Moray Firth - Top Weekend - Top Cat

[Ron Mahoney]

Back from a long weekend up in Lossiemouth diving aboard the MV Top Cat with Bill Ruck of Moray Diving Services and Beyond The Blue photographer John Lee.

First thing's first; when you look at how far you've got to travel - and the lack of motorways north of Edinburgh/Glasgow you think that this might be a bit of a schlep for a weekend. However it's actually a straight forward and fast ride up there, took us about 5 1/2 hours from Manchester - about the same as Plymouth.

We joined another group from "Madchesta" who were staying down the road in Elgin - sounds like a bit of a good night out from there Sat/Sun morning palour. We were in Lossiemouth itself slightly more sedate! But you haven't driven all that way for nights out so what's the diving like.

Moray Divings Bill Ruck is a highly experienced skipper/diver, but what a pain in the ass!! He never stops passing on good advise, giving you cups of tea, his famous "Bombay spuds" after every dive - crying out loud - I couldn't think of a negative about him - bad form for me!!! (I've put this in as I've told Bill to look for the report on YD).

Seriously, Bill will go the extra mile to make sure you get a good trip.
Top Cat is a Blyth Cat and as most of the diving takes place across the northern side of the Moray Firth, she gives a comfortable ride over. We crossed in a bit of a chop on the Friday & Saturday but she was steady enough.

Our first dive was on the British tanker San Tiburcio, a 5995 ton vessel of the Eagle Oil & Shipping Co. Ltd. She was completed in 1921 and had a length of 413ft, a beam of 53ft and a draught of 31ft. She sank in the Moray Firth after hitting a mine on the 4 May 1940. The vessel has broken into two pieces behind the central bridge and sits on a silty seabed. We dived the stern that sits in 34m, the viz was about 3-4m, it had been about what Bill expected. To be honest I was a little dissapointed as I thought such a way up north the waters should be clearer.

Our second main dive was on HMy Verona, built in Glasgow in 1890. When she sank in 1917 she was working as an Auxillary Patrol Yacht operating in the Moray Firth. She sank "on the job" as a result of hitting a mine and now lies in 45 metres of water.

She was only a couple of miles N.E of the San Tiburcio but boy what a difference! The Bow sprit near where the shot is bouyed is in 38m and was visibly from about 25m down the shot. The bottom was a better broken shell and sand and the visibility 10m easily. She is a very picturesque wreck with a boiler that is so far out of proportion that you'd think it was of a liner. We spent a good 40 min on the wreck, more than enough time to swim her end to end, and returned with 20 mins of deco. Where's your video camera when you want it!!

Our last main dive was the British submarine HMS(s) Tantivy, scuttled by the Royal Navy in 1950 as a sonar target. Steaming out on a flat calm Sunday i was reading that Innes McCartney thought this one of the best submarine dives around the UK. She sits upright in 41m, a muddy sea bed ensures that it is dark but Bill told us the visibility can be 10 metres.

As the first pair down we had near to that 10m viz. The shot was near the conning tower and we swam towards the bow first. As we made our way back the viz had dropped substantially with the number of other divers who'd arrived. We swam past them and headed for the stern. Again we did her end to end in about 4o mins and then headed up for 26mins of deco.

Topside we were treated to a twenty-minute display by a pod of around 15 common dolphins who played around the boat as she steamed around the Firth. We also saw a couple of minke whale and harbour porpoise for those of you into your marine life.

We arrived back into "Lossie" and said our farewells to Bill and the other's, we'd already booked to come back to do some gas diving in August 07 so it was a case of Au Revoir!!

Anyone interested can contact Bill at /www.moraydiving.com/

[Col]

Sounds like you guys had a good trip. (seems most do)
The Tantivy, minke and dolphin display definitely made it a memorably day for me.
Might catch you again when your next up.
Col

[AndyG]

Unlucky with the viz on the San Ti, last time we did it it was gin clear. The tatties are good though until about 2 hours after when they start to come through the system.....then the wind really get up!!
Andy