Up to Glasgow we go for a trip along the south side of the Clyde to pick up the short ferry journey from Gourock across to Dunoon. Staying at the Argyll hotel, a short drive from the marina and from the ferry port, we arrived in three cars and meet to eat and sort out buddies for Saturday’s diving. We are diving with Wreckspedition on Jason’s Starfish Enterprise rigid inflatable, a comfortable ride for eight divers.
Dive 1 was anemone garden in Loch Long, a wall dive which was close into shore after a 20-minute steam out from Dunoon marina. This wall slopes off to well over 50 m, but all the good stuff is at less than 20 m and the wall is easy to follow at that depth. Lots of squat lobster, squirts, prawns, nudibranchs, scallops, edible crab, spider crab and two pre-dive seals. Oddly, not so much on the anemone side until up in the shallows on a sun-dappled safety stop. Visibility good and not too cold. All in, all out, all happy and no incidents. This was a perfect first UK sea dive for some members of the team. Tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and cookies on the boat. Back to the marina for food and fills and then out for dive 2: two small WWII landing craft close into the marina in Holy Loch. There was plenty of life on and near these, including highland dancers, sea pens, squat lobster, scorpion fish and blennies, and an easily found rope to show the sea-penned way between the two wrecks, both in the 15 – 18 m range.
A short steam back where we sort out cylinders and fills for an evening shore dive. This involved a 20-minute drive up the coast to Brackley point on Loch Striven: a buoyed barge at about 12 – 14 m and then a 50 m swim north at the same depth to more wreckage believed to be a motor torpedo boat, but very broken up and not recognisable as anything. More wreckage as you get shallower. An interesting third dive for the day. Back to hotel for showers, teas, beers and then onto the night’s eatery, an American diner with good portions – a standard requirement on a dive trip.
Day 2’s first dive was a 30-minute journey out to an abandoned oil jetty at Inverkip. No deeper than 20 m, this has around three dozen large jetty legs that plunge to the sea floor. All the legs and the sea floor are utterly festooned with starfish, anemone various, starfish, crabs, starfish, freaky worms, starfish, crab, starfish, dead man’s figures, starfish, nudibranch (including some very large grey ones – aeolidiella glauca?) and more starfish: brittle stars, sun stars, common starfish and scarlet ones too. Beautiful and packed with camera battery-sapping life. Back to the marina for lunch and then out for the “three wrecks challenge” two minutes out into Holy Loch. Wreck one is a small trawler with distinctive bow structuring and is 50 – 60 m due south of a more open and smaller trawler. Both are good for an easy swim around and had good vis when not kicked up. It’s then a 60° bearing off to wreck three, a converted gun boat around 40 m away. Larger, flatter and in good condition compared to the other two with interesting features, and a cute group of gobies lined up inside. This was probably the most interesting of the three wrecks to explore and a fine way to finish the weekend’s diving. All at around 15 m, the three wrecks had the usual squirts, dead man’s fingers, and plumose anemones to see and made for a useful navigational challenge across a silty loch bottom.
Alex Diffley
