September Etive, Creran and Linnhe Diving

I had a delivery, of one of my Logburner stoves, to make to a Goldpanner on the West coast who's camping out thro' the winter so I chucked in my own tent and dive gear to make the most of the trip.

I set up camp at Two Boat Bay on the shore of Loch Etive (a few of you guys are enjoying the site now too I see) on the Friday after a nice day panning in the hills myself.
It rained ALL night long til about 9:30 the next morning when it turned to glorious sunshine! I love the way the rain stops (most of the time) when I go diving...
First dive of the day was in Loch Creran just a few miles away. I wanted to play with the new Strobe (that I bought with my winnings from the BSAC Photo competition last year) snapping the Worm colonies and found that the viz in this part of the loch had survived the rain that fell thro the night. A touch milky at 2m but clear on the bottom.
There was quite a bit of storm damage to the reefs (from last weeks nasty stormy weather) where the taller specimens had now collapsed but the longer, flatter ones have survived well.
51minutes dive time, to 15.9m in lovely 14 degree water. Nice.



After lunch back at the camp, I had hoped to dive the Kingfisher for my 400th dive, but even tho' the entry was crystal clear, below 3m it was less than 1.5m viz! Aargh, all the particulates from the rain were still settling... It took me two attempts to find the cable that leads to the wreck (something one can normally see as one's face hits the water) and, once I'd found it and followed it for a bit, hoping for better viz, found that the viz, even with torchlight, was barely 1.5m! Nah, whilst I know this site very well and could find the Kingfisher by compass (085 degrees from entry point) there are some traps and snags down there that one needs to see and avoid. My 400th wasn't going to be my last so I abandonned the dive.
Dive time of 9 min, to a depth of 9m... and the worst viz I've ever seen here!

So, another lovely night under canvas, by the fire watching the glorious sunset, with fresh chicken and pepper risotto for dinner and an early night as two buddies were coming out nice and early the next day.

Sunset from the campsite

Sunday, 8am!!!
Jeez they're keen! Kevin Cross (Eastwood SAC) and Dave Warner (InverClydeSAC) arrived bright and bloody early... 
Off, up the Linnhe road to the Telephone Exchange. Neither buddy had done this reef/wall (well, Kevin had done it from the boat on the Powerboat Level 2 course I did for them last year) and Dave hadn't been
to this area at all. All new to them.
Quick brief of the site layout and the things we were likely to see and away we go.
Viz was good, 5-8m and after locating the reef (missed it on the descent, due to the subtle current trying to turn us round, you just turn left at a 45degree angle and back to 12-15m) I motioned to the guys to go and play. I was trying to stay away from them a touch so's I could play with strobe some more, Dave was higher, above me and Kevin was hoovering  (not that he saw many...).
One of the cracks in this reef houses a HUGE conger, but as I got into position to snap it, clouds and clouds of silt blocked the view! (Mental note, keep Kev to the rear of the party, til the photography is done!) No matter, we'll see it on the way back...
We did see it on the return journey, but the silt was still hanging. I tried baiting the Conger with with a fillet of fish (from Tesco's cheap stock), but it wouldn't eat to an audience. Dave saw it take the fish moments later as he was hovering out of sight.
A nice dive, 45min to 19.2m with loads of life.

Lion's Mane Jelly near the suface (it's handy having a fullface mask when getting close to these things...)

Back down to Creagan Inn to park up, fill tanks and fill bellies.
Still a glorious day in the warm sunshine.
Again, neither of the lads had dived here so a quick tour was in order.
That done, and after a chat with Alan, one of the proposed new owners of the Creagan, we took to the waters, watched over by out soon to be "mein host".
Nice and clear viz on entry, mooching our way round the headland, but as we approached the apex the viz became siltier. I decided to carry on (Dave later said, he loves that kind of murkiness. Well, he does dive the Clyde!) and it slowly got better but not until we began ascending so I'm afraid the chaps missed out on seeing this site in ALL it's glory. On most days, one can see loads of nooks and crannies and broken, terraced walls filled with all manner of life but on this occassion we only got to see a couple of huge, fat Lesser Spotted Cat Sharks, HUGE Langoustines out for a walk (in berry so they stayed there), nice big Edible Crabs, whelks, all types of Squatties, a field of Philine aperta (nudi's) and loads of Queen scallops darting around.

