| Last weekend I did three shore dives at St Abbs and Cullercoats (just North of the Tyne) and they were great.
I had heard horror stories about trying to get in from the shore at St Abbs, but the sea was flat calm and our first dive was on slack water so the tide was still really high. There was a long walk to the entry point around St Abbs Harbour, so I was glad I had brought my 10L tank, and a bit of a scrabble down the rocks to get in but nothing too taxing. We did Cathedral Rock and I saw big wrasse, pipefish, blennies, three different kinds of nudibranch’s, dead men’s fingers, lobsters and crabs. The viz was up to 10m and I got a depth of 14.8m with a dive time of 58 minutes.
By the second dive the water had dropped quite a bit, but entry and exit were still manageable, although I wouldn’t fancy trying to get out if there was a swell.
We did Green Carrs and I saw as much as on the first dive, got to 15m again and the dive lasted 65 mins. There was no noticeable surge or current despite being long past slack water by this time (I understand slack hits St Abbs/Eyemouth at 90mins after high tide).
Sunday I did Brown’s Bay in Cullercoats. Viz was pants at 2-3 metres and grainy, but I saw pipefish, scorpionfish, flatfish, blennies (I think they were blennies?) lobsters and crabs. My mates went in there yesterday and played with an octopus.
Other North East/Borders shore dives I can recommend are Eyemouth, Beadnell, Howick, South Shields and Roker in Sunderland. The only problem with shore diving local to myself in South Shields and Sunderland is that being between two rivers the viz is often badly affected by the wash-out from the Tyne and the Wear. Slack here is about 1 hour after high tide.
HTH
Helen xxx
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Last edited by Buoyant Babe : 07-06-06 at 12:39 PM.
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