flw
Guest
Well, it being Sunday, we'd intended taking out the RIB to the west coast ahd have a look at one of the shallow wrecks and scenic stacks there. However it was cold, dreich and looked like it was staying that way, with thick steepit mist hanging over the islands such that diving in a tidal area was probably a 'bad idea'
While deciding what to do, the local charter skipper turned up, he had space and what about the Lunokhods, a klondyker whcih dragged anchor and ran aground directly under Kirkabister light 10 years ago. Hmm good idea, much easier than messing with our own boat, home for lunch, earning brownie points with the other halves!. We set off, opting for anchoring into the site, none tidal, half the wreck shallow in 15m in the geo and the other half about 200m away in 45m at the bottom of the slope.
Now of course the sky was lightening the whole time, the mist lifting, the cliffs full of nesting birds, and occasional diving cormorants. The seals as ever nosying around just waiting for someone to play with and tease.
I go in with two of my normal buddies, a loose partner ship, but fun to be with.They're on oc, I'm on cc, and we agree I'll do some drills while in, prior to next weeks trip. JUmping off the boat, we drop rather than head for the line, the sea's warmed up in the last week or so. Rolling over I realise Toby's a bit behind me, so we mosey on down the slope towards the bow section over the debris field.
Oops we manage to head too far North and miss the blig section entirely, but spend a happy 25 minutes footling around at big sections of steel plate, found a porthole, put it on a rock to bring back after I'd just seen this next wee bit.... and forget all about it till half way back up the slope, guess I'll never find it again! The sand is filling with summer life, shannies and blennies, occasional scallops, I pick up a couple, then decide I can't face eating them for tea _again_ so thrown them back in.
Time to start meandering back, shoals of piltocks and fry gathering in the lea of the rocks, a small angler fish - of course you just have to 'tickle' his lure, and of course he then had to harrass me for the next 10 minutes, his teeth were longerthan I'd thought, and went through my glove - ow! An occasional ling or wrasse lurking under the rocks, brittle star beds thick, moving up to the shallower areas with red cushion stars, plumose anenomes, dahlia anenomes, octopus, the rock faces becoming gradually more heavily encrusted as we move upwards.
At 25m, the slope becomes vertical, looking up I can see the kelp waving in the 'breeze' piltocks and sillocks shoaling above me, the sheer walls covered in deadmens fingers and anenomes. Rolling over onto my back, I swim gazine upwards, knock my mouthpiece out - cough splutter, oh well, roll back over and watch the scenery go by. Toby signals he and J are turning, I opt to swim along a wee while further, enjoying the solitude and silence.
Turning back, rising a little up the wall to see the pretty colours in the dahlia anenomes, spend time looking at all the wall dwelling crabs and starfish I bump into another couple of divers. Eventually rejoining the wreck area, I contemplate having a look round the stern, its a bit kicked up now there, so I opt for dropping slightly and hunting for bits of engine in the cracks in the rocks, close to the boat. All of a sudden, my recently ressurected cochran, decides to beep twice and die, oh well, ahh, I havn't put on my spare d-timer, it was only a shallow dive originally - oops, oh well, no-one else around, guess I'd better bag off, as my line is marked - I know I'm only in 17m anyway now, but ideally I'd still rather stop for while at 6.
A minute or so later, I'm starting to move upwards, and realise the anchor line is actually very close, settling down for a 5 minute break, the line breaks on my dsmb, oh dear, I can see it above me blowing inshore - decide to ignore it, but it doesn't go far and I can retrieve it anyway - oh well, just as well it's not next week. So with 4 days to go before leaving for a dive trip, first job this morning was to ring the dive centre and get them to post a new d-timer out directly to Scapa, so I can pick it up there, oh and a new mouthpiece, my new one leaks a bit, and after an hour, my lungs were a bit gurlgly, one more dive to go before then, just must try not to break anything else
While deciding what to do, the local charter skipper turned up, he had space and what about the Lunokhods, a klondyker whcih dragged anchor and ran aground directly under Kirkabister light 10 years ago. Hmm good idea, much easier than messing with our own boat, home for lunch, earning brownie points with the other halves!. We set off, opting for anchoring into the site, none tidal, half the wreck shallow in 15m in the geo and the other half about 200m away in 45m at the bottom of the slope.
Now of course the sky was lightening the whole time, the mist lifting, the cliffs full of nesting birds, and occasional diving cormorants. The seals as ever nosying around just waiting for someone to play with and tease.
I go in with two of my normal buddies, a loose partner ship, but fun to be with.They're on oc, I'm on cc, and we agree I'll do some drills while in, prior to next weeks trip. JUmping off the boat, we drop rather than head for the line, the sea's warmed up in the last week or so. Rolling over I realise Toby's a bit behind me, so we mosey on down the slope towards the bow section over the debris field.
Oops we manage to head too far North and miss the blig section entirely, but spend a happy 25 minutes footling around at big sections of steel plate, found a porthole, put it on a rock to bring back after I'd just seen this next wee bit.... and forget all about it till half way back up the slope, guess I'll never find it again! The sand is filling with summer life, shannies and blennies, occasional scallops, I pick up a couple, then decide I can't face eating them for tea _again_ so thrown them back in.
Time to start meandering back, shoals of piltocks and fry gathering in the lea of the rocks, a small angler fish - of course you just have to 'tickle' his lure, and of course he then had to harrass me for the next 10 minutes, his teeth were longerthan I'd thought, and went through my glove - ow! An occasional ling or wrasse lurking under the rocks, brittle star beds thick, moving up to the shallower areas with red cushion stars, plumose anenomes, dahlia anenomes, octopus, the rock faces becoming gradually more heavily encrusted as we move upwards.
At 25m, the slope becomes vertical, looking up I can see the kelp waving in the 'breeze' piltocks and sillocks shoaling above me, the sheer walls covered in deadmens fingers and anenomes. Rolling over onto my back, I swim gazine upwards, knock my mouthpiece out - cough splutter, oh well, roll back over and watch the scenery go by. Toby signals he and J are turning, I opt to swim along a wee while further, enjoying the solitude and silence.
Turning back, rising a little up the wall to see the pretty colours in the dahlia anenomes, spend time looking at all the wall dwelling crabs and starfish I bump into another couple of divers. Eventually rejoining the wreck area, I contemplate having a look round the stern, its a bit kicked up now there, so I opt for dropping slightly and hunting for bits of engine in the cracks in the rocks, close to the boat. All of a sudden, my recently ressurected cochran, decides to beep twice and die, oh well, ahh, I havn't put on my spare d-timer, it was only a shallow dive originally - oops, oh well, no-one else around, guess I'd better bag off, as my line is marked - I know I'm only in 17m anyway now, but ideally I'd still rather stop for while at 6.
A minute or so later, I'm starting to move upwards, and realise the anchor line is actually very close, settling down for a 5 minute break, the line breaks on my dsmb, oh dear, I can see it above me blowing inshore - decide to ignore it, but it doesn't go far and I can retrieve it anyway - oh well, just as well it's not next week. So with 4 days to go before leaving for a dive trip, first job this morning was to ring the dive centre and get them to post a new d-timer out directly to Scapa, so I can pick it up there, oh and a new mouthpiece, my new one leaks a bit, and after an hour, my lungs were a bit gurlgly, one more dive to go before then, just must try not to break anything else