Langoustine out for a walk

Both chaps said they'd enjoyed the sites they'd been taken to would definitely be coming back to do them again, esp since the Creagan Inn will be re-opening shortly (9th Oct, hopefully) and will be welcoming divers. You know, they even have showers that we may use?
Looking forward to the opening!

Wild Camping/Diving Lochs Creran and Etive 23-24 July 2011

I knew the East Coast was going to be blown out this weekend. It didn't matter to me as I'd already planned to head to the west and make the most of what looked a fantastic summer's weekend.
Traffic was light on the way over to Loch Etive, but on arrival, around 7pm, we found my planned wild campsite already occupied (badly) by a couple of vehicles with sea kayaks on their roofs and two small tents taking up the space that, normally we can get four, larger tents into. Ah well, a good lesson learned here for those not used to wild camping. You have to leave in plenty of time to avoid the city dwellers grabbing your intended sites. They only have an hour's drive, whilst we have two and a half hours travel time. That's one of the reasons I leave in the early afternoon, to beat the rush...
No matter, there's another nice, elevated site at the actual harbour site... Nope, this too is occupied by Sea Kayakers!
Hmm  looks like Loch Etive isn't going to be our home this weekend. Time to head for a site I knew wouldn't be occupied. I like camping/diving in this vicinity as there are many shore dive sites all along this area of Etive, Creran and Loch Linnhe and there are a fair few decent wild campsites right on the beach/shore. The one we finally got to (about 8:30pm) is on the shores of Loch Creran, just north of the Sea Life Centre and just past Barcaldine. If you drive too fast, you'll never see it!
We had hoped to dive that evening, to try out my buddy's new single wing, but after making sure our other east coast buddies, who were only 20mins behind us now, could find us and getting our tents up it was now 9:30 or so and we needed to eat so we binned that idea for the sake of our bellies.
A quick lighting of the campfire (plenty of wood nearby) and the midges leave the campsite, just as the gentle breeze comes in to "help" them on their way.
Our neighbours for the weekend had their tent up in no time at all, despite not having set it up for many,many months, and joined us round the soothing fire. This was their FIRST time out Wild Camping ;-)
First dive of the next day was a bimble around the bay we camped in. A deceptively long walk out into the water at High Tide (it's only two or three feet deep for around 75-100m out!) then a nicely gentle but obvious gravel/cobble slope full of small colonies of the Serpulid worms that Creran is famous (worldwide) for and the usual small crittur life in lovely clear water. After this you're down a typical sandy slope with a finer grain in the depths (so keep your fins up!) and follow the contour for as far as you wish. Surprisingly, there's human debris in the water here with some bottles, car tyres and some broken crab pots lying around all attracting life. A couple of Sea Mouse were snapped, along with some fairly agressive Hermit crabs.
I've dived here a few times now and whilst there are more interesting sites in Creran, this does make a good, easy shakedown dive site, clear enough for trainees to do their shallow, openwater drills and still have plenty to see.
After a spot of lunch I took the crew down the road to Loch Etive. Only a few miles away, in glorious sunshine once again, past our intended camping sites and on to Bonawe Quarry Harbour.
After a quick but thorough site brief where I described the likely viz to be "Dark but Crystal Clear" we entered the water being as careful as possible not to disturb the gravel/silt too much.
Now, if you can't find the VERY obvious wire/cable that runs directly to the wreck (didn't I say this is a WRECK dive?) that sits over the large boulder just as you descend from the "slipway", then one can follow a bearing of 085degrees and you'll find the target.

It's a very eerie sensation for newbies to Bonawe Quarry as you fin thro gin clear water surrounded on all sides by deep(looking), dark peaty water (a bit like black coffee) in your own sunlight "bubble" with approx 10m viz! As you follow your wire/cable/bearing after about 5 minutes you'll see the wreck loom out of the dark. It's an impressive sight I can tell you! Complete, upright, wheelhouse intact, aft derrick now fallen over (but with loose ropes ready to snare the unwary swimthrougher...) but I'm thinking it won't be for long as one can now see through the plank gaps into the hold as the wood rots away, so get there soon. It's deteriorated a fair bit since I dived her first last year.

