St Abbs Midweeker

[Helen F H]

Just got back in from a stonking few days at St Abbs.

Sunday
Rolled into the car park to be faced with Dave Willo in his underwear.......

Out for an unexpected dive to the (sort of) skelly, i say sort of, as in it would have been if we hadnt got horribly lost and i failed in my duty of finding Dave an octopus.

Jen cooked us our tea which was fantastic, we had the most mashed potato on the planet (it was used as an excuse to be 'sampled' by the various mashers), well done that woman! Polite conversation was made around pee valves etc. Honest.

Monday
First dive was the Black carr. Found an excellent swim through at around 20m which scared the hell out of Gary (what, you mean i should warn my buddy im about to disappear in a hole?), and also I found Dave an octopus hiding in a hole which redeeemed myself from the day before. Vis was corking at easily 10m+

Second dive was Tyes Tunnel which was the first time i have managed to get into it - very very good dive, well worth it. In through a smallish diamond shaped hole and down a short chimney into a slightly belled out area. Small dark smooth stones litter the bottom. Swim through the darkness where the walls are covered in sponges and sea squirts to where the green light comes through the ceiling, from here, head down to where the base of an enourmous boulder bulges downward and out into the light. Fantastic.

Myself and Jen jumped in for a third breif splash to free a lobster pot for a fisherman, which was quite an effort! Jen's well aimed kick finally got it free from the boulders where it was wedged and we hauled it free.

A meal in the Anchor made a very nice end to a good days diving.

Tuesday
I really cant remember, its at this point it all starts to jumble up into one great big wonderful dive.... We did a dive, it was good

Myself and Dell jumped in to free a pot, but ended up finding the wrong one to start with - a quick bounce to 10m and back. Then off to the right one about 20m away and a very interesting 10 minutes spent with Dell down a hole and me hauling a rope! How the hell this pot had got where it was i will never know!

We did cathedral rock as a second dive which was excellent - jumping in from the boat right infront of the archway. The low tides meant we got a bit stuck in the fairway which is no fun if you are busting for the toilet! I was doing the bladder dance all around the boat. Dave was telling his pee valve story which really made me get close to having an accident in the suit! Evil git! To top it all off i got stuck in the damp bag when the zip got stuck and had to get rescued with the pliers.

Since we were still stuck another pot was freed off as word seemed to get around there was a diver willing to do this for them!

Team Willo departed for Bamburgh Castle leaving myself, Gary, Dell and Tell to do the afternoon dive - i think this was again around the Skelly, but i cant be sure

A curry in Eyemouth and an early night which turned out to be a good idea as the wind (both inside and out) picked up and i honestly thought we wouldnt get out today. We also decided that curry would be a good trim indicator. I will leave that one to your imaginations....

Wednesday
Early start and onto the Glanmire for a nice dive, a little excessive on the deco, but better be safe than sorry! Vis had reduced down to 8 - 10m, and it was fairly green. Lots of big ling and a nice conger hiding up a pipe, plus a few big lobbies among the broken sections of plate on the shingle sea floor.
Dell and Tell depart for the south leaving three of us, myself, Gary and his son, Jason who is excellent in the water! I somehow managed to use 50 or 60 bar (cant remember if i went in with 200 or 210) for a 30m dive with a 50 minute dive time Gills are obviously forming.

Second dive was again to Cathedral rock, where we had a mess about in the archway and a pootle about on the reef. A breif stop so i could run through a couple of drills and Jason's first shutdown went no problems.

I then transferred my kit to Topline and had my third dive of the day - a drift across the skelly with 2Wheeldiver - his suit unfortunatley flooded but he didnt let on until we had done 45 minutes! He must have been frozen! Well done that man.

Fourth dive was the Black Carr where i joined two guys from HMS Ocean - we got hopelessley lost which seems to be the norm with me, found a really nice swimthrough and a cave which hid a huge lobbie

Quotes from the trip:

"You see these gray hairs? Every one of them is from a dive with you!" - Gary


Big thanks to Billy and Alison, all of the teams and Paul on Topline.

[Johnny Boy]

Porg,

Can I just say that you seem to basically live at st abbs! You must live pretty close to frequent such a wonderful place. Hope i bump into you some time. I get to go only three or four times a year! boo hoo.

[Helen F H]

I was going to call it "Confessions of a dive whore" but i dont think it would have gone down too well

[Simon TW]

Ohhh I want to be there, two more days.

Are you there at weekend Helen?

[Helen F H]

Aye, that i am.

[divingniknaks]

Great report Helen.

After speaking to Willo yesterday about it, I think I'm going to have to make the effort to join you guys really soon. Long way for me but worth it, it seems.

Well in.


.

[Helen F H]

Piccies! From 2wheeldiver

[Dave Crampton]

Originally Posted by Simon TW

Ohhh I want to be there, two more days.

Are you there at weekend Helen?

I can make a couple of dives Saturday Simon, I'd give you my moby BUT YOUR INBOX IS FULL.

Dave C

[Helen F H]

Spot the non DIR diver. I did consider blacking out your face mate

(And yes, i did flip that D ring round the right way before we dived!)

[Paul Oliver]

Nice report, so whats that fish in the big picture?