, Loch Fyne for a quick dip. In many ways, the weather had been kind to us:

• It was warm
• There was a breeze keeping the midgies temporarily at bay
• There was drizzle, again discouraging the midgies.

So we kitted up and casually headed into the water.

There was a bit of chop and the silt had been stirred up in the shallows. This led to Jester dropping his GoPro and us then having to spend 10 minutes trying to find it in poor visibility. He did, thankfully.

After that we headed down to St Catherine's famous speedboat encountering a small red gurnard and a lobster en route. It was nice. Although dark the visibility opened up and it reminded me of my preferred night diving exploits - dark but clear.

In total we pottered around for an hour finding numerous nudibranchs and yarrell's blennies. It was all rather pleasant until we surfaced and dekitted in a midgie infested hell hole. What a difference an hour made.

Britain choose to leave, Scotland to stay. Scotland now must leave.

Flabellina Lineata

Red Gurnard

Flabellina Lineata

Lobster

Flabellina Lineata

The Alternative Guy Fawkes - 05/11/2015

I'm more interested in firework anemones than actual fireworks. With that in mind the plan was for Jester, the Zookeeper and myself to go hunting for the former type of fireworks. However, a three hour commute meant that the Zookeeper was exhausted and didn't fancy the dive. As such Jester and I headed to Seal Reef intent on re finding a firework anemone we found once before. 

Sadly, we failed. Instead, we found a proliferation of colour changing cuttlefish, a stunning nudibranch and Jester's first ever red gurnard.

We had heard that visibility in the area was good (8-10m) and it didn't disappoint. Visibility was easily 8m even in the dark. 

I was test driving a fully functioning Mares Eos 12rz and hoping to use the wide beam (with no hotspot) for some decent pictures.

We headed down to the small boat and off the bow looking for a firework anemone we found quite some time ago. We struck out, but we did find a langoustine, pipefish, cuttlefish and two red gurnards.

Moving onto the reef, and with deco fast approaching we headed back up gradually. As deco approached his minutes to deco hand signals looked an awful lot like flipping me the bird. Vulgar gestures aside, Jesters aging eyes were on fire, spotting a variety of worms before his spot of the night.  Blind luck I say, but it was a nice Eubranchus Farrani or, as I've heard the Mermaid describe them, "the wee fried egg ones".

It was a great 57 minutes as we emerged to booming of Inveraray fireworks.

The Drysuit Cometh - 22/10/2015

Having ordered a new O'Three drysuit Saturday it had arrived by Thursday enabling a trip with the Zookeeper out to Loch Long and the A-Frames. The Aquatron school was out teaching the PADI Night Speciality (probably the most fun PADI Speciality if you are choosing to go down the PADI route).  

The nature of the night speciality training meant that with the minimum of alteration to our dive plan we could entirely avoid the training area. We did, admirably.  Circling round the far side of the big frame we encountered some nice feather stars and a couple of what I think are horseman anemones, I'm not really an expert.

From there it was down deeper and round for some feeding of Colin The-Conger. I'm not saying disaster struck, but from this point the dive was a bit downhill. Having forgotten to fully charge my Mares Eos10r I had a bit of a blackout. Switching torches meant that I spent the rest of the dive using an old torch with the same number of lumens as a roasted parsnip. I wasn't concerned. 

As I was leading us back, the Zookeeper offered me her primary, but it really wasn't worth it. I reckon I could get back to safety with no light at that sight. A challenge which I might attempt at some point.

During the safety stop I showed the Zookeeper some of my photos. They were pretty poor. In fact, some might say rotten. Anyway, that was enough to have us chuckling as we surfaced. Much to the bemusement of the Aquatron crew who wondered if we'd be eating the magic anenomes  around the site. Good times. Oh, and the drysuit? Very nice, very nice.

Horseman Anemone

Horseman Anemone

Feather star

Red Gurnard

Colin