Night Dive Before Dawn - 28/09/2018

I'd never dived Brackley Point at night so when the Barrman suggested that the club head there for a training day I was keen to go the night before to experience it in the dark, because, as we all know, diving is always better in the dark. StewPats stepped up to the mark and we took the opportunity to also get down below 31m so that the dive could also count towards his master diver training. 

We kitted up and headed in and down. The slope was much steeper than I remembered, but the visibility was immense- easily 10m.

We pottered about enjoying some nudi's, a scorpionfish and a little cuttlefish before heading up and to the wreckage of the old barge. Upon arrival it became clear that we were surrounded by one of the largest schools of pollock I have ever seen. Hundreds of them, everywhere. The vis was so good that I could soo Leigh on the surface looking out for us with her torch. We were still at 10m. Back on the surface she said she thought we were about to surface.

The following day I took Freeflow Bob in for a wee dive. during which he successfully completed his master diver striptease and also happily pottered down below 31m. The kids grow up so fast these days. 

A Commonwealth of Anemones - 29/07/2014

With Glasgow in full Commonwealth Games swing, the Announcer and I headed out the city to Loch Fyne for a dive. Drishaig Reef was our destination of choice as the Announcer had never seen the fine array of Firework Anemones. The day started badly with me forgetting my drysuit and the Zookeeper cancelling on us due to unforeseen circumstances. A quick trip back to my house and we headed out.

At the site we kitted up headed down to 25m where we encountered our first anemone of the day (we saw about 10 in all). Swimming along we also bumped into a nice wee scorpion fish in amongst the usual array of life.

In terms of photography I took lot of pictures of the anemones and the scorpion fish, but not much else.

Firework Anemone

Scorpion fish

Scorpion fish

Firework Anemone

Firework Anemone

Search & Recovery - 22/04/2014

After Sunday's dive I discovered that I had lost a weight pouch. I don't know if it happened in the water or at some other point. Today I asked Fast Ed and Sergeant Chris if they'd help me look for it. They are very obliging. So, we headed to St Catherine's after work and despite the poor traffic we arrived and kitted up before 8pm - still daylight.

There were other divers onsite - Paul 'The Kingmaker' King and Martin Kerr. The Kingmaker is well known to me - I have on occasions played badminton with him - Martin Kerr however, is a shadowy figure. No-ones quite sure what he does. All we know is that he's some kind of Gandalf of the IT World and mad, keen rebreather diver. By way of contrast, The Kingmaker, is not a rebreather diver, although he has been described as "a well used scrubber". (A little rebreather humour for you there!)

Myself, Fast Ed & Sergeant Chris entered the water as a three and retraced my underwater steps from Sunday heading down to around 25m. Life was plentiful, but I never saw the stars of Sunday's dive, but as you'll see below I took a few pictures. However, I never found my pouch.

Back on the surface, we had a brief chat with The Kingmaker and Gandalf IT before they headed off and we rekitted for a 2nd dive. This time, it was to be a night dive. Fast Ed led us down to the reef (21m) where we again began the conger hunt. We didn't find it, but we did find the big scorpion fish and cushion star - though my camera had packed in by this point. The sea scorpion was enjoying the small shrimp that our torchlight was attracting.

Add in some dogfish - technically making it a shark dive - and we all had a great time. The only down side is my still missing pouch and the late night trip home.

I later heard that The Kingmaker broke his own personal record for Scottish dive longevity - 81 minutes. Gandalf IT only had 10 minutes of scrubber time left, but I'm sure the Kingmaker will happily add to that next week. 

Rock Cook

Spiny Star

Goldsinny

Sea Scorpion

Santa Catherine, Costa del Fyne - 20/04/2014

Mr Fallsoveralot

Today I went with Mr Fallsoveralot to St Catherine's for a couple dives. However, the sun came out and it's safe to say that it felt more like Spain than Argyll. Upon arrival at the site there were some other divers kitting up and a couple already coming out of the water. The buddy pair coming out turned out to be friends from my local ScotSAC club - Marion and Campbell.

After some chat, with Grant celebrating his 20th dive I suggested that he lead me down to the reef, with me providing backup in the event he got a bit lost. Once on the reef the critter hunt began in earnest. I went to a known conger spot with no luck, but then I started spotting some nice creatures:

• a large red cushion star
• a predating sea scorpion
• a butterfish
• various wrasse/goby

In the end we were down for about 40 mins and max'ed out around 26m.

Back on the surface some more chat and some sandwiches in the sun set us up nicely for the second dive. Entering the water we took some tips from Campbell and Marion on where to find a nice big conger eel for Grant. Clearly overwhelmed by this information Grant proceeded to live up to his nickname and fell over. Injury free, we headed back down to the reef and found the conger eel. We waited around to see if it could be lured out - it couldn't be tempted.

Moving up the reef we stumbled across some nice life - pipefish, edible crabs and the usual variety of critters. For me, nothing topped the beautiful cushion star. :) I was a happy echinoderm enthusiast.

Cushion star

Spiney star

Sea scorpion

Bloody henry

Shy conger eel

Disco diving

6 Armed starfish

Pipefish

Two-spot goby

Fyne & Dandy - 16/04/2014

Laura gets the BBQ burning

As you'll know from my previous post my last dive attempt was aborted. Today I headed back to St Catherine's, Loch Fyne for a couple of evening dives. I was accompanied by Mr Fallsoveralot and Gillian on dive one and Grant and Laura on dive two.

Dive one began with a slow descent down to 10m, but Gill was having real trouble equalising so after about 10 minutes she aborted and returned to shore. Once I saw she was safely out of the water Grant and I headed back down, this time a bit deeper.

Visibility was excellent and as we worked our way around the reef I spotted a large Long Spined Sea Scorpion. Undoubtedly the star of the dive, it hung around for quite a while.

Back on the surface I turned to see that Laura had arrived and that the BBQ was smouldering. However, the BBQ was to be the focus of our activities. Thankfully, Laura showed impressive pyro skills and got it going in the drizzle. I then did the manly meat cooking and we had an impressive selection of sausages and burgers.

Dive 2 was to follow the same route as dive one but gave us a different selection of sea life. Including a large sepiola atlantica (cuttlefish) and one of the biggest dogfish I've ever seen (80-90cms). As Grant said, "I;m classing that as a shark dive." He even had a chance to touch it. It was very docile.

On either dive, however, there was no sign of the eel that we'd encountered last week.

Dogfish (Catshark)

Sea Scorpion

Sea Scorpion

Cuttlefish

Grant