The Hunt Nudi November - 11/11/2017

After camping out in the van overnight at Firkin Point, Loch Lomond overnight, Gill.I.Am and I headed over to Loch Long where we knew the Barrman and Leigh were diving. We arrived to find them 'chilling' on their surface interval.

We chatted, and I seriously considered kitting up to join them for a quick dive with what was left in my 15l tank from last night. Naturally, the lure of the warmth and a role and bacon kept me out the water for a little longer, but we chatted and had a laugh before heading to the day's main event Anchor Point, Loch Fyne, where the Announcer and Jim were toddling up later in the morning.

In the interim, Gill.I.Am and sat in the van watching John Wick.

Once there we kitted up and headed in for a couple of dives. I was keen see Trichesia Caerulea and spent much of the first dive looking for them, but it was the Announcer who spotted them on our very first safety stop just casually hanging out on some seaweed in the shallows. there were a few of them too.

We also spotted Polycera faeroensis, a huge red gurnard, conger eels, bloody henrys and a few other of my favorites. It was a good day diving.

Charitable Outreach - 10/11/2017

It is a well known (or ken't if you're from Falkirk) fact that beneath my gruff exterior I'm a charitable chap. As members of my club know ,I've taken the step of introducing as many people as possible to diving at night. People appreciate it, not everyone enjoys the dark as I do. On this occasion I took Walker Texas Ranger and Andy G out to Finnart for another dive in the dark. 

We were running late. A phenomenon that happens a lot with diving. We quickly kitted up and got into the water for a potter around.

The viz was decent as we plodded from frame to frame. We passed a nice pipefish, a few cuttlefish and a number of the usual suspects.

It was another success, and pleasantly uneventful!

Back on the surface Gill.I.Am loaded up the trailer and headed to Firkin Point, Loch Lomond to camp overnight.

Quint & the Seapen Graveyard

I had considered diving the the Old Cemetery 1 and 2 for sometime. However, something always came up and I never got round to it. So, when I got a message last week from my old dive instructor asking me if I wanted to go dive. I told him about my plan to head to Loch Leven camp with my new van and awning before heading to the Old Cemetery for a couple of dives. He seemed game.

The Old Cemetery has two dive sites - Cemetery 1 to the right and Cemetery 2 - to the left. Based on the guide there is the potential for all kinds of camping fun and shenanigans. However, times have changed. Parking in the lay-by is now restricted to three hours. Probably, judging by the number of beer bottles around the site, because of antisocial behaviour. Still, three hours was enough for us.

Quint and I kitted up and choose the easiest access to the beach we could find which coincidentally turned out to be the entry point for Cemetery 1, but given we wanted to do the second dive it meant that we were required to go down and turn right. 

It is probably true to say we spent too long going down and not enough time swimming left. We seemed to spend an inordinate amount of time looking at seapens standing on the seabed like a continuation of the cemetery on the surface. 

However, we eventually hit the wall we were looking for - it bottoms out at about 20m, so don't go too deep! Once there I saw an octopus, nudibranchs and a nice collection of seastars. We returned via the wreck of a little wooden skiff.

Feeling we had seen pretty much all there was to see in the area we headed back round the loch to the Slates for something a little, well, erm, deeper. 😃

Quint & I

Loch Leven

Testing the camper