An Aging Wine - 25/10/2017

It is said of fine wines that they improve with age. I hope the the same is true for me. You see, Jester and I went diving the day before my 40th birthday. We headed for St Catherines hoping for cuttlefish and decent weather (according to the forecast).

As we arrived the rain poured down. It slowed to a drizzle at which point we jumped out and kitted up. Gill.I.Am, who had come for the bantz, was not impressed that she'd be stuck in the car. 

We kept it pretty shallow, heading to the boat and then onto the reef. It was a good night for life with loads of scorpionfish, cuttlefish, a few nudibranchs and a coy conger.

What was amazing was that the scorpionfish were improving with each one we found. Slowly getting bigger and bigger in size until at the end we found the daddy of them all - who was about the size of a football. Needless to say I never went too close, but Jester took a few photos.

We emerged to find Gill locked in the car, imagination running riot as she read a crime thriller. I assume the victim is killed in a parked car by a rural dive site.

Reaching out

The big yin

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

Milestones - 21/03/2015

When I first met Jester he'd done just 15 dives. Tonight, he was doing his 200th. Quite an achievement. It would be tough to top the fun of his 199th. We joked about poor vis and seeing nothing - perhaps we should have resisted. 

Entering Seal Reef in daylight at low flood, the viz was about 1m, hoping for better we kept going down expecting to pass through into clearer water. 10m, 15m, 20m, 25m - nothing. Then at 27m it opened up to 2-3m.

We passed lots of sea cucumbers, langostine, but nothing great. On the way back up, the viz was improving. The tidal flood sweeping the particles back up to the head of the loch.

We had fun without seeing muchand celebrated with a sugary overdose at the Malt & Myre. 

Scorpionfish

Sea Cucumber

Who Dares Swims - 30/10/2105

"Who dares wins" is the motto of the SAS, perhaps the most famous British Special Forces unit. However, there is a another less well known unit called the Special Boat Services. I say all this because myself and Canada Dry, my guest buddy for the evening, watched as what I assume was the SBS performed some landing manoeuvres on the shore. Realising there were divers they beat a hasty retreat. The A-Frames is, after all, sovereign SCUBA territory.

Canada Dry, visiting from Canada, had bravely hired a drysuit and an unfamiliar weight system to join me for the evening, while Jester was coming later for a second dive. Before we went in I mentioned to Canada Dry that I was impressed by his bravery taking on so many awkward factors for a first dive in Scotland.

We headed down to the Frames enjoying the display of peacock worms, scorpionfish and scallops. However, as we returned to the surface it became clear that Canada Dry was having buoyancy issues caused the unfamiliar drysuit. I held him down long enough to complete most of a safety stop before he let go (his fancy mask having given the signal it was safe to do so).

We got back safely but the experience was enough to convince Canada Dry not to go back in. After that I was equally impressed by his lack of machismo, a factor that when left unchecked puts divers in situations that they really don't want to be in.

Jester had joined us for the second dive. So we buddied up and went back in. The second dive proved even more fruitful with a beautiful little nudibranch and some nice anemones. His ability to spot nudis is actually quite impressive.

The drive back saw us chat about diving misadventures and experiences - one of the cool things about meeting new diving chums.

Bloody Henry

Scorpionfish

Anemone

Nudibranch

Pipefish

Pipefish

Three Is The Magic Number - 30/04/2015

When the Kingmaker asked me if I wanted to "go down baw deep" I was worried. So worried, in fact, that I decided to bring the Zookeeper as a human shield to protect me from the Kingmaker and his advances.

Now the Kingmaker and the Zookeeper have met before, but didn't really know each other very well. The car journey to St Catherine's was a dance of sorts with each participant endeavoring to find the lowest common ground. In fairness to my good chums, they found it pretty quick. 

On arrival we were the only ones at the site and by the time we kitted up the sea was flat calm and the sun, while slowly setting, was out.

The Kingmaker led us down to beyond 38m. The Zookeeper, who always dives on my left recorded a personal depth record (PDR) of 39.0m. So congratulations. 

As we hit 37m I started to giggle to myself. I was feeling a little narc'd. Now this is quite unusual for me, but I haven't really been diving very deep lately. This however marked the first time in my life that I've experienced a happy narc. I can assure everyone, that the differences are stark between a eupho-narc and a dark narc!

We turned and on our gradual ascent we brought out the cameras and started to snap the nudis and life we encountered. It was all very chilled with great visibility and two good buddies.

We surfaced, selfied, then headed back to the car. Where the Zookeeper, who'd sprung a leak in her drysuit, "dekitted" and dried off.

At the surface we met the next batch of late night divers -  Pat G, Doctor K and Kevin.

On the way home we chatted laughed and discussed the basic principles of the law of diminishing marginal utility. I like to think Hawdit and Dawdit left the car a little more erudite and with a new appreciation of the metaphorical uses of the Mars bar.

The Kingmaker leads the way

Flabellina lineata

Flabellina lineata

Scorpionfish

No selfie stick required

Leading The Way - 29/03/2015

Some say that dive clubs are dying. Not so Eastwood ScotSAC. Today we had around 15 trainees in the water and around 25 people in total. That's a lot of people at one site all learning to dive for the measly cost of their annual membership fee (£150). It was also nice to encounter the divers of the Napier University Sub Aqua Club  who were also out learning to dive.

