Oban 2009

Newbies do St. Abbs – June 2009

Myself and Mick James left Huddersfield on a busy Friday evening at 4pm to drive up to St Abbs for our first salty dive, traffic was the usual Friday evening fun added to by the person who broke down on the Ainley Top roundabout and having a picnic in the central reservation while waiting for recovery.
After the fun of Huddersfield we had a fairly quiet 4 hour plus drive to St. Abbs, on arrival could not believe just how close to the sea Rock House was. It couldn’t be any closer to the sea.

We were some of the first to arrive so went for a walk around the harbour and watched the huge waves rolling in across the sea; well they looked massive to us if you were thinking of your first dive in them.
On the drive up we had discussed why anyone would want to drive so far to go diving – more of this later.
Friday evening was spent finding the local Spar and making use of the limited, but adequate facilities of the bunkhouse (fridge, microwave/grill combo), partaking of a curry, and then spending the evening ensuring that no one was going to be dehydrated in the morning

After a couple of Stugeron seasickness pills washed down by a huge bowl of porridge and a sausage sarnie I was fit to face the day, at least I would have something to feed the fishes with if the pills didn’t work.

Kit was carried from the car to the end of the harbour wall and then craned down a long way to the boat. After a climb down the ladder and a sort out of the kit we were off out of the harbour in the direction of the The Skellies for our first sea dive.

The dive leader, Diane, stated maximum dive time was to be an hour, I looked up in amazement at this timescale, given my gas usage and being more stressed than usual diving off a boat and in the sea I thought that I’d end up back in about twenty minutes but this was not to be the case. I was buddied up with Steve Hepworth who knows the area well and during our discussions had been told we may see some wildlife – a bit of an understatement.
A waddle to the rear of the boat in my fins, a final check that air is in my jacket and ‘splash’ off the boat. OK, and down we went, salty diving at last. As soon as we had dropped down Steve pointed and we saw a pipe fish and this was the way for the rest of the dive; first sea dive, my longest dive to date, saw pipe fish, crabs, lobsters, millions of brittle stars, urchins, and starfish and even managed to see a wolf fish on my first dive.

Immediately after the first dive I realised why people drive all the way up there to dive. Max depth 20.1m, average depth 14.2m, dive time 49 minutes and my longest dive.

Diving in a current was very strange but relaxing and very different from inland diving and it was interesting how fast and far we drifted whilst waiting for the boat to pick us up.
The lift on the boat is a fantastic idea and made getting back onto the boat effortless. After sitting down and decoupling from my jacket, a nice welcome cup of tea or coffee and a mini-mars.
Over lunch there was some discussion of Steve’s wildlife finding skills, he seems to know exactly where all the wildlife is, and just has to turn his torch on and it appears dancing in the spotlight.

Second dive was Black Carrs, and I think Steve had booked all the wildlife in advance. Saw even more wildlife than on the first dive including a conger this time, I’m sure they all just wait for Steve to appear and then pop out on cue. Max depth 20.1m, average depth 14.4m, dive time 44 minutes.
Saturday evening we caught the bus to the local pub for an evening meal which was both good value and excellent food; lots of sea food of course maybe some relatives of today’s cabaret acts, or black pudding and haggis if that’s for you.
Sunday I was buddied with Ray Dawson and we were off before breakfast for an early dive, sea sickness pills were taken later today which wasn’t a good move – need to remember to take them at least two hours before we set off as I was definitely feeling a bit green on the boat but no problem once we hit the water. We dived Black Carrs again, but this time we drifted in a different direction due to the early current, Ray must have got the wildlife booked as well as everywhere you looked there were things looking at all the strange people visiting their world. I spotted another wolf fish dropped down for a better view and realised I has stereo wolfies – two at the same level less than three feet apart. The drift diving was great fun and you do seem to be really flying along. Max depth 23.8m, a new personal maximum depth, average depth 17.1m, dive time 36 minutes. I even managed to set off my blob successfully after the bottle fell off when unreeled. I was pleased that when the bottle fell off the training kicked in automatically and I was already working out whether to use my octo to inflate the blob, screw the bottle back in place, or just can it and ask Ray to use his; final choice was to just take my time and screw the bottle back on then inflate as normal, well pleased with the result.

Ray said we would drop down near the boiler – we did and it was massive. Then dropped down the side and the local wildlife started its well rehearsed routines of waiting for us to appear, I did reckon that most of the crabs I’d seen on the weekend were just nicely plate sized which is a nice evolutionary trick but as it’s a Reserve they knew they were safe.
After a long dive we set off the blob and headed up for our safety stop. Maximum depth 14.9m, average depth 11.2m, dive time a record 54 minutes and my lowest ever SAC by a long way. We had yet another long enjoyable dive with Jules supplying the Curly Wurlies that we enjoyed on the way back in.
On our drive back home the discussion was more along the lines of which trips could we get on next without upsetting our other halves too much and how much we had enjoyed the experience. We have both been hit by the diving buzz and wanted more.
Everyone involved in the weekend had taken time to ensure we knew what we would be doing and seeing. It was strange at first diving with people who did not continually check you and ask you to do more skills during the dive. Above and below the water was well organised and an ideal introduction to sea diving.
After the weekend we had both done boat and drift dives and got signed off for our Sports Diver qualifications so were now set loose on the diving world at large. For any trainee worrying about their first sea dives, I would say that the time and assistance we got over the weekend was fantastic and would like to thank everyone involved in the planning and execution of the trip.

If Carlsberg did dive trips they’d go to St Abbs with BSAC 18.

Text by Paul Martin and Mick James, photos by Mick James.

