I'm doing a liveaboard with Blue O Two Blue Melody on the Red
Sea. Based out of Hurgahda, Egypt, she is considered one of the better boats in
the BO2 fleet.
I am diving with some blog regulars the Kingmaker and Bridget (who I've taken to
calling Hell's Kells) and a chap we met on the boat who we'll call Royston. He's
a BSAC diver from Bristol who, it appears, doesn't actually breath.
On the boat are a collection of great characters from all over the UK. Midge & Russ
- the Dangerous Brothers, the lads from
Leeds Scuba and whole who host of others who I'll mention as we go on.
Back: Me, Midge, Kingmaker,Royston Front: Hell's Kells & Ahmed
Sometimes what is passe to the experienced diver can be something quite cool and interested to those less experienced. That was the case today when I was joined by Bridget and Dougie for a swim around St Catherine's Seal Reef. Neither diver had ever been near the small wreck.
So with almost every site from Glasgow to the Rest & Be Thankful chock-a-block we went to the small boat. The pair of them swam around it for a time before we began the swim to the reef.
For me, the reef offered more interesting times with a nice northern sunstar and a shy conger eel. I'm still without torches which is a bummer, but hopefully that will be sorted soon.
Our plan had been to do two dives, with our second straddling what we call 'the bells' here in Scotland. Myself and Jester were buddying up while the Mermaid and friend George teamed up. We were diving the A-Frames in Loch Long.
A recent break in at my house meant that I was diving on a borrowed torch. I prefer to dive at night with at least two torches, but in such circumstances this is not always possible. The result was few photographs were taken.
We headed in for our first dive and went down for a bimble around the frames. There really wasn't too much life, but Jester did spot a nice cup coral that I spectacularly failed to photograph.
We split as a larger group underwater and I wondered where the Mermaid and her buddy were, but we continued on, having a nice but cold time.
Back on the surface we discovered the Mermaid wasn't feeling well, but had started 'cooking' up rolls and sausage. We all bit into tepid sausages before deciding that too many factors were working against us and we didn't want to go back in for a second dive.
Still, Hogmanay, comes round like clockwork every year. There's always this year.
At the time of year the UK is festooned with images of wintry snowscapes and robin red breasts bobbing about looking for berries. However, for those of us who live here life is actually quite different. Snow, except on higher ground, is rare. It rains a lot. It's cold just above 0c, but the dampness and the wind make it feel a lot colder.
Sunday's weather lured Jester and I into a false sense of security. We decided at the last minute to make a dash for the lochs. By the time we got there it was dark and, intermittently, a little drizzly.
We had chosen to dive Conger Alley knowing that the visibility would be hit or miss and more likely miss after three weeks of almost continuous rain. Undeterred, we kitted up and headed in.
The water was cold and murky at the surface but we thought it would improve with depth. To some extent we were right. The visibility opened up to around 3-4m. However, the temperature, even at 30m, never rose above 7c. By the end of our 66 minutes I was really feeling it.
The obvious highlight was a sighting of the Smurfs.
Despite being the author of a relatively dull diving blog, I challenged Grant to summarise his Go Pro footage into 60 seconds of footage. This is his attempt.
So the weather has conspired to keep me from the water in the last few weeks. I'm not bitter, I'm just not wet. A look at the detailed weather forecast on Tuesday saw me catch sight of a rare 4 hour window of opportunity. Jester decided it was worth the gamble too. We met at Costa Coffee where, as chance would have it, some members of Eastwood SAC were also meeting. We decided to join them, although Grant and I dived separately.
As we got close to Seal Reef the rain stopped. We made it, the weather window!
We kitted up and plopped in heading down enjoying the usual nightlife. As we passed back and forward we caught glimpse of the other divers and their silt clouds, but it didn't affect us.
It was a great 63 minutes, but the action didn't start until we got out the water and discovered that Pat G had fallen foul of the famous St Catherine's stairway to heaven to the detriment of his knee - we later found out that he's broken his shin. So Campbell, took him to hospital while I took his kit home in my car.
Jester was so taken with our dive last night thay was wanting to return to St Catherine's to visit my other known firework anemone in the vicinity at 30m. However, while I guided us to it. It wasn't the star of the show. There were other lights.
In particular, the waves produced by the westerly wind meant that the shoreline sparkled with bioluminescence while the milk way glistened above. Quite a spectacular start to any dive.
Once we went down we found an assortment of nightlife including our friends the cuttlefish, pipefish and stickleback. Oh, and my firework anemone for a belated Guy Fawkes Night.
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.
