flw
Guest
Not sure I could be persuaded to dive in a quarry with all that Cornish sea around.
In the Far North we had no wind at all this weekend, despite a 5-6 sw being forecast. So having spent Friday sea kayaking on mirror calm seas from Ackergill to Wick - with the big push from tide around Noss Head - calm enough to get into some of the caves even, although there was still a reasonable swell from the N.
Saturday was walking day, a little damp, but more cos I tried to jump accross a burn on slippy rocks and fell in.
Today diving Port Skerra. A light drizzle meant the day was darker than normal, However the entry was more like a swimming pool. The tide about mid-point and falling we dropped gradually into the relaively kelp free harbour keeping the rocks on the right. At about 4m the seabed falls sharply away and down to the right, a pause while we look for the resident conger ( sleeping still) we swim over the ledge and down into the archway, about 20m 'thick' leading outwards. The walls angling up and over, small dead mans fingers, scorpion fish, spiny starfish, henrys and devonshire cup-corals. The delicate white and yellow anenomes at the entrance ( forget the name, it's latin) as we rise up again to about 11m and drop to the entrance to the first surge gully. Swimming over the entrance today, we decide to head for the E wall, meandering over the less well defined reef filled with 3 or 4 different sponges, swimming crabs and squat lobsters. I find a baby lobster, maybe next years tea, he's feisty and comes out of his hole to defend his territory. Sea lemons, always a few here seem to have multiplyed. I point the first one out to MIke, but lose interest after the 12 or 13th one. The wall rising from about 13m almost to the surface if crystal clear, and even in the middle of winter filled with life. There are spirals of nudibranch eggs, hundreds of green-snotty worm eggs. I glance at my gauges, there's a lound bang behind me, and bubbles everywhere. Turning off my back up reg, Mike beside me he shrugs adn we turn back. A reasonable swim back, I don;t know how much gas I've lost, as the gauge is on the reg I've turned off, so MIke sticks close beside me.
We swim straight back, though its still a good 15 minutes back to the entrance to the arch. Being a wimp, we opt for swimming around to the boat entrance rather than the arch. Even longer a swim, but at least the surface is closer, since we're only in about 7m or so. At 5m, I decide my gas is going to last adn make it back to the slipway before surfacing.
Back on-shore, I check, and I've plenty of gas still, probably only lost about 10b or so. My almost new trusty Apex has got a major leak from one of the internal o-rings in the 1st stage - it's jammed so I can't get into it today....oh well, excuse to go the pub for lunch now
In the Far North we had no wind at all this weekend, despite a 5-6 sw being forecast. So having spent Friday sea kayaking on mirror calm seas from Ackergill to Wick - with the big push from tide around Noss Head - calm enough to get into some of the caves even, although there was still a reasonable swell from the N.
Saturday was walking day, a little damp, but more cos I tried to jump accross a burn on slippy rocks and fell in.
Today diving Port Skerra. A light drizzle meant the day was darker than normal, However the entry was more like a swimming pool. The tide about mid-point and falling we dropped gradually into the relaively kelp free harbour keeping the rocks on the right. At about 4m the seabed falls sharply away and down to the right, a pause while we look for the resident conger ( sleeping still) we swim over the ledge and down into the archway, about 20m 'thick' leading outwards. The walls angling up and over, small dead mans fingers, scorpion fish, spiny starfish, henrys and devonshire cup-corals. The delicate white and yellow anenomes at the entrance ( forget the name, it's latin) as we rise up again to about 11m and drop to the entrance to the first surge gully. Swimming over the entrance today, we decide to head for the E wall, meandering over the less well defined reef filled with 3 or 4 different sponges, swimming crabs and squat lobsters. I find a baby lobster, maybe next years tea, he's feisty and comes out of his hole to defend his territory. Sea lemons, always a few here seem to have multiplyed. I point the first one out to MIke, but lose interest after the 12 or 13th one. The wall rising from about 13m almost to the surface if crystal clear, and even in the middle of winter filled with life. There are spirals of nudibranch eggs, hundreds of green-snotty worm eggs. I glance at my gauges, there's a lound bang behind me, and bubbles everywhere. Turning off my back up reg, Mike beside me he shrugs adn we turn back. A reasonable swim back, I don;t know how much gas I've lost, as the gauge is on the reg I've turned off, so MIke sticks close beside me.
We swim straight back, though its still a good 15 minutes back to the entrance to the arch. Being a wimp, we opt for swimming around to the boat entrance rather than the arch. Even longer a swim, but at least the surface is closer, since we're only in about 7m or so. At 5m, I decide my gas is going to last adn make it back to the slipway before surfacing.
Back on-shore, I check, and I've plenty of gas still, probably only lost about 10b or so. My almost new trusty Apex has got a major leak from one of the internal o-rings in the 1st stage - it's jammed so I can't get into it today....oh well, excuse to go the pub for lunch now
