Adventure Blog Scotland | Water

Diving in Scotland - West v East - Part II

March 29, 2009 on 8:40 pm | In Diving | No Comments

Off to the east coast - St Abbs to be precise - for a spot of shore diving. It’s quite a different environment and saw us divers swimming through and emerging from kelp.

The first lot of images was taking by professional photographer Gary Doak and you can see more of his work on http://pa.photoshelter.com/c/garydoakphotography:

And here are some of my first ever underwater pictures too - not bad for a first attempt I think. Watch out for the feeders on the sea urchin.

And don’t forget to let me know whether you prefer the east or the west!

Yvonne Press
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Has been diving for six years, most of it in warm water. She started exploring Scotland's waters in 2008.

Diving in Scotland - West v East - Part I

March 29, 2009 on 8:06 pm | In Diving | No Comments

Is diving better on the east or the west coast? Good question, and there is no easy answer I’m afraid, so have a look at this post and the following one to decide for yourself.

March brought some amazing visibility and ideal conditions for underwater photography. These pictures were taken on the west coast in Loch Fyne. The photographer was David Gilchrist who also provided the Latin names for the species. Enjoy!

Sealoch anemone (protanthia simplex)

Common hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus) eating eggs

Short spined sea scorpion (myoxocephalus scorpius) and harbour crab (liocarcinus depurator) with the crab trying to eat eggs and being head butted by the fish

Long clawed squat lobster (munida rugosa) and its cavemate, a leopard spotted goby (thorogobius ephippiatus)

Lesser spotted dogfish (scyliorhinus canicula)

and finally, a rare picture of a cold water diver (homo sapiens scubafrigus)

This was the west - the east is next.

Yvonne Press
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Has been diving for six years, most of it in warm water. She started exploring Scotland's waters in 2008.

DYOD - Dive your own dinner

February 12, 2009 on 10:02 pm | In Diving | No Comments

Like any other outdoor sport, diving makes you hungry. And while chocolate biscuits may be a great way to fight that initial ravenous feeling, there are more sophisticated and adventurous ways to come by your dinner – diving for your own scallops is one of them.

I had the chance to dive for scallops last autumn during a weekend trip to the Sound of Mull of Scotland’s west coast. The Sound of Mull is one of Scotland’s prime dive sites with a range of wrecks to explore as well as a selection of scenic dives all of which are relatively easy to reach from the village of Lochaline.

You’ll want an experienced skipper to help you judge the tides and weather and Lochaline Dive Centre (www.lochalinedivecentre.co.uk) is a good place to start. The village is actually on the mainland and serves as one of the gateways to the Isle of Mull.

But back to the scallops: conditions in the water weren’t going to be ideal on this Sunday as the previous day had witnessed one of the worst storms in the area for decades. It’s not me saying that, it was our skipper at breakfast time calling off any diving for the rest of the day. Sunday dawned and the weather had calmed down considerably although we would still be limited in our choice of dive sites.

Luckily, though, we managed to do a fantastic dive exploring the wreck of the Thesis in the morning. It’s one of the best kept wrecks in the area, giving divers plenty of nooks and crannies to explore as wella s the chance to swim through the ribs that remain of the ship.Come lunchtime, we were ready to get back into the 10 degree water. Apart from the usual scuba equipment, we took large nets and descended to up to 20 metres to hover just above the sandy ground.

The current was strong and made for an effortless dive taking us past squat lobsters and small scallops at first. Looking out for large, fully grown ones we actually had to hurry up and grab them before the current swept us further. While the dive itself was completely effortless, there was many a scallop I simply was too slow to grab and collect.

After about 30 minutes, the net was full and we slowly ascended, planting a signal buoy to make it easier for the boat to pick us up. “This was more like acrobatics”, instructor Paul joked after we were back on the boat.

Back on board, the scallops were shucked and divided evenly among everyone on the trip. And dinner that night tasted more delicious than ever before.

Yvonne Press
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Has been diving for six years, most of it in warm water. She started exploring Scotland's waters in 2008.

Welcome to cold waters!

October 13, 2008 on 2:06 pm | In Diving | No Comments

Up until three months ago I was what you call a ‘warm water diver’ - someone who’d happily spend a large part of their sunny holiday in the water but hadn’t seriously considered braving Scotland’s waters. By July I’d finally had enough of people telling me how great diving was in Scotland and shaking their heads when they found out I hadn’t tried it and signed up for a drysuit course with Deep Blue Scuba to add to my diving certification.

I can only recommend it! Divers will know that down there is a whole new world waiting to be discovered and a well-fitting drysuit will make sure you stay just that - dry - and warm. Thus equipped, I took my first tentative steps into the 12 degree warm ?!? Loch Long on the west coast on a beautiful sunny July day and only little later was hovering above the so-called Anemone Garden, an amazing array of plants shimmering in all different colours.

Another, possibly more exciting, easily accessible dive site is St Abbs on the east coast near Eyemouth. Ample parking in the harbour master’s car park makes it convenient to kit up before meeting your skipper and motoring out of the harbour. There is a selection of dive sites here, which gives you plenty of choice but also accommodates different weather and water conditions. St Abbs is a favourite with Edinburgh-based divers because it’s close to home and there’s always something new to see. The Letterbox, which we went for recently, on my first dive after the course, is a swim-through under some rock and also allows you to see lobsters and other sealife. St Abbs is great for crab and wolffish too, and it’s fun to spend your dive looking into the nooks and crannies of rocks to see what might be hiding in there.

I have to admit, on this dive, I never actually went for the swim-through. My ears weren’t equalising the water’s pressure properly, so being a coldwater novice and all I just felt too pre-occupied to venture into the dark. Dives since have been much more enjoyable and I’m off to the Sound of Mull on the west coast to take a look at the wrecks there in a couple of week’s time - watch this space for updates!

Pictures courtesy of Deep Blue Scuba, www.deepbluescuba.co.uk

Yvonne Press
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Has been diving for six years, most of it in warm water. She started exploring Scotland's waters in 2008.