I Love My Job!

I really do love my job. It has been mentioned many times before that what I do for a living, the rest of the world does for fun! Indeed, "mucking about" in boats IS fun although it is advisable to have, at least, some guidance/tuition in your chosen method of "fun making". It's even more important to take some training (from professionals in the field) when your "fun making" also involves intentionally putting your friends into the water and picking them back up again.
This last weekend (24th and 25th March 2012) we had another batch of divers from Dundee University Sub-Aqua Club join us out on the penninsula for the second Loch Sunart Powerboat Course (of 2012). As with the first one a couple of weeks ago, this one also included Wildcamping on the shore. This Wildcamping (in my opinion) adds a certain extra fun element to the weekend's training and it helps keep the costs down. One only pays for the car's fuel and the ferry crossing, no extra's in the way of B&B or Hotel accomodations (that are usaully fully booked out here anyway, even in the early season! Best to leave that accomodation to the "softer" types ... ;-) ). Not only that, but you don't often get three Buzzards flying 50m above your head, nor hear the Woodpeckers drilling trees for grubs, or the Owls "towit- towooing" back and forth across the loch, nor see the seals popping up and down in front of you from your "brick tents", now do you?

How often can you see both the sunrise and the sunset from the "front door" of said "brick tent"?
Granted, we're only yards from the main (ONLY) road to Ardnamurchan Point and the villages along the penninsula, but it's definitely NOT Piccadilly Circus here, vehicles are few and far between (tho' you do notice when the ferry has landed...).
The weather was just perfect, all weekend, for our training and camping out. Bright sun with just a slight breeze on the water (and sufficient onland to keep any early season midges away). After the normal theory/"classroom" work of charts, tides, weather and tying things up with the essential (possibly lifesaving) bends and knots and the boat familiarisation session, we kitted up into our drysuits and set off to launch the boat.
Loch Sunart/Salen has the great fortune to have a very forward looking and progressive couple in their midst these days, in the very friendly shapes of Mark and Jan, the new owners of Salen Jetty. Mark has been building a new quayside section which provide more car/trailer parking which should be finished very soon.
Launching (including recovery !) fees are just £6 per boat and there's only a tiny fee for car/trailer parking added if you leave your car whilst you're out on the water. A bargain, especially as one can launch (or recover) at ANY state of the tide. I launched/recovered my 5.5m Rhib here 2-3 weeks ago at the Equinotial Low Springs and had no trouble at all!
With the boat launched (easily), we headed round to pickup Arno back at the campsite as he drove the Landrover and trailer back (well, the compressor in the Landy would be needed later...).
A great day out on the water in the gentle (too gentle sometimes...) breeze, with slow speed driving and awareness, then faster speed handling, boat trimming, planing etc all done and, I'm pleased to say, with loads of very apt and keenly thought out questions forthcoming, all of which I trust were answered fully enough (it's great to see/hear the students being keen/eager to progress).
One of the great benefits of holding this training out here is the opportunity (not to be missed) of diving from the training vessel and dropping/recovering divers with an instructor onboard as the students do the driving. So, after the day's coursework was completed, it was diving time!
One of the team chose not to dive (no matter, she's coming out to stay for a week, there'll be plenty of diving then...) so took the controls and after the divers chose their dive site (from their own chartwork) we dropped them off and circled above. One of the requirements of being a good dive boat skipper means never losing sight of your divers' location in the water. There are a few easy/simple common sense things to help in this regard. One of which seems to escape some drivers... that is, to STAY with your divers in the water! Even on a Boat Assisted Shore Dive your boat remains the source of any help that may be required (it has the O2 kit onboard for example, and the people to apply it!). I often hear of clubs dropping off divers and returning to shore to pickup more divers...

I hasten to add, this is NOT my boat leaving divers in the water...

 Disaster Waiting to Happen!
Quite simply, DON'T LEAVE YOUR DIVERS- plan your day better!
Our divers surfaced neatly (on a DSMB) and without incident (as it should be) and were brought aboard in a neat and organised fashion and when all were seated and comfortable we headed for home and tea.