We swan around the Kingfisher for a while til I asked if everyone (all four of us) had enough air to head off to perhaps the most spectacular part of this dive. Yep, all had plenty (it is only 13-15m here afterall!) so I led the crew (slowing down every now and then... naughty me, frogkicking seems to propel one a bit quicker than most kicks...) over the somewhat featureless sandy bottom (but past some waypoint markers such as the coils of wire rope looking like a version of Nessie, and wellie boot, shoe soles, and beer cans...) to the start of the harbour mouth where I stopped at the side and beckoned the others through to explore this area themselves. Only Vicky and I saw the HUGE Red Gurnard that sat on the bottom allowing me to snap it several times, even tho I tried to point it out with my torch.
Huge boulders have been dropped in by the quarry chaps to bolster the harbour mouth sides, these have cavernous openings which hold a miriad of fishlife such as Pollack, Saithe, and Bib. There's also a veritable city of Flabellina lineata here feeding and laying their eggs on Coryphella nutans.
We could only stay here for about ten minutes (again, it's only 12m here) before reluctantly turning round leaving this city of discovery to head for home. Each of us had plenty of gas (100bar was the lowest) but the topography of the shore sides here meant there could be no easy exit up the steep sides, so it was back along the same route past the wreck once again and along the wire/cable to exit site. Arno then said he now understood what I meant by "Dark but Crystal Clear" (something he struggled to reconcile before the dive).

Back to camp for a refill of both bellies and tins then back out to the Worm Colony site for a shallow bimble over these fantastic, wierd shaped Biogenic reefs. Lindsay has been here before but it was a new site to Arno and Vicky, who commented that it's so strange to find such wondrous creatures in such open, easily accessible but never thought of as a diving site areas right by the main road. Just shows you, never discount a location just because it's by a main road. You might be surprised (as most folk are with this site!).


BBQ on the beach (well, cobbles anyway) and a nice midge deterring campfire once again (you do need to keep them away with the campfire smoke if there's no wind, tho' Avon's Skin-so-Soft does work it rots latex dive suit seals).

Sunday brought yet another wonderful, bright, sunny day with an occassional breeze. We have been so lucky (no, not luck, Planning) with the weather here, ;-).
Times were good, just, for a drift dive thro the bridge over the Creran and we kitted up at Creagan Inn (sadly now closed due to lack of trade) and took two cars back to the other side (with the O2 kit). Creran is a strange loch, in that it has two constriction points throughout it's length which makes for difficult tidal run predictions. It often has only a four hour Ebb and an eight hour flood.
We did this first drift on the flood which meant a long swim out to the middle of the loch in order to grab the flow UP the loch. The brief was, "when you see the bridge (black out above you), start swimming to the right, to the shore and surface five minutes after the bridge". This worked just fine, if not a little early, but that's no problem here.
 Huge Pollack were dancing in the drift, over loads of Dead Men's Fingers way down in the cracks and spaces of the huge boulders beneath us follwed by a field of tiny nudibranchs all laying eggs in the faster flowing waters under the Kelp.
As you often do on a drift dive, I think we gave the family of anglers quite a scare as we surfaced near them and made our way out!
We came back later, after a good lunch and re-fill from my compressor, and did the drift on the Ebb Tide. This was, as expected, a much faster drift initially as you enter straight into the flow by the large smooth boulder rock at the previous exit.
Far more fish were seen this time, along with Brittlestars, natural oysters, those tiny nudi's and indeed, a full bed of Flameshells! After the bridge the water slows down back to finning speed and it kicks you out to the right (north) where there's no easy exit, but having dived here numerous times I was able to lead the divers back to this morning's entry site, to the old ferry slipway where our cars were parked.

A thoroughly wonderful weekend altogether, topped off when Arno and his family said that whilst this was their first time wild camping, it definitely won't be the last. It seems we have another convert to the peace and quiet (even tho' this site was right by the main road) and ease of life wild camping.

DT

50metre Dive, for 6mins and Deco for 15mins on Air!

What a blast! Literally.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of experiencing (and it is SOME experience) of diving to 50m for a bottom time of 6minutes and deco of 15mins at Cumbrae on perhaps one of the best diving days of our limited summer period.