I doff my cap to them in particular for a very particular reason. Due to a lack of funds their small club can't afford drysuits, so they dive in.....wetsuits. Pretty hardcore in March, in Scotland. If you have an old drysuit lying around why not donate it to their cause? They aren't too concerned about styling (trust me I saw the wetsuits), but functionality is important. You'll be doing young Harriet et al a favour.

As for me I was leading divers around the site (Seal Reef). On each occasion three divers went in, and three came out. I consider that a dive leading success.

I took one photograph as it was too big a scorpionfish to leave un-papped

Scorpionfish

Day 2 - What Goes Down… - 19/11/2014

Today was always going to be a day of wrecks.  I like wrecks, I’ve done a few. I find them atmospheric.

Today’s wrecks in reverse order of fame and coincidentally diving order were:

• Dunraven
• Kingston
• Thistlegorm x2

Both Dunraven and Kingston were from rhibs, while the Thistlegorm (discovered by famed privateer and oceanographer,  Jacques Cousteau) was off the back of the live-aboard.

The Dunraven was nice enough without providing much excitement. By way of contrast, the Kingston was a negative entry (my first ever) into a seriously strong current that meant if you landed on the wrong side of the wreck you had very little chance of exploring it.  Knowing this I never took my camera, which I instantly regretted!

The life on the Kingston wasn't any more spectacular than anywhere else, but I did love the table corals on the neighboring reef and well, it was just a nice looking wreck.

However, the highlight of the day was meant to be the Thistlegorm. It’s the “most beautiful wreck in the Red Sea” apparently. It is certainly interesting with its assortment of wrecked cargo. The WW2 ruined cargo includes:

• Motorbikes
• Rifles
• Tanks
• Trucks

It was all interesting enough but for me the highlight was diving it at night. The Zookeeper who has dived it at least 5 or 6 times opted to stay on board. So my buddies for the evening were the Lawman and Bridget (also accompanied by Sergeant Chris, Smooth Criminal and Al-chemist (so named due to his inexhaustible supply of medicinal compounds).

We started at the rear working our way up the starboard side to the bow before heading back down the port side.

I was just bumbling about taking snaps of scorpionfish, a crocodile fish and some nudis when suddenly it went from being fairly quiet and atmospheric to being like Sauchiehall Street (for non Glasgow readers it’s a busy shopping street – you can really substitute in any busy street name).

We were in a melee of around 20-30 divers from three different groups. I laughed as I saw divers with some very expensive photographic toys bumping into chunks of metal, lose control of their buoyancy and all the stuff that you see – you know what I mean. I just kept low avoided being clattered and kept an eye on the Lawman’s fins. Eventually, we burst free from the crowd and encountered a really nice crocodile fish.

Reaching the line we went up. I pondered it the days events on the safety stop. What goes up must come down, but what goes down doesn’t need to go up. However, divers do, sadly.

Nudibranch

Motorcycle

Scorpionfish

Nudibranch

Crocodile Fish

The Crazies - 09/11/2014

I hadn't really planned on diving this weekend, but in an unusual combination of buddies today I dived with K-Pep and TDFKAMF. We met up with no idea of where we were heading only knowing we wanted to take our chances with Loch Fyne. In the end we plumped for the hotly disputed  Los Furnace (pronounced fur-nach-ay). Although, most divers simply call it Dogfish Reef.

"Hotly disputed?" I hear you ask. Yip, there is a crazy guy who lives next to the dive site who has been enraged by various groups of divers and fishermen - I suspect quite rightly. As a result, he has taken it upon himself to be the private guardian of the public car park blocking it off from everyone. "How do you know he's crazy?" Well, for one, he's got a flagpole erected in his garden. I mean, who puts a flagpole in their garden? Exactly, crazy folks. Secondly, he was animatedly bouncing around his window watching us like any normal crazy person would. Finally, when he did come out he had pretend conversations on his mobile phone. Exactly what you'd expect from a crazy person or indeed, an extra from The Crazies.

We arrived later in the day, taking considerable advantage of the improving weather and arrived in the late afternoon. Meaning our second dive would be a night dive. While kitting up I realised that I'd forgotten my thermal leggings - this was going to be cold.

Dive one was a plop down to 30m to the gnome garden before working our way back up. In all honesty other than a lot of cod and nudibranchs in the shallows there wasn't much happening. As a result, I only took a few pictures (below).

By the time the second dive came about I 'd decided I wasn't taking my camera in. In fact, as the chaps will testify, I wasn't even that keen on putting myself back in. However, I bravely struggled on. Thankfully, I did.

The second dive (a night dive) was a far more life filled affair. (They always are aren't they?) The site lived up to its name with a fairly impressive large female dogfish, two conger eels including one, which I almost rammed head first, which was a good 30cm outside of its hole. It was behaving far more like a garden eel if you've ever seen one. Add to that a nice sunstar and a wee scorpionfish and I'd say it was a much better dive. Curse my poor camera decision making!! At some point, I'll maybe share K-Pep's photos as he took a camera in and got a cracking shot of the curious conger.

For those who are wondering, yes it was cold. 9c with half an undersuit isn't too much fun. Some would say I'm crazy.

Cod

Sea Squirts

Bloody Henry

Nudibranch

After dive one