Fish Prodders Paradise

[Helen F H]

The trees lining the A1 were being whipped and shaken around as we made our way north, hardly a good indication. Summer leaves, full and green sail over the carriageway and into the field opposite. As we rise up the hill out of Eyemouth and get our first glimpse of the head, the telltale white line where the sea meets stone heralding a rough few minutes was, thankfully, not visible. The wind was offshore meaning the expanse of rock afforded this corner of the North Sea some shelter.

We were picked up off the slipway as the tide was out and headed out to the Skelly, a dive I have done many times before, indeed it was my first dive at St Abbs years ago. The Skelly is a variable site, with depending on your direction, anything from relatively flat bedrock with the occasional cleft, to sandy bottomed gullies with multicoloured anemones and dead mens fingers.
We dropped into 15m of water to find a small gully running west, here the rocks were covered in dead mens fingers, seasquirts and small sponges, the visibility was excellent, at easily 10m+, some of the best I have had this year. Brian had his camera with him so plenty of piccies were taken throughout the dive.

As we gradually move shallower the underwater scenery gets more and more spectacular, helped by the visibility. It struck me that some of these rock formations, if they were on the surface, would have a strange name their own gift shop and a picnic area. Massive boulders, walls, undulating sandy areas and shoals of Pollack in the distance, shadows with hints of movement in the green, always just that little bit too far away. We were treated to the view of a few solitary Pollack flipping onto their sides and rubbing themselves on the sandy ridges to remove the parasites from their scales.

A section of wreckage lay on the sand in front of me, looking suspiciously like the blade off a massive propeller I was disappointed to find that it was rusty! Bugger. A quick session of “who can find the smallest nudi” has hopefully resulted in some good piccies, as several different species were found Facelna bostoniensis, Favorinus branchialis, Goniodoris nodosa and Onchidoris muricata. I think.

A scorpion fish hid almost perfectly camouflaged among the soft corals and seaweed, only giving itself away by moving.

Into a kelpy area and the slight surge is far more noticeable as we are up to about 10m. Shoals of tiny fish hiding amongst the brown, almost golden bronze fronds, velvet swimming crabs going “c’mon, come and have a go if you think you are hard enough….grrrrrr” from their rock homes, then losing their bottle and all legs whirring scoot off to hide. A nice ballan wrasse circles around but is not as tame as those found on the Cathedral rock or other sites. Some large edible crabs sit in recesses in the rock, eating detritus washed in by the surge, they brace themselves against the rock when we get too close to them, wedging their claws and shell against the sides to prevent them being dislodged.

Our 60 minutes is soon up, far too soon. I could easily have doubled that time and still been happy, although I think I might as well not bothered surfacing as Paul would have killed me for keeping him away from his pint.
A bit of a faff with the SMB, I still need practice with this to get it looking as it should (plus some feedback from Brian), although it didn’t help that my fingertips were really numb. Suspect the drygloves may get worn for next week.

Thanks to Brian for an excellent dive as ever and to Paul for taking us out.
If anyone wants to join us we have him booked for Tuesday next week, 7pm ropes off. I think he also has space for Saturday – if the weather holds the vis is excellent so no excuses! I will be at a bloody wedding *huff*.

[Justin Owen]

just like being there...!

[Keiron]

Originally Posted by Justin Owen

just like being there...!

Soon, soon . . . . .

[Spacehopper]

Originally Posted by Porg

The trees lining the A1 were being whipped and shaken around as we made our way north, hardly a good indication. Summer leaves, full and green sail over the carriageway and into the field opposite. As we rise up the hill out of Eyemouth and get our first glimpse of the head, the telltale white line where the sea meets stone heralding a rough few minutes was, thankfully, not visible. The wind was offshore meaning the expanse of rock afforded this corner of the North Sea some shelter.

FFS Helen, have you been reading George Elliot again?

Nice report though

[Georgina]

I love St Abbs. Many fond memories of August Bank Holiday weekends camping and diving there with Guildford BSAC.

Great report.

[SilvaFish]

Hi Helen,
Great report. Missing something though..... PICTURES!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!

Cheers,
Lou