Organised by DemonDave (who now goes by the epithet of "Narked-at-Nothing" ) eventually only 6 of us managed to take part, which permitted more room for us all in the already capacious chamber.
Ah, did I not mention this was a Chamber Dive?
I should also mention, with gratitude, that whilst Dave organised it, Ross Goldie, owner of Seren Las the latest Clyde dive/charter boat, sponsored this "dive" to the full amount. Many thanks for that Ross.
On arrival, three of us who got there early, we met Ross at the Marine Station's pier for a tour of the boat. An ice, tidy and well found boat it is too, complete with a diver lift! Looking forward to repaying Ross' generosity later and taking a few dives from the Seren Lass.
Our allotted time, 10am, approached and after waiting for the stragglers (coming by various means, the Inverclyde rib and Hughie in his van) we were introduced to the Pot by Phil (Diverrepair on the forums) who runs the treatment facility with his crew.

All loose metallic items, mobile phones, catalytic hand warmers (if you had any...) and, since this is a medical facility, our outdoor shoes were left outside the Pot tho' we were allowed to take in our diving cameras and dive computers (tho' Dave forgot his camera...aargh! Narked at Nothing ).
A bucket of water, to activate some of the computers, was also taken in but with the proviso that, if anyone, due to narcosis, were to think it funny to chuck it over us in the pot, THEY would be mopping up afterwards...
The chamber is large and roomy, with two access doors and includes a re-entry/exit section to the rear and a medical access port. Windows all around, lights, sound equipment and recording video cameras.
Once the door shuts and everyone is asked if they're feeling fine the air is rushed in.

To 6 metres or so first and even to this depth your have to pretty much constantly clear your ears, far more frequently than in a normal water dive.

Another check and then down to 30m.

Wow! Far more ear clearing...it seems like we're going down really fast, but as we found later, the descent was only a 8m/minute! It felt a lot faster than that, and, due to the physics of gas compression, it also got very warm as we descended (if only it were that way in water diving).
Now, as we descended past 30m we started to hear our voices change, as if we were on Helium. Narked at Nothing  said he thought we, Hughie and me, were putting it on, til he tried to tell us so... then everyone started the chatter.  

Stew Russell (a Commercial Diver friend) had suggested we try to whistle as we got past 30m. He's right, it's impossible, but so funny (narcosis?) trying.
15m at 50m, in the peace and quiet since there's no air being blown in, flew by prompting Dave (N-a-N) to say he didn't think it was that long (see Dave, narked?)
Hughie was videoing the whole time (getting some good stuff I hope) and as we began our "ascent" I crushed the plastic bottle I'd brought in and popped the lid on. Hugh filmed this at various stages of our ascent, getting closer to the object as the quite severe misting (and sudden coldness) that occurs on ascent meant we could hardly see one another even across the small room.

Back "on the surface"

At 50m

Not much happened in respect of "re-inflation" on the ascent (as you'd expect) til we got to the 15-10m mark where the pressure differentials have their largest effect and the bottle came back to nearly full size with just a couple of dents left.
Since this was a Deco dive, we halted (with perfect buoyancy, BSAC Gold Star Rating  :Ha Ha: ) at 6m for 5mins then again at 3m, this time for 10mins then came to the "surface" where the bottle finally re-gained it's full shape.
As the door swung open (it's nice to see that they can ONLY be opened from the outside!) the temperature had equalised and we all filed out to line up alongside the Pot for some Post Pressure physiological checks (a nice, necessary touch).
In all we were down for 26min, and when asked if we had felt the Narcosis, only one person (Phil said there'd be one...) said he hadn't felt anything change, but then Dave did add that he feels Narked at The Surface anyway...hence his new name of Narked-at-Nothing
Phil then gave a most interesting presentation, with some scary anecdotes (which I'll leave for him to tell) about the system, processes and treatment of all DCI's.

All in all a very nice way to spend a morning, and it's very nice to see the dedication and professionalism of the team in action, even tho' this was just a "jolly"!
At only £25 per head (don't be conned by certain others who charge £45/person and pocket the difference) this experience is not to be missed, tho' it has to be said, it goes nowhere towards the actual money required annually to running the Pot at Cumbrae (some £180,000 was quoted) but every little counts!
Paradoxically, Phil commented that since the pot was not seeing so many divers lately, the cost implications for keeping it running were becoming difficult and they might have to re-evaluate the pricing of their services to the Scottish NHS in future.
I asked whether the reduction in casualties was due to better training etc, but the reply was, "No, there are simply fewer divers diving our waters...", as the divers numbers decline, so do the incidents, it appears.
I made the comment that since Britain's Secret Seas airing and the sudden influx of new divers to all agencies, that next year (when the newbies start venturing out on their own) things might change. (Let's hope not, in the case of chamber use at least )

Training can be REAL!

