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!