Southend,Argyll

[Duff_Daddy]

Just got back from a week in Southend, Argyll near the Mull of Kintyre, managed to get 6 dives in during the week around the island of Sanda.

The dive site



First dive was a bit of a disaster for me, the plan was to drop in on a wall at about 20m follow the wall which is full of life for a while and then do a u turn and follow the sea bed collecting tea, (Scallops).

Dropped in and on to the shotline but was underweighted due to leaving my pony off, I called to the Rib for some more weight and was handed a lump hammer then descended with the hammer still in my hand, my buddy who was waiting at the bottom of the line looked and at me as if to say WTF** did you go back for your hammer for!

At the bottom it was obvious that slack had been calculated wrong as it was running like a train, Buddy sent up his SMB and we set off on a drift, saw a few scallops and picked them up as I passed but whilst getting out my goodie bag with one hand (the other pinning scallops to my chest) I lost control of my buoyancy, I jettisoned the scallops I could only slow my ascent but not stop it , total dive time 11 minutes.

Dive 2

Diving on the wreck of Byron Darnton, a liberty ship sunk in 1946 when it ran aground on a reef, current was running again so the dive was more like horizontal rock climbing! Found a few pieces of the wreck but it was hard work.

Dive 3+4

Reef dives off Glunimore Reef and Patersons rock, slack at last!! Managed to get the camera out this time! Loads of life, a carpet of sponges, dead mans fingers and plumrose anemones spread out before us with congers peering out and dogfish ignoring us and edible crabs running for cover ,while the velvet swimming crabs seemed to challenge us! Two enjoyable dives









Dive 5

Diving on a slope near Patersons rock, we were looking for debris that had been swept over as the rock has had many casualties over the years, after searching the slope at about 33m we ascended to a plateau at about 25m and came across an area with the remains of a wooden ship, mainly metal ribs with big copper pins about 18-29 ins long and two anchors one about 4-5ft long (see pic) and one about 7 ft, we also came across a piece timber with metal straps that we assumed to be the rudder.

By this time we had got into deco and the current was picking back up, so we deployed the dsmb and drifted off. On the surface we tried to get transits but there was a bit of a mist.



Dive 6

Guess what? We tried to get back on the same site, but although getting on the slope we swam along at about 25m we didn’t come across the plateau, although there was plenty to see, we were disappointed not to investigate the wreck further, even the lobster we picked up had the audacity to be berried! Oh Well ! we’ll be back.

[Brian Donaghy]

Originally Posted by Duff_Daddy

...follow the sea bed collecting tea, (Scallops)...was handed a lump hammer...my buddy who was waiting at the bottom of the line looked and at me as if to say WTF** did you go back for your hammer for!

Reminds me of that Monty Python sketch with the mouse piano.

Nice report.