After a cold, blustery day out on the water yesterday (Sat 11th June) today seemed to be promising finale to Mr Murray's Powerboat Level 2 course. It was a gorgeous day, pretty much zero wind, tide flooding at a fair rate (1knot), taking us up towards Perth, and beautiful flat, mirror-like water only "spoiled" by the spray from our training Rhib as we sped upstream.
Yesterday, Mr Murray had performed admirably well in all his required tasks and we were going to concentrate on MOB techniques today and finish off with Anchoring, then, there would be time aplenty for him to "play" and practice anything he felt he needed more time with.
So, after a briefing on MOB procedures and getting on the plane again, "Bob" fell out of the boat (as he does frequently...;-) ) and we went into "Man Over Board!" mode.
Excellently executed (the drill that is, not Bob...) and we're off again. Rounding the Stinky Bend (if you've cruised the Tay, you'll know where I mean...) Bob fell out again, but of course, this time the wind's in a different direction. No problem for my able Candidate tho', expertly conducting the Williamson Turn  then motoring past Bob at a nice safe speed and turning to approach him from down wind (as one should) and another expertly executed scoop and Bob is back on the boat safe and sound. Marvellous, what could possibly go wrong on such a glorious day?
Ok, so now we've reached the harbour at Perth (we have permission from the Harbourmasters to carry out training there, even when the harbour is working, as long as it's all done away from the loading ;-) ) and there's not  breath of wind, nor any sign of tidal movement, let's practice more "coming Alongside".

His first attempt yesterday was amazingly spot on. So were the rest of the "practice" runs. Today's first was good too, if just a little quick due to the lack of wind, but still managed well.
The next try tho'? Well, it seemed to go horribly wrong! The speed was fine, engine engagement was fine... but the steering was all over the place! I watched as he steered one way, then the next, then back again, but we were going in different directions from what he was asking the helm to go. He was most puzzled, I was beginning to think that yesterday had been a fluke, til I noticed that as he turned the steering wheel, the hydraulic rams moved left and right but the engine just stayed put!

Jings! The bolt that held the steering ram to the engine yoke had fallen out!

On closer inspection (as we had already done earlier as part of our "make ready for sea" checks ) the securing nut was still in place on the yoke, but the bolt had dropped down and was only held in place by one of the spacer washers. This bolt had been bashed, bent and the threads had been crushed so it must have been like that for a while! Think of all those High Speed maneouvres we'd been doing on the way up here, the steering could have gone at any time!

The quick repair

No worries, we tied up at the harbourside and effected repairs. There was no way that bolt was going back into it's allotted hole, so, with a bit of the Heath Robinson (I like his family's Barley Water :-D) I looped the two working parts together using some thick electrical wire from the toolkit (as there were no bolt sets small enough to go through the holes in the steering gear) and we set off for home. My candidate expected me to take the helm, but I said "No, I'll keep an eye on the repair, you'll be fine driving us back."

Still in one piece back at the workshop

Now, being used to sailing, and experiencing the lack of instant response from tillers, he took this in his stride, even commenting about how much he was enjoying this realism of a major fault/problem being sorted and being able to carry on as if nothing had happened! So much more fun than previous training courses he'd been on.
On the journey home we still managed to complete the anchoring portion of the syllabus (doing it for real?) and a few more MOB drills and "Ran out of Fuel" too ;-). Illustrating that even with a "crippled" vessel one can still address further problems should they occur.
Once back home safely and the paperwork etc out of the way, I got down to the full repair of the steering. It's all back together, in fact, it's better than before as there are no spacer washers adding torsion to the steering bolt any more (as it should have been put together when the steering was fitted 6 years ago!).
Hey ho, all in a days work... ;-)

Oh, he passed by the way. Another happy chappy with a sparkling new photo ID'd National Powerboat Certificate Level 2.

DT's Birthday Bash to Sunart

It's becoming a bit of a recurring theme this, having my birthday bash at Loch Sunart.
Who's complaining? Not me. Fantastic weather, great (mixed agency) company and most of all a thoroughly relaxed feel to the whole 6 days. Yep, 6 days of wild camping and diving.

