The Calm Before the Storm - 02/01/2016

The first dive of the year proved to be a very calm experience. Jester and I had joined the SFTW crew for a trip to St Catherines, Loch Fyne. When we arrived we were not the only ones. In fact, the site was hoachin'. So much so that Jester and opted for our occassional deep (40m) night route round the reef to avoid the inevitable poor vis in the shallower parts. 

It was a great decision. We never saw another diver until we met Cptn Al at 10m. It was a mutually beneficial moment as I spotted a nice cushion star and Jester a sea lemon. We pointed them out and continued along our safety stop.

Alone again in the shallows Jester spotted one of my favourite nudibranchs - Eubranchus farrani.

It was a lovely 60+ minute run. I've attached some pictures taken by Jester below so that you can share the love.

Cushionstar

Sea Lemon

Eubranchus farrani 

Christmas is Cold - 30/12/2016

An acquaintance of mine was once in a band that recorded an alternative Christmas song - Christmas is Cold. Today saw a few of us head up to Loch Long or a festive dip. The plan was to do two dives, but 3c water temperatures meant that Jester, Fast Ed and I decided to call it quits after one dive.

We were diving as a group of 5 but after about 5 minutes we'd already lost one buddy pair in the poor visibility. We returned briefly to the surface to make sure nothing untoward had happened - it hadn't.

So we continued as a 3 down to the bottom of the reef and worked our way back. It was all fairly dull proving that not every dive is a corker.

We surfaced, parked up and headed to the pub for some grub. That was the highlight.

Christmas Came Early - 21/12/2016

A conversation in Aquatron about Frocktasia not ever having seen a cuttlefish led to her and Mad Marx joining Jester and I on some St Catherines' night diving to find ourselves our target.

With Jester working late and the rest of us finishing early we headed up and did sneaky dive before Jester arrived. It was nice enough, but cuttlefish or bobtail squid as they are called in other parts of the world were conspicuous by their absence. My reputation as a cuttlefish wrangler was in tatters.

We emerged and re-tanked and went down again with Jester in tow. Then it happened, I was just swimming down past 10m when I spotted one crouched behind a rock. I signalled and we stayed and admired this stunning little creature for a bit before heading off to enjoy the rest of the site at night.

For Frocktasia it was another diving experience checked off. For me it was two of my lowest ever SAC rate - 12l/m.

Hunter Gatherers -17/12/2016

With the amateur football season currently in a hiatus, I took the opportunity to dive with the Something for the Weekend crew, who this week were diving at much more civilised hour that encouraged my participation.

We did a couple of dives at the A-Frames, Finnart. Our group consisted of Cptn Al, legendary underwater photographer and proprietor of Bridge of Weir's finest restaurant Shafiq, the Walkman and a relative scubie-newbie Hunter - not the star of 90s tv show Gladiators.

We plunged into the icy cold diving in Red Arrow formation. The vis was pretty decent but, the life was a little limited and reminded me why dark is best. After a fairly lengthy potter at 20m we got the cold signal from one of the divers. It was cold to be fair - 7c.

On the way up it went a little wrong when Shafiq lost one of his dive computers. That meant that after a short surface interval our second dive was ultimately to become a failed search and rescue mission. 

We had fun and I managed to squeeze two dives out of one tank which saved me a few bucks. So that's my win for the day. As for our scub-newb it turns out he was pretty proficient  and has dived years ago and had just returned to it saying he was a beginner. So not really a newb at all.

The camera is still out of action.

Two Season in One Day - 17/11/2016

Four Seasons in One Day by Crowded House was one of my favourite songs as a teenager. I still love it. There is a lyric that resonates with me:

"Smiling as the shit comes down

You can tell a man from what he has to say"

Tonight that was Jester and I. We arrived in monsoon like conditions despite the false promises of Accuweather for cloudy but dry. We waited 10 minutes for the downpour to restrict itself to a drizzle. At which point we made a dash for the water. It was cold - my computer said 6c.

I was still without a camera so floated between the A-Frames, just having a cold old time trying to spot interesting things for Jester.

The highlight was a catshark, but I couldn't get the idea of a more sinister shark in the water out my head. Largely because we watched the opening scenes of The Shallows while we waited for the rain to subside. Perhaps this wasn't the best pre-dive preparation. :/

We surfaced an hour after entry only to find a shift in the seasons. It was now cold monsoon with a blizzard hurrying our packing up.

Blizzard

It Flooded - 03/11/2016

OK, so not every diving experience is perfect. I think we can all agree on that. 

Tonight wasn't a great night. It started with a getting kitted up at St Catherine's in the dark, buddy check and descent down to around 8m. At which point Jester and I paused to take a picture of a cuttlefish. You can see my picture below. At that point I noticed some water inside my Sealife camera housing and my camera starting to misbehave.

I knew what was going on. I immediately went for the surface, left my camera on a rock and headed back in to continue the dive. We swept down by the bottom of the reef to around 31m and then back up the far side enjoying gurnards, nudibranchs, more cuttlefish and the resident cushion star. None of which were photographed by me. 

Instead I took up photobombing. Jester hates it. I love it. If you have a photography daft buddy here's how to do it.

1. Enter stealth mode - switch off torch 
2. Swim round buddy in the dark - they'll think you're still behind them 
3. Approach head on as they compose the photograph
4. Sit 1m from the target
5. Await strobe flash 
6. Boss it Zoolander style

We returned, I collected my camera and dekitted to confirm what I already knew. It had flooded, but not horrifically. 

I took it home, nursed it back to health, couldn't get the battery to retain charge. So I've ordered a new battery for £4 on ebay. 

The Last Cuttlefish Photo

Photobombing is fun

Free Fallin' - 20/10/2016

It was my 70th dive when I first got a real taste for night diving. My buddy was Mike Diver and while I'd done a few night dives that was the one where I found my confidence. From there diving with the Zookeeper made me the diver I am today and I passed that experience onto Jester.

I say this because Jester and I were talking about why so few people take the plunge at night despite perfect weather, sea conditions and more life. Anyway, that's their loss.

With the tide at the lowest we'd seen in a while, we briefly wondered where the loch went before stepping in and 'free fallin' down the ledge to10m.

It started well with the first of a few cuttlefish and a two types of nudibranch. We pottered about for around an hour before returning to the shore, the car and the timeless tunes of Tom Petty.  

Cuttlefish

Nudibranch

Nudibranch