UK Diving – Page 3

June 10, 2014June 20, 2014

St. Abbs, The Craig and Anemone Gullies – June 2014

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Rapidly approaching dive number 50 of 2014, despite the lack of updates here! This was our second visit to St. Abbs this year, having dived the wreck of The Glanmire back in April in what was probably some of the worst visibility I’ve ever experienced on a wreck in 30 metres of water! This most definitely was not the case this time though. We rounded the corner at the top of the brae and descended to the harbour area on a sunny June morning with light winds and a blue sea (not green/brown!) that looked inviting. This was our first opportunity to check out Paul Crowe’s new boat ‘Shore Diver’. We were due to be on it the day after our Glanmire dive (not with Paul) back in April, but Paul rightly called it off given how the vis had been. Shore Diver is a big, wide boat and roomy even with its full count of divers onboard. It can shift too, so travel times to the dive sites are speedy just as they were on his previous boat Tiger Lily.

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March 30, 2014June 20, 2014

Glas Island, Loch Fyne – March 2014

Glas Island is without a doubt one of my favourite dive sites in Loch Fyne. We headed back there in March for another weekend of diving aboard the Fyne Pioneer. Otter Spit (a sand bar, not the drool of a small, furry aquatic mammal) effectively narrows the loch in the locality of Glas Island and accelerates the tidal flow past it. This makes for a proliferation of filter feeding life and a bottom that is swept free of the silt that can be found elsewhere in the loch.
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March 25, 2014October 22, 2014

North Strome, Loch Carron – September 2013

If you were to make up a list of picturesque locations for a shore dive, North Strome would have to feature near the top. Located in the Strome Narrows at the mouth of Loch Carron it is just to the East of Conservation Bay, the subject of a couple of previous Immersed posts.
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January 7, 2014June 20, 2014

Loch Fyne, ‘Stallion Rock’ and ‘Gortein Point’ – December 2013

2013 was a pretty amazing year of diving for me. I managed to clock up over 100 dives (despite 2 months off due to a broken collar bone) in a whole range of places in both the UK and abroad. I dived all around the coast of Scotland at dive sites old and new in locations including Loch Fyne, Jura, The Firth of Lorn, Oban, Loch Linnhe, Loch Leven, Skye, Loch Duich, Loch Carron, The Moray Firth, St. Abbs, Eyemouth, and I even made it across the border to The Farne Islands. Further afield I enjoyed another return visit to the warmer waters of the Red Sea (Sharm El Sheikh) and I had my first chance to sample the stunning diving available at the Bunaken National Marine Park in North Sulawesi, Indonesia. I also had a handful of great dives whilst visiting Bali.

The year finished as it had started, in the significantly colder waters of Loch Fyne where the diving can be just as stunning on a good day at the right dive site. It’s a great place for winter UK diving as the weather is rarely severe enough that you can’t get in for a dip somewhere along its length. Both shore and boat diving are available and this time we were back on board the Fyne Pioneer with skipper Simon Exley.
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