matt_yates
Registered
Hi guys,
After some detailed planning (reading a couple of guide books) I put together a plan to dive Loch's Long, Fyne and Leven.
We settled on diving the A frames and conger alley on the first day followed by Creggans pier and Goirtein Bay on the second and finally on the third day diving the slates and opposite the church near Ballachulish.
The first dive at the A frames was a bit of an eye opener we werent expecting the surface vis to be as bad as it was which resulted in my buddy calling it a day and heading back to shore. I pressed on to find that after a few meters the Vis really improved. I had a great dive and was completely blown away with all the squat lobsters and anemones covering all the old bits of pier all too soon it was time to ascend. After a quick butty at the pit stop cafe we headed around the loch to conger alley.
My buddy again decided to sit this one out. So I set off again on my own. I quickly descended to 16m and turned left, about 5 mins before my turn around point I finally found the small reef so I made the most of it and saw 3 conger eels. It was a pity I didnt make it to the larger parts of the reef but it was still an enjoyable dive with the bonus that I managed to exit the water within a few meters of where I entered. That afternoon we headed to Oban to fill some cylinders and kill some time. We ended up diving the reef in front of the dive centre and by this time my buddy had recovered enough to jump in. We had a pleasant dive searching the cracks and crevices for any beasties we could find. That evening we returned to our camp site in Inverary and went to the drovers for a couple of pints and food.
The next day we were to dive Creggans pier and Goirtein Bay we only did Creggans, as I wanted to get to Glen Coe in daylight as I was fed up of driving after driving from the south of England on Monday. Anyway the dive. We parked by the pub kitted up and set off from by the remains of the pier. We headed straight out till we found an old chain turned left and followed this for a while before turning into deeper water and turning so we had our right to the slope, before ascending to the chain and following this again till we found an old anchor. The great thing for me about this dive was my buddy concurred his fear of the bad Vis layer. It also felt like an exploratory dive. Because the critters were well spread out clinging to the littlest protrusion from the silty bottom. Seeing something living was a nice reward the highlight had to be the anchor which was covered with prawns on its under side. On the ascent we also came across a pipe fish.
The final days diving in Loch Leven was the best of a busy three days. We headed off to fort William for some air fills and breakie before diving. The vis at Slates was the best we had all week. A good 10m and plenty of squat lobsters and hermit crabs. We then continued to the church near Ballachulish. This was a real surprise there were thousands of brittle starfish everywhere covering every square foot of the underwater headland. We also saw our first decent sized fish of the week a lovely dog fish which at first was covered in those starfish.
We then spent a final night in Glen Coe before heading back home. We also had the first rain of the week it started at 10pm and continued till we left at 7 Friday morning. We woke with the tent in a centimetre of water fortunately we stayed dry on the inside
Here are a few of my pics
After some detailed planning (reading a couple of guide books) I put together a plan to dive Loch's Long, Fyne and Leven.
We settled on diving the A frames and conger alley on the first day followed by Creggans pier and Goirtein Bay on the second and finally on the third day diving the slates and opposite the church near Ballachulish.
The first dive at the A frames was a bit of an eye opener we werent expecting the surface vis to be as bad as it was which resulted in my buddy calling it a day and heading back to shore. I pressed on to find that after a few meters the Vis really improved. I had a great dive and was completely blown away with all the squat lobsters and anemones covering all the old bits of pier all too soon it was time to ascend. After a quick butty at the pit stop cafe we headed around the loch to conger alley.
My buddy again decided to sit this one out. So I set off again on my own. I quickly descended to 16m and turned left, about 5 mins before my turn around point I finally found the small reef so I made the most of it and saw 3 conger eels. It was a pity I didnt make it to the larger parts of the reef but it was still an enjoyable dive with the bonus that I managed to exit the water within a few meters of where I entered. That afternoon we headed to Oban to fill some cylinders and kill some time. We ended up diving the reef in front of the dive centre and by this time my buddy had recovered enough to jump in. We had a pleasant dive searching the cracks and crevices for any beasties we could find. That evening we returned to our camp site in Inverary and went to the drovers for a couple of pints and food.
The next day we were to dive Creggans pier and Goirtein Bay we only did Creggans, as I wanted to get to Glen Coe in daylight as I was fed up of driving after driving from the south of England on Monday. Anyway the dive. We parked by the pub kitted up and set off from by the remains of the pier. We headed straight out till we found an old chain turned left and followed this for a while before turning into deeper water and turning so we had our right to the slope, before ascending to the chain and following this again till we found an old anchor. The great thing for me about this dive was my buddy concurred his fear of the bad Vis layer. It also felt like an exploratory dive. Because the critters were well spread out clinging to the littlest protrusion from the silty bottom. Seeing something living was a nice reward the highlight had to be the anchor which was covered with prawns on its under side. On the ascent we also came across a pipe fish.
The final days diving in Loch Leven was the best of a busy three days. We headed off to fort William for some air fills and breakie before diving. The vis at Slates was the best we had all week. A good 10m and plenty of squat lobsters and hermit crabs. We then continued to the church near Ballachulish. This was a real surprise there were thousands of brittle starfish everywhere covering every square foot of the underwater headland. We also saw our first decent sized fish of the week a lovely dog fish which at first was covered in those starfish.
We then spent a final night in Glen Coe before heading back home. We also had the first rain of the week it started at 10pm and continued till we left at 7 Friday morning. We woke with the tent in a centimetre of water fortunately we stayed dry on the inside
Here are a few of my pics
[FONT='Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]If your intrested the rest of my pics can be found here [/FONT]Flickr: MatYts' Photostream[FONT='Lucida Grande', 'Trebuchet MS', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]
Thanks matt[/FONT]
Thanks matt[/FONT]
