Five go on an adventure!!!!

At our AGM in November, a number of dates were planned for some mid week diving, the idea being to extend the number of dives our members could attend, or just have a lazy day off work. The 2010 inaugural mid week trip took place on Wednesday the 5th May and was a resounding success. After a bit of uncertainty with numbers and the odd hiccup, it was decided that St Abbs would make a great choice.

St Abbs Harbour

There are many fantastic scenic and wreck dive sites around St Abbs typically having walls or boulders covered in anemones of all kinds, including some less common species like the horseman anemone, soft corals and other filter-feeding species that like fast moving water. The shallows tend to have dense kelp with many fish species particularly wrasse in the shallow and more sheltered areas, wolf fish can be seen if you keep a good eye out for them (none for us though).

A quick call to a local skipper and the boat was booked. (Nice one JC). As there were only 5 of us going, Mark and Janine volunteered to take their Camper Van so we could all travel up together, a great idea and it gave us all chance to catch up during the drive. Thanks to them both for this and especially to Mark for driving us all there and back.  The 5 intrepid voyagers for this outing were Mark, Janine, JC, Steve and Len.

There were no problems with the journey, well that is until we were about to turn off to St Abbs….. of all the junctions for there to be an accident, the police were out in force (pardon the pun) closing off the road, as it was we did not have to wait too long but it provided us with a great conversation of why they were closing the road, directing/stopping traffic etc…especially when the damaged cars by now were to the side of the main road causing no problem!!!!

On arrival we were met by Pete Gibson, our skipper for the day…oh and also an empty car park. This mid week diving sure gives more room for parking, setting up, getting changed etc. Pete is happy to take out small groups of divers rather than needing big numbers which is great. Also at £12.50 per person per dive it is excellent value.
We kitted up, loaded onto Pete’s boat the Selkie and headed to our first dive of the day.

Skellies Hole is a sheltered bay surrounded by cliffs and rocks where the walls are covered with kelp, soft corals, sponges and anemones. A sandy channel leads to the Skells, an area with huge boulders covered in soft corals and gullies covered in anemones, heading out into deeper water to rock fingers and gravelly sand covered with brittlestars.

After a quick brew and sweets on the boat we headed back to the harbour for a break/Surface Interval and for refills.  We did a quick recce of the area for a potential future shore dive on Seagull rock, had a bite to eat and a coffee before heading back out for our second dive of the day at:

Black Carr are the next large group of rocks north of Wuddy Rocks. The site includes a jumble of very large boulders with marine life including anemones and Dead Men's Fingers etc. It was during this dive we discovered 2 interesting items, one from the present and one from the past.

The first one (the present) was what looked like a television at first glance and then after inspection revealed to be a JRC plotter!!  Obviously a newer model became available and this one was dumped.  The next item, (the past), was an extremely large ships anchor…not one of those new type but one like Popeye the sailor’s tattoo!! This was covered in sea life and growth indicating it had been there for a long time. We continued our dive enjoying some good drift and then headed for the surface and back to the boat.

 JRC Plotter

We leisurely loaded up and headed for home. On the way back we discussed the days diving, especially the anchor and where it may have come from. We surmised it may be from the Glanmire (an armed steamer built in 1888 and sunk in 1912), a wreck dive at about 30m depth just east of St Abbs lighthouse that struck Black Carr Rock. Maybe we will dive this later in the year?

Overall this was a great day out. The weather, company, diving and skipper/boat were excellent. If all mid week trips are to be like this, we had best plan some more. Thanks again to all involved for a top day out.

Random Photo's

"Eye" can see you!!

Janine modelling for Mark

Look at all of that room

Sometimes, (but not this time) we drink our red wine from a glass not a plasic bottle

The youngest (and sleepiest) member of the team on the way home.  At least it stopped the children looking in the window though!!!!