I arrived (as usual) a day early at the campsite I call Forest Road End (there's a hardcore track that leads...nowhere up into the former forest) and set up the camp by the shingle beach with wind breaks and timber for the campfire (as Ray Mears said, more than once, it ain't a campsite unless you have a fire going).

Such an idyllic evening, sitting by the fire listening to the nearby woodpeckers drilling away for food and in the distance two Cuckoos making their presences known, I didn't bother with an evening dive but contented myself to the peace and (relative) quiet and stillness of these wonderful surroundings.
Later, once the crossword was done and it became too dark to read, it was time to watch that ancient predecessor of the TV, the night sky. Out here in the sticks there's very little light polution and far more stars become apparent in the sky. There's still a glow in the sky in the NW even after the sun has long gone to bed, but keeping your eyes away from this area the sky simply lights up. Numerous shooting stars and satellites, which sometimes seemed to be on collision courses with the stars, and an occasional meteorite shooting across the sky at a low trajectory then simply disappearing in what must be a miriad of tiny pieces as the atmosphere proves too hard for it to hit the ground in large chunks (thankfully!).

The morning of the main reason for this timely escape (the Royal Wedding) and after a healthy breakfast and some more wood gathering, it was time for a dip.
No need to drive anywhere, this campsite sits in a little bay that affords 3 distinctly different dives all from the same spot.
I chose to simply head straight out from the stream bed and fin out to one of the low bedrock reefs where I know there's a good selection of sealife. Tall seapens abound out here, as do the gorgeous Fireworks anemones amongst other life such as seasquirts, featherstars, Queen Scallops, most crabs including those hermits carrying the Cloak anemone, during the true summer months there's loads of nudibranchs having dinner on the cnidarians (coryphella nutans) where they also lay their eggs.
On the way back, after ascending the gentle sandy slope which ends at the steeper, small boulder rocks and staying at 7-8m I came across something unusual amongst the Kelp. A mask that had dropped out of a buddy's pocket several months earlier at this spot. You might recall a search of the area being carried out on that same weekend, for the DSMB which also had fallen out, but with no luck then. The mask, although having been nibbled a bit on the outer seal was still in good condition and will, apparently, continue to be used as her back-up (unless it falls out again... ).

Marion was the next to arrive at base later that morning, and, after sorting out kit we had another bimble in the same bay, this time heading East along the slope in the vain hope of finding the DSMB, but once again, it proved elusive. Ah well, sometime...maybe.
Viz in the bay was great, after you got thro' the plankton layer, which was so thick with large plankton it is possible to see some forms! Water is still only around 9-10degrees but once you ascend into the warmer 5m layer it does warm up significantly. Still makes for a chilly time of it tho' especially as the air temp was way over 19degrees even in the shade.

Lindsay and Alistair arrived about 5pm, and once again after putting up their tents, opted for a quick dip in the same bay, whilst I got on and prepared tea for us all, Thai Chilli scallops and (Lindsay's) Egg noodles. Nice and warming fodder, perfect for dinner after a chilly dive (as you'll see next!).
Alistair came out absolutely soaked, as he had done at Duich a couple of weeks earlier. This time tho' it wasn't the worn areas on his suit, or his loose neck seal (I had repaired each of these problems in time for this trip) but we found his Apeks Dump valve had jammed open and since it had been glued in place (by a previous owner...) we couldn't replace it with one of my spares. Nevermind, I had brought my spare suit which, after a wee bit of fettling in the shoe area, suited him down to the ground so he used that for the rest of the week.

Loch Duich, April 2011

I've just returned from a great (long) weekend's diving/wildcamping at Loch Duich.
I say long weekend as I was able to arrive late on Thursday night, set up camp and have a couple of dives on my own on the Friday before the rest arrived. Checking my logbook, I saw I had missed the whole of March in diving terms! That was soon put right.
Friday morning I drove onto the beach (to leave the carparks and passing places clear) and had a nice bimble to 29m at Bier Bay, just along the road from Ratagan Youth Hostel.
It's a nice easy site, granite shingle beach entry into 2-3m then down to a sandy slope and off to 30m+ (in the distance) and you descend onto all three Scottish seapens which start at only 16m (LW).
It was here I discovered my lens had fogged up a bit (took it out of the housing the night before instead of leaving it there for the night, so it took in the moist air). Just then I saw a tiny John Dory, only 3" in height (at 15.6m) and cursed my bad luck with the misting. Hell, give it a shot. Only had time for about four shots before it flicked it's tail and zoomed off. Nevermind, I'm happy with the results.