Newbies do St. Abbs – June 2009 Myself and Mick James left Huddersfield on a busy Friday evening at 4pm to drive up to St Abbs for our first salty dive, traffic was the usual Friday evening fun added to by the person who broke down on the Ainley Top roundabout and having a picnic in the central reservation while waiting for recovery. After the fun of Huddersfield we had a fairly quiet 4 hour plus drive to St. Abbs, on arrival could not believe just how close to the sea Rock House was. It couldn’t be any closer to the sea.
	We were some of the first to arrive so went for a walk around the harbour and watched the huge waves rolling in across the sea; well they looked massive to us if you were thinking of your first dive in them. On the drive up we had discussed why anyone would want to drive so far to go diving – more of this later. Friday evening was spent finding the local Spar and making use of the limited, but adequate facilities of the bunkhouse (fridge, microwave/grill combo), partaking of a curry, and then spending the evening ensuring that no one was going to be dehydrated in the morning After a couple of Stugeron seasickness pills washed down by a huge bowl of porridge and a sausage sarnie I was fit to face the day, at least I would have something to feed the fishes with if the pills didn’t work.
Kit was carried from the car to the end of the harbour wall and then craned down a long way to the boat. After a climb down the ladder and a sort out of the kit we were off out of the harbour in the direction of the The Skellies for our first sea dive.
	The dive leader, Diane, stated maximum dive time was to be an hour, I looked up in amazement at this timescale, given my gas usage and being more stressed than usual diving off a boat and in the sea I thought that I’d end up back in about twenty minutes but this was not to be the case. I was buddied up with Steve Hepworth who knows the area well and during our discussions had been told we may see some wildlife – a bit of an understatement. A waddle to the rear of the boat in my fins, a final check that air is in my jacket and ‘splash’ off the boat. OK, and down we went, salty diving at last. As soon as we had dropped down Steve pointed and we saw a pipe fish and this was the way for the rest of the dive; first sea dive, my longest dive to date, saw pipe fish, crabs, lobsters, millions of brittle stars, urchins, and starfish and even managed to see a wolf fish on my first dive.
Immediately after the first dive I realised why people drive all the way up there to dive. Max depth 20.1m, average depth 14.2m, dive time 49 minutes and my longest dive.
	Diving in a current was very strange but relaxing and very different from inland diving and it was interesting how fast and far we drifted whilst waiting for the boat to pick us up. The lift on the boat is a fantastic idea and made getting back onto the boat effortless. After sitting down and decoupling from my jacket, a nice welcome cup of tea or coffee and a mini-mars. Over lunch there was some discussion of Steve’s wildlife finding skills, he seems to know exactly where all the wildlife is, and just has to turn his torch on and it appears dancing in the spotlight.
Second dive was Black Carrs, and I think Steve had booked all the wildlife in advance. Saw even more wildlife than on the first dive including a conger this time, I’m sure they all just wait for Steve to appear and then pop out on cue. Max depth 20.1m, average depth 14.4m, dive time 44 minutes. Saturday evening we caught the bus to the local pub for an evening meal which was both good value and excellent food; lots of sea food of course maybe some relatives of today’s cabaret acts, or black pudding and haggis if that’s for you. Sunday I was buddied with Ray Dawson and we were off before breakfast for an early dive, sea sickness pills were taken later today which wasn’t a good move – need to remember to take them at least two hours before we set off as I was definitely feeling a bit green on the boat but no problem once we hit the water. We dived Black Carrs again, but this time we drifted in a different direction due to the early current, Ray must have got the wildlife booked as well as everywhere you looked there were things looking at all the strange people visiting their world. I spotted another wolf fish dropped down for a better view and realised I has stereo wolfies – two at the same level less than three feet apart. The drift diving was great fun and you do seem to be really flying along. Max depth 23.8m, a new personal maximum depth, average depth 17.1m, dive time 36 minutes. I even managed to set off my blob successfully after the bottle fell off when unreeled. I was pleased that when the bottle fell off the training kicked in automatically and I was already working out whether to use my octo to inflate the blob, screw the bottle back in place, or just can it and ask Ray to use his; final choice was to just take my time and screw the bottle back on then inflate as normal, well pleased with the result.
Ray said we would drop down near the boiler – we did and it was massive. Then dropped down the side and the local wildlife started its well rehearsed routines of waiting for us to appear, I did reckon that most of the crabs I’d seen on the weekend were just nicely plate sized which is a nice evolutionary trick but as it’s a Reserve they knew they were safe. After a long dive we set off the blob and headed up for our safety stop. Maximum depth 14.9m, average depth 11.2m, dive time a record 54 minutes and my lowest ever SAC by a long way. We had yet another long enjoyable dive with Jules supplying the Curly Wurlies that we enjoyed on the way back in. On our drive back home the discussion was more along the lines of which trips could we get on next without upsetting our other halves too much and how much we had enjoyed the experience. We have both been hit by the diving buzz and wanted more. Everyone involved in the weekend had taken time to ensure we knew what we would be doing and seeing. It was strange at first diving with people who did not continually check you and ask you to do more skills during the dive. Above and below the water was well organised and an ideal introduction to sea diving. After the weekend we had both done boat and drift dives and got signed off for our Sports Diver qualifications so were now set loose on the diving world at large. For any trainee worrying about their first sea dives, I would say that the time and assistance we got over the weekend was fantastic and would like to thank everyone involved in the planning and execution of the trip. If Carlsberg did dive trips they’d go to St Abbs with BSAC 18. Text by Paul Martin and Mick James, photos by Mick James.