Moray Firth - Top Cat
- June 2005
We arrived
Friday night after a very long drive to Lossiemouth. We were
staying in caravans close to the Lossiemouth RAF base.
Mark and I were sharing
a caravan with Stewart and Gary, when we arrived at around
9pm they were just finishing their homemade curry that Gary’s
wife had made, they assured us it was delicious.
Our
caravan was very nice, plenty of room and very clean. We then
went to visit Diane and Steve to commence an evening of
drinking and planning the diving for the weekend. There
caravan must have been five star as they has a chandelier over
the dining table and a walk in shower. Trust them to get the
best caravan, we let them off because Steve and Karen were
sharing with them and Karen was very heavily pregnant. Richard
Ward was also in their caravan. In the third caravan were
Cheeks, Ray, Ruth and Adam who joined in the festivities. The
night was beautiful and we sat around chatting until midnight.
It seemed to take forever to get dark (Stewart – it doesn’t
get dark this far north does it???)
We arose
early the next morning to take the 5 minute journey to the
harbour.
The ‘top
cat’ was a nice boat with plenty of room.
The toilet was
very pleasant but took a little time to get used to. Diane and I had
a very good toilet buddy system of lowering the hatch for each
other. The exit route was large and the steps to get out were easy
to use.
The sun
was out and the sea was flat, not a wave to be seen. Diane and
I wasted no time and took advantage of the large kitting up
area to bathe in the sun whilst we travelled to our first
wreck the San Tiburcio.
This is a tanker broken into two sections which lie about 20
metres apart, the bow section in excellent condition, and the
stern slightly more broken up. Depths vary from 25 metres at
the top of the cabins to 42 metres on the sea bed by the bow.
The viz on the wreck was excellent and everyone had a good
dive. Between dives the skipper Bill served curried potatoes
and baked beans. They were delicious and the cause of several
farts (well I was very windy!!!!). The next dive was Halliman
Skerries this was a veg dive with plenty of life to see,
crabs, lobsters and lots of different types of fish.
We arrived
back and Diane organized a BBQ for tea, we had a big meal of
sausages, pork chops and burgers. Richard Ward was in charge
of cooking and he did an excellent job. After the BBQ we had a
walk to the beach.
It was a
lovely night and we decided to have a beach fire, everyone
scavenged for wood and Richard Ward made a huge fire. After a
while the rain started and most people went back to the
caravan only the hardy ones stayed, me, Stewart and Richard
Ward. We watched as the lightening approached and circled the
bay, thankfully the majority of the rain missed us. We went
back to the caravan where the others were playing spoons (Ask
Diane for details). We had a few games which got a little
heated at times – Mark forgot to grab on his turn and several
spoons looked a little worse for wear.
The next
day was again lovely, the sea was like a mill pond and the sun
was shining again. The first dive was HMS Tantivy.
This British submarine was scuttled by the Royal Navy in 1950
as a sonar target. She sits upright in 41 metres and is in
excellent condition. The muddy sea bed ensures that it is dark
and the shot line was not quite on the wreck. Only 4 people
managed to see this wreck due to the bad viz at the bottom of
the shot line. Thanks loads Steve Hepworth for finding the
sub. Diane and Stewart were the other pair to see the sub.
This viz at the wreck was good and there was plenty to see, we
saw the conning tower which was covered in lots of nets. The
dive was very short due to the depth but definitely worth it.
Lunch again was curried potatoes and beans. Stewart and I
volunteered to cook a Sunday Lunch for tea. The second dive
was Burghead Valentine tank in about 8m, there wasn’t much to
see and the rest of the dive was on the sea bed looking at the
hundreds of tiny hermit crabs. The dive sites were quite far
away and we were going to be back on shore quite late so we
decided to postpone Sunday dinner until tomorrow and go out to
a local pub for tea.
We walked to the pub which was around 30 minutes away along
the beach. There was a small stream to cross and everyone
managed to jump across except Diane, who managed to jump
straight in the middle, Whoops!!
When we arrived near the pub there seemed to be a lot of
people pulling up in cars and looking out to see with their
binoculars. It turned out the Queen Mary was due to pass.
We sat outside the pub and watch it pass. The service at the
pub was poor and I had a very small strop!! The evening cooled
and we went inside to sit on the comfy sofas. It was Cheek's
last night as he was back at work tomorrow. Apparently he left
around 5am - bye Cheeks.
On Monday we managed to acquire another buddy from the local
BSAC branch where Stewart’s brother in law is a member. The
first dive of the day was SS Moray. Unfortunately I didn’t see
much of the wreck as I had an out of air incident and Diane
and I surfaced after only 8 minutes. Diane was an excellent
buddy and we did an AAS ascent in a very controlled manner. We
again had curried potatoes and Beans for dinner. Opening up
the dry suit zips is getting to be a very dangerous task. I
put on a brave face and dived again in the afternoon. This
wreck was the Fylla there was plenty of life on this wreck.
This wreck was fairly new and still had plates, a frying pan
and a fork which Richard Ward scavenged.
The dinner for the night was a postponed Sunday dinner the
menu was extensive and was only £2.60 per head. We had
Chicken, mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, carrot and swede
mash, peas, stuffing, pigs in blankets, broccoli and Yorkshire
pudding. It was a feast fit for a king. Dessert was brownies,
profiteroles, muffins, cream slices and much more. Stewart and
I did an excellent job. It was Stewart’s birthday and we had
Birthday cake as well yummy.
Tuesday was a busy day we had to pack up before we went
diving. The first dive of the day was the Unity a nice little
wreck. More curried potatoes for lunch. The second dive of the
day was Queenstreet Reef. This was a delightful reef which was
teeming with life, we saw a dog fish and lots of ling (think
this is what they are called). There was also a John Dory.
This was one of the best dives of the trip.
That was the end of the diving and all that followed was a
long drive home. What an excellent weekend.
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