 Back to the Campsite for lunch (didn't bother re-filling as I'd only used 60bar in the 30min dive) then back over to dive one of my favourites, the Hazel Bush to Sron nan Sabhail drift dive.

Entry Point is just in front of the car, between the two Hazel bushes

It's a neat little drift, down to 15-18m onto flatter sand after the sandy slope then drift over and around the rocky outcrops. Some of these outcrops are sharp jagged rocks whilst others are smooth single massive bulbs of volcanic rock. Quite something to see in only a short drift. These are interspersed with sandy slopes from time to time with their associated fauna i.e. scallops, then, as you leave the last outcrop it becomes a smaller sharp boulder rock slope, this means you're starting to enter the bay so it's time to start the ascent thro the (true) Kelp and onto shingle and Bladderwrack seaweeds. (I make the point about true Kelp as folk keep referring to seaweeds (of which there are loads of varieties) as Kelp. It helps with dive locations if one gets the names at least a little bit right). A very easy exit up the manmade sloping stone wall then a wee walk round the corner to the car once again.

A Quick Day Trip to Loch Linnhe, in February

Two very nice dives were had in Loch Linnhe on Sunday. For a change, it was just a fleeting single day's visit (which meant getting up way too early on a day off... ).

Marion wanted something special to mark her 500th dive (since she missed out so memorably a couple of weeks ago at Sunart...) so we (Chris P and I) took her to Loch Linnhe.
Ha! That's not special I can hear you all saying!

Well, it is when you consider it was her first time diving this particular site AND she got to see and snap Flameshells for the very first time too. 

A gentle entry into the water afforded by the rock cleared "slipway" and down into 3-4m before descending into deeper and quicker current (which wanted to take us to Fort William) til around about 15-18m when the current naturally eased off (isn't topography wonderful for creating these "anomallies"?) and down over the Flameshell bed and all those associated Brittlestars.

 M got a cracking shot of a small dogfish, then on our return from 31m we came across a large Dragonet in all it's resplendant iridescence, shining like a "Why dontcha come up and see me sometime..." beacon with his mating colours.

Ooh, there was one further wee surprise on our ascent, a small simply carved wooden box was lying on the seabed with it's screwed down lid split open. Do you need to ask what it was?
Someone's dear departed's ashes... the poly bag inside had been cut open by the little critturs and was now allowing these ashes to gently release into the waters of the Linnhe. Touching!
31m for 35min or so, 7 degree water temp.
A surface interval "marred" only by the sound of the compressor re-filling our tanks in the glorious sunshine and virtually nil wind as we brewed up the teas and coffees, then it was off down the loch to the next site.

Another first for Marion, tho' Chris had done it only once and I had done it a few times. This one has a bit of a clamber to get down to the rocks below but it's easy really, once you put a rope around one of the trees.

A nice step off into crystal clear water (at the surface) and we're now faced with getting Marion under the water in her brand new Buddy Commando (swapped kit round during lunch). We had added weights already to the harness but found we needed to add a few (4.3kg) granite rocks to the huge pockets Commandos sport, just to ensure there were no free ascents when on our return.
This was a shallower bimble to 15m or so along the lochside for about a quarter of a mile then the return journey in the 7-8m range on the way back using the surface water eddy currents to bring us to the entry point again and so that M could grab hold of the boulders should she feel light as the air went down. No such troubles were encountered even as she got to 55bar in the 7m shallows as the 60min mark came up...

Some really huge Archidoris Pseudoargus (Sea Lemons) are kicking about here in the shallows, getting ready for the spawning season no doubt.Lots of Decorator Crabs, a solitary, tiny Angular Crab

Archidoris pseudoargus (nudibranch)

and loads of Edible crabs and the usual other stuff were seen in the sometimes milky 4-5m viz (at 15m) but the viz was easily 8-10 in the shallows.

Goneplax rhomboides

Strangely, my two companions said they felt warmer on the second dive than the first, but then that could be down to the fact neither of them had been diving since Loch Sunart in the first week of January.
15m for 60min, 6-7 degrees water temp. Beautiful Winter's Day in the sun!
A nice day out in great weather and great company.

Coming soon... DT's blogspot

It's on it's way...