Dinner that night was pretty much a meat fest. Arno had his BBQ working up a storm with 30 or so Brotwurst and some Peppers and I had 30-40 chicken legs marinated in a couple of sauce mixes I'd prepared (for a previous trip that was postponed due to frozen ground) cooking in the wok on the campfire (I'd forgotten how much chilli had gone into one of the mixes, but it was all devoured with gusto).
Full bellies and a couple of shots of Arno's whisky coupled with some decent wine spread around after a great day on the water meant that sleep should come easily to us all that night...  ;-)

More to come... shortly

Loch Sunart, Assignment Trip Feb 2012

I had a couple of crackin' dives today at Loch Sunart (where I'm "on assignment" for the next two weeks and again a week after that for 6 weeks).

I needed to reset the mooring I organised for a Swallows and Amazon's trip last year at Forest Road End so we started there.
It was a very low water this morning so the pip buoy was clearly visible in the water and made it an easy surface swim out to sort it all out.
After that we descended into a balmy 8metres and cruised along the bottom on the starting Flood Tide, all the way up to Scot's Pine Bay where I recognised the outer reef formations and we surfaced in the glorious sun around the headland to SPB.

We dropped the kit by the roadside and Chris walked back to FRE to bring the truck up... (well, it's HIS car... of course he'd have to walk back... [wink].

A short drive from there to Camas Torsa for lunch, only to find "someone" had forgotten the milk for the coffees... (Chris!, tsk, tsk)
Bleugh! Black coffee, and with the extra bleugh factor of a petrol taint to the coffee! His rapid burner/cooker fuel tank had sprung a leak and dripped petrol on the mugs. (Hmm, let me tell you, he now knows NOT to put the cooker in with the food!)

Anyway, the tide was still so low 1 1/2 hours later that the mooring blocks were still visible so it was a long walk into the sea.
Another crackin' dive in the same 8m+ viz all the way to the second reef (24m bottom) and back over the top again and back to the entry point. There was a HUGE Ling in it's lair under one of the deep mooring blocks along with loads of hermits and edible crabs all around.
Didn't even need the torches at 24m as the sun was beaming down.

Lucky me, I'm here for a wee while and if the weather stays like this, it's gonna be a cracker!

20 Years Knowledge Crammed into a Two Day Course...

Earlier in the year (yes, honestly!) I was asked to provide some training that would be useful to a chap who's just found himself another dream job, Diving Safety Officer, in the Caribbean for three years!

Now, for this task, the BSAC Outboard and Boat Maintenance SDC, whilst good in content in itself, didn't go far enough into detail and methodologies or the practicalities of boat (hardboat and inflatable) repair and maintenance nor does it deal with suit repairs.
His mother had already recommended me to him for his Powerboat Tuition and he did his PB2 with me in the late Autumn last year.
I've been looking at putting together some new courses that would include everything listed above and this was a great opportunity to make some good progress with it all. A willing guinea pig had been "found".

Well, he thoroughly enjoyed his two days at FPTC/DT's Dive Store cramming as much info and skillsets in to those hours as humanly possible. He was shattered after day one where he'd been Repairing Gelcoat Damage, Creating Fibreglass Structures, Hypalon Boat Tube Repairs (inc talk on PVC repair), Drysuit Repair and Alteration and Wetsuit Repair.
Tuesday saw him learn about Twostroke and Fourstroke engines and outboard gearboxes, with all the permitted maintenance schedules, "Get me Home" fixes and finally, Fault/Problem diagnosis and resolution, all practical "hands on" learning throughout.

Here's what he had to say afterwards (from Facebook)
James C S Squires
Would like to thank the FPTC and DIVETRAMP for not only a great power boat training and skills but some amazing insights into boat maintenance and techy stuff. A great example of how training should be done and would recommend it to anyone anytime. Has a wealth of knowledge to give thats just invaluable. Thank you so much. AS soon as i am back from the sun and white sands i will be back to get more of the same from one of the most natural instructors i have ever had the pleasure of learning from.

His mum, who initially recommended me, is non other than Clare Peddie, BSAC Chairperson. James is a fully qualified PADI Diving Instructor who last year returned to UK after three years working as a Diving Instructor in Asia, now he's off to the Caribbean, Turks and Caicos Islands.

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!