Sunny St Abbs

[Helen F H]

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.

[NotDeadYet]

And thanks to you for organising it. Just warn me the next time before you say "have you seen how big my blob is?"

It's a long way to Anchorage as well

[Scuby]

Yep, been a good day, and very good to meet you all! Just about made it home alive (started playing games (like "spot the car" to keep myself awake - surprisingly easy on a motorway ).

Now, since i've just woke up maybe its time to do something with kit

Cheers everyone, especially Helen for organising it!

David

[Brian Donaghy]

Yes, nice dive, in spite of my suspicious navigation. We didn't cover much ground did we?

Max depth: 22.7m, Ave Depth: ~15m, Vis: ~5m; BT: 62min.

Was very upset that we were almost the first back on the boat until I realised all the others had twinsets or RBs and didn't get longer dives than us (just spent longer dragging their arses into the water).

Originally Posted by Porg

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.

Helen, you really should listen to the Skipper's brief - he clearly said not to swim up amongst the rocks (as usual) - I don't know what you were thinking (as usual) Personally, I thought that was the best part of the dive. Although I really enjoyed that deep gully at ~21m as well.

I hope it wasn't a long way to Manchester.

Pics:

[Helen F H]

Excuse me! Who led who up that gully? Eh?

Corking pics mate, even if it does have some ugly looking black clad sea creature in them.

[NotDeadYet]

Brian,

what's the code for eating a chocolate muffin while sending a text while changing the CD while doing around 95? Journey wasn't too bad, I had, er, excellent company for most of it if you know what I mean!

Great pics!

Cheers,

Stuart

[Foggy]

I like the pictures:-

1. left post leak = if you're DIR call the dive

2. Left post and centre leak!!

3. Left post leak

Very nice.

Cheers Paul

PS I'm, just jealous

[Helen F H]

Yeah i know they leak. Will get it sorted out.

[edit] the "middle leak" is actually bubbles coming out of the holes in my hood, but never mind....

[grim reaper]

Was very upset that we were almost the first back on the boat until I realised all the others had twinsets or RBs and didn't get longer dives than us (just spent longer dragging their arses into the water).


maybe we did get in the water after you but as for "dragging our arses" my kit was all ready to go and we were in the water within 5 mins of the last of the bubble heads, which by the way meant we had a very quiet and peaceful dive without the sound of all those wasted gasses rattling away.
We would much have perfered to go in the water first but the room for kitting up was limited and taken up by people who could see that we needed space to get kitted up but thought of themselves first, but being the gentlemen that we are nothing was said and we cut short our planned dive so that said bubbleheads didn't have to wait about on a rocking and rolling cold boat waiting for us

[Scuby]

Originally Posted by grim reaper

We would much have perfered to go in the water first but the room for kitting up was limited and taken up by people who could see that we needed space to get kitted up but thought of themselves first, but being the gentlemen that we are nothing was said and we cut short our planned dive so that said bubbleheads didn't have to wait about on a rocking and rolling cold boat waiting for us

Anyone going diving needs space to kit up, rebreathers aren't in any way unique in that respect. And as our kit was next to the entry point it makes sense to get that out of the way first, no?

David