Ok, so i lied, it wasnt that sunny, but it was St Abbs
Up bright and early....well.....early, so one out of two isnt bad, to be picked up by Scuby and blast up the quiet A1 to Scoutscroft for a fill and then down to the harbour.
The sea was a tad lumpy from the brisk northerly, with white horses building around the head and a fairly significant swell making the white line between the grey water and black rocks stand out even from Eyemouth.
Bugger.
Onto the boat and kit up on our way over to the Wuddy sort of area, the only flat bit of sea accessible. In we pop down to around 13m for a nice pootle over a large areas of boulders and patches of sand. A few small lobbies hiding in cracks and a crab which was, quite frankly, huge. This thing was like a dinner plate with claws and there was no way i was going to contemplate putting any appendage i wished to keep anywhere near it.
A blue planet moment was had when a loose shoal of tiny fish swam right over us, thousands of the little buggers filling the water with their shimmering bodies, catching the light in their silent journey to sheltered waters closer inland.
A nice flat area beckoned and i did some drills inc a shutdown (which hurt and was slow) and managed to bugger the seal on my mask when i did a flood and clear. Shot the bag and up we went, somewhat hampered by the mask constantly re-flooding so making it hard to see the ascent rate.
Back on the boat and into Abbs for something to eat at Springbank Cottage (mmmm special hot choccy) and then wait for the boys to arrive.
The boat was a little fuller for the afternoon, with myself, Scuby, Lovely Rob (non-YD), Notdeadyet (Stuart) and Brian plus some other guys. I was diving with Brian who had agreed to run through some more drills with me. No sooner had we sorted our buoyancy out he hit me with an OOA (which i hope was ok) which i returned (again hoping it was ok). Again a shutdown which was again painfully slow with my wrist hurting a lot but it was functional if nothing else. Off for a pootle around the Black Carr with loads to see, deep gullies with dead mens fingers, postage stamp flatties stuck to rocks, small lobbies and acres of brittlestars all waving their legs in the water like fans at some underwater concert.
It did get rather interesting at one point where we went up one gully and the horizontal swell shoving us inwards turned into a vertical swell with my computer screaming blue murder with every upsurge. Rapidly up to around 1.5m finding the water was full of tiny bubbles reducing the vis to inches in the swirling white water and the strange sight of entire spaces of rock appear and dissapear as the water coursed over them was a slightly surreal environment. With seeming inability to descend i did see the yawning chasam of the incident pit open up before me and it looked a) painful b) expensive c) stressful, so ditched all the air from both wing and suit until i managed to get horizontal and finned like fuck out of there!
On the ascent i managed to get sat on by a jellyfish which Brian unstuck (thank youuuu).
Off to the pub for a few scoops, and yes, it really is a long way to San Fransisco
Thanks to Paul for taking us out (diving again on Tuesday night if anyone wants to join us - 7pm ropes off) and thanks to everyone for turning up.
