Diving

The Not the Royal Fusilier because of overrun idiot factor. Probably just as well - wind NE 6-7 and sea like a food processor. Dived with Mark Inall, straight down to 40m. Literally thousands of shrimps, plus several lobsters, crabs, butterfish, anemones. At end of dive saw a line of starfish demolishing a mussel bed.

own

269

15 Feb 1986

Falls of Lora

Loch Etive

Prelude to next, amazing dive. Extremely fast. What do you do when bearing down on a cliff at 9 knots in a cloud of bubbles? Came up after getting into a backwater.

own, except aluminium 72 and a made-up weight belt.

270

15 Feb 1986

Falls of Lora

Loch Etive

The definitive gnash. Barrelled under bridge doing Superman impersonations, through gullies into a quiet section with masses of sponges. Then picked up by Mk II current and taken down to a sandy bottom at 26m. Dark but good vis.

own (as 269) 27lbs.

279

19 Apr 1986

Belnahua

Not the HF. Both echosounders packed in, weather bad, and worsening, cold, set. Crossed fingers, dropped the shot, went down the line, narked, shook hands, came up, drank, ate, drank, drank.

own, Rollo's twin 55s

280

20 Apr 1986

Easdale Quarry

Easdale, Seil Island

The legendary Easdale Quarry at last. Truly lifeless, with massive slabs of rock going down past 55m. Water clear until the silt is disturbed. Not as narcotic as yesterday, but a somewhat more satisfying dive. [4 stars for being memorable]

own

284

3 Jul 1986

Markgraf

Scapa Flow

Orkney

Iain Hosking, Mark Inall, Sarah McCracken

Threesome with Sarah and Mark. Bows very impressive still, rearing vertically out of the sand. Fairly fast trip around to the starboard side. Sarah helped me lug a lump of wreck as far as the bows before dropping it. Knackered.

Twin 55s, 28lbs

288

7 Jul 1986

Helena Faulbaums

Belnahua

First pair onto the wreck. Recce trip, with Mark. Eyes pressed against mask as we noticed far more artefacts than I've seen before - binnacle, pedestal, portholes etc. We got up to the bows - very impressive with starboard anchor chain curving away to the seabed. Sea life - dead men's fingers, cup coral, wrasse.

Twin 55s

292

10 Jul 1986

Belnahua

Malcolm's pedestal having been recovered to shallow water lashed to the boat, we had to shorten the lifting bag line and tie on a line to shore. Easily done with much jungle warfare amongst the kelp. Little did we know the task had only just begun.

Snash's twin 50s, 28lbs

293

11 Jul 1986

Helena Faulbaums

Belnahua

Fantastic weather - mirror-calm and sunny. Slick operation to raise the pedestal followed by a trip to the stern. Bottom at 58m. Prop blades sheared off. Good vis.

Twin 55s, 28lbs

297

23 Aug 1986

St Abbs

South side of the Firth of Forth

Forth

Iain Hosking, Mark Inall, Simon Nash

A swell dive! HW springs. Strong wave action and poor vis. Shoal of pollack or saithe and wrasse. Getting out was somewhat interesting. (Snash: 'EUSAC White Water Boys!')

313

14 Dec 1986

Falls of Lora

Loch Etive

Hell of a long gap since the last dive. Weather ideal - calm, sunny, clear. Mark and I had three attempts - on the first two we were spat out very quickly. