The SS Nar was on route from Sunderland for Burghead on the shores of the Moray Firth carrying a cargo of coal when it foundered off Garmouth on the 13th December 1904. It is well broken up now, lying in 12 metres of water on a sandy bottom where its boiler, various plates, capstans, winches and other rusting remains have become home to a large variety of marine life. This was my first opportunity to dive the Nar during a weekend of wreck diving out of Lossiemouth with North East Dive. We also dived the San Tiburcio and the Unity, both of which I hadn’t dived in 6 or 7 years at least.
Continue reading “The Wreck of the Nar, Moray Firth – June 2014”
Farne Islands – August 2013
The last time I dived the Farne Islands must have been about 7 or 8 years ago, probably the year that I started diving. The islands make frequent appearances on television programs due to their bird colonies and also due to the seal population. It is the opportunity to dive with the seals that is the draw for divers visiting the Farnes and I didn’t have to think twice when an invitation to do so came from a friend.
It was an overcast day when we arrived at Seahouses to meet up with the others and board one of Billy Shiel’s boats the Glad Tidings VII. Continue reading “Farne Islands – August 2013”
Black Carrs, St. Abbs – July 2013
Black Carrs is a site that will be familiar to anyone who has dived at St. Abbs before. It’s a great place to see Atlantic Wolffish and when we visited here back in June we actually saw six of them on a single dive! We dived from Paul Crowe’s boat The Tiger Lilly again.
Continue reading “Black Carrs, St. Abbs – July 2013”
‘Unknown Wreck’, Moray Firth – July 2013
Yet another of this years dives that was a first for me, on a wreck this time and one whose identity is unknown. This is fairly unusual as most of the wrecks dived by recreational divers have been identified and it is usually possible with a bit of Googling to find out how the vessel met its fate. Not so for this particular wreck which consists of a good sized boiler and a collection of other wreckage strewn across the bottom at a depth of approximately 26m not far from Cullen.