Prima Seal - 26/03/2019

There is something enormously satisfying when a training dive with a trainee you give a brief and it all goes to plan, even down to the last detail. Tonight was one such night.

I briefed about the site (Conger Alley), the activities (an assisted ascent), and what we'd be likely to see. Now, I mentioned a seal, not because I thought it would happen but because I wanted him to be prepared if it did.

We entered the water, went down and undertook the drill exactly as planned. Then, once we had reset and checked our air, headed for a wee paddle round the reef.

I was showing him nudibranchs when I felt it - the gentle push and pull of a large animal swimming by. I stopped taking pictures and waited. Then she passed again. I could see my trainee was excited and delighted rather than fearful. However, from then on in I watched him like a hawk to make sure he never went rapidly to the surface.

He emerged buzzing and happy.

Nudi

Firework Anemone

Big Beryl - 05/03/2019

I was had convinced Jester and the Big Easy that Conger Alley would offer us a great location for a night dive. I can't explain why, I just felt it in my bones. The others were doubtful. 

We kitted up and headed in and down to 30m. There was little life about except for a large lobster that disappeared into the silt kicked up by one of my buddies. 

We had hit decompression after some time and started coming back up. It was then that we were joined by Beryl the resident seal. 

Now, I hadn't realised that the Big Easy was little phobic of seals. When he had mentioned it I genuinely thought he was joking. As such it came as surprise when one of my buddies became the tightest of buddies, no more than a couple of inches from me.

We continued up and Jester asked me using hand signals where were the nudibranchs I had promised him. Immediately we found them, all huddled on a rock - a variety of species too. I smugly took a snap and then followed Beryl on little fishing adventure.

As we returned to shore I was feeling satisfied and decided to briefly check for bio-luminescence. It was there. Genuinely, my luck was in. I should have bought a lottery ticket.

Halflight - 23/05/2017

Despite the long days drawing in Jester and arrived at Loch Fyne in a strange misty half light. The Kingmaker had bailed out at 4.30pm citing a shortage of testicles as a legitimate reason for not diving on a day that he organised.

The midgies were out so a quick kit up was imperative. We did just that, buddy checking on the beach.

As we approached the waters edge neither of us were wearing our glasses I asked Jester if it was a seal in the water -  the grey blur in the halflight turned out to be just that. As we dived it circled us from above before deciding that we weren't that interesting (or food) and left.

Our plan had been to look for a firework anemone we had found before near the boat, but for the life of us we couldn't find it. Instead we found some nudibranchs and a lobster Nice compensation.

However, the search at 25m for the anemone had meant we'd approached our decompression limit much quicker than anticipated so our time the reef was ultimately much shallower than we had anticipated. A turn in events that yielded many more sea slugs and blennies.

We looked at our computers and realised we had been down for way over an hour and made our way to the surface through the feeding jellyfish gorging themselves on the plankton bloom.

We surfaced after 72 minutes in what I think was one of my longest dives.

Seal head

Entering the water

Cushion Star

Lobster

Flabellina lineata

Yarrell's Blenny

More Flabs

Sea Lemon

Limacia Clavigera

Planning Is Everything, Plans Are Nothing - 06/11/2014

I think it was Eisenhower who once said "plans are nothing, planning is everything". It is a saying that has stuck with me for some time. Today was one of those days when it really came home to roost. The original had been for the Zookeeper and I to do a deep dive at Conger Alley, then a shallower fun dive with Clan Mcletchie (of the Frocktasia Blog notoriety) at Twin Piers. Well, personal circumstances scratched Clan Mcletchie off the plan, then weather warnings and torrential rain dampened our desire to do two dives.

In the end we still headed to Conger Alley, Loch Long to do our deep dive, but as we began our dive our plans were to change again as an ominous shadow passed through the furthest reaches of our torch beams. It seemed a large seal (possibly Beryl) was going to be buzzing us for the duration of the dive. 

Instead, our plans changed again. The deep dive went out the window and we were going to watch out for the seal as it used our torches to hunt. Of course, her presence meant there was little life to photograph.

The seal had a number of near passes including one through the legs of the Zookeeper. The video below is the only footage I managed to get. After a while she left us to enjoy the remainder of dive at which point some of the other life emerged including:

• Conger eels
• Lobster
• Edible crabs
• Wrasse

Turns out Eisenhower was right.

Edible Crab

Peek-a-boo Conger

Plumose Anemone

Wrasse

An Unexpected Journey Part 1 - 08/05/2014

As regular readers will know, on a previous outing Laura and I scouted out the access to the lesser dived part of St Catherines, Loch Fyne. However, St Catherine's 3 - Bottle Bank is also a much contested site between divers and local residents who rightly have concerns about a minority of divers who persist with antisocial behaviour.

Laura and I had planned to dive the site, but chance comments by Martin and Ben in Aquatron made us wonder if we could keep all camps happy by diving the length of the shore between St Catherine's 2 & 3.St Catherine's 2 being the less contested site that features regularly on this blog.

Our new plan was to build up kit at St Cats 2, drive along the lane to the St Cats 3 entry, I'd drive back to St Cats 2 before walking the 500m back to the kit and Laura. We would then enter the water, dive the reef before heading as far along the shore as our air would safely allow. Still following?

Specifically, we were going in diving to 20m heading NE to the reef, working our way up the reef to 10m, where we would leave the reef and head NE to our distant exit point. At 80 bar we'd start to ascend to 5m and at 40 bar we'd surface.

Our Plan

The plan was set and it appeared as though it had appeased Poseidon himself as a pod of porpoise and a seal frolicked offshore and the tide flowed in our favour.

As we dived we encountered catshark after catshark - I mean loads of them. The dive came alive in a fun way when Laura who was feeling a bit floaty in her new undersuit grabbed what has now become known as her "Gandalf stick". Feeling a bit left out I too grabbed a piece of driftwood and continued our Unexpected Journey.

We almost made it too. We came up about 50m short of the target only to see Fast Ed cruising the lane in his car looking for us or perhaps something more sinister - you never can tell with that boy. We signalled with torches and we chatted from afar as the tide gently swept us to our destination. 

Butterfish

The Gandalf Stick

Catshark

Nudibranch

The distance travelled

So Much Nature Part 3 - 27/03/2014

So with the arrival of Evolution Divers we vacated St Catherines (see part 1 and part 2) prime parking spot and headed over to dive Loch Long. We were deciding between the Twin Piers, which we'd drive right past or the Caves where Laura had previously lost a bag that we were going to look for. The Caves won.

We quickly kitted up, buddy checked and headed down to the water where a seal, probably Beryl, was waiting patiently for us. We entered the water and it quickly became clear that we were diving as a buddy three as Beryl swooped between our legs, crashing into us chasing fish and any other critter that came into view. A few wrasse dodged under rocks. Bottoming out at 22m, we probably had the best seal action at around 10m.

Aside from Beryl, sea life was at a premium. By way of contrast, thanks to Beryl, silt was not.

By the end of the second dive both Laura and myself were exhausted largely due to 'so much nature'.

Dahlia Anemone

Beryl

Laura filming Beryl

Bicentennial Woman - 13/02/2014

Tonight was Laura's 200th logged dive. To celebrate myself, Laura, Andrea, Fast Ed, Pat G and Sergeant Chris all left Glasgow a little earlier to do two dives at the A-Frames. As regular readers will know you can expect to see:

• Peacock worms
• Scorpion fish
• Pipe fish
• Wrasse
• Cod
• Lobsters 
• Crabs

Leading the dive down to the large frame at around 20m, I decided to make a trip along the other frames. I've rarely done this, instead we prefer to spend my time at around 10-15m were most of the life is, but tonight was to be different.

Once at frame 2 we were joined by a 7th celebrating diver - Beryl the Seal!! Now, I've never seen her this far down the loch, so it was a pleasant surprise for Laura's 200th. Amongst the group neither Pat, Andrea or Chris had ever encountered Bezza ( I feel I can call her that as we've gotten so close over the last few weeks). I'm told Andrea screamed upon seeing her in the water, though I never heard her. I did see her frantic torch flashing however.

Laura and I immediately executed Plan Beryl - ascend to 15m to conserve air and prolong the seal encounter - which was done with military precision much to the delight of Sergeant Chris. What followed were a number of very pleasant interactions with our big pal.

After the dive Andrea had to get home for an early start and Laura had a leaking drysuit so decided to call it quits, but the boys all agreed that it would be nice to go in, repeat the same dive, hoping for more seal action, but it was not to be. In fact, the best bit of life I found was a large scallop.

In short, this dynamite little night diving session with its unusual seal encounter will live long in the memory and was a fitting marker for Laura's 200th logged dive.

Peacock worms

Peacock worms

Beryl

Scallop

Sea loch anemones

Peacock worms

Just Another Dive :/

So after exploring Conger Alley on Sunday we visited again at night (23^rd January), hoping for more conger eel action than we had last time.

Myself, Laura & Fast Eddie followed the same route, rapidly descending through the thermocline and down to about 24m on the reef. I should point out that Laura was test driving a new undersuit. Upon arrival at the reef I instantly spotted Beryl the Seal who frequents these parts, though it seems I failed to communicate this with my two buddies who all thought I was asking them if they were OK.

Now, seals in general are pretty friendly and Beryl herself has been known to ‘assist’ divers on a safety stop to the surface. However, I challenge anyone who has never encountered a six foot long seal in the dark not burn through their air supply pretty darn quick.  With this in mind I led our merry band up to around 15m to allow for a longer a seal encounter.  Once there, the fun began!

Fast Eddie (who has never encountered a seal at anytime) caught his first glimpse at this point. I know this because his torch turned into an excited searchlight. Fortunately, I had briefed him beforehand. The briefing went as follows:

• If the viz all of a sudden goes to pot there is a seal in the water
• Beryl is fast, you’ll catch a glimpse of her and think ‘what the hell was that’
• Beryl is big, about the same size as you
• You’re drysuit may not remain dry

Turning my attention to Laura who was prevented from dumping air from her drysuit by her new undersuit,  and was signalling she had a problem and 100 bar in between grabbing rocks. Being the gentleman buddy I am, I dumped all the air I could from my suit and BCD to make myself negatively buoyant and offered my hand to keep Laura from champagne corking to the surface.

Heading home at pace, Fast Eddie realised, as I struggled to keep Laura down, Laura’s rock collecting wasn’t a geological survey and grabbed her by the straps on the other side. Beryl’s curiosity however became more intense and she used the opportunity to make a number of very close passes including one between Laura’s flailing legs. Suffice to say we all made it quite safely to the surface.

The highlight of my evening was at the surface when the conversation went like this:

Fast Eddie: You weren’t kidding about the size of Beryl.
Me: No.

All in all just another dive in Posiedon’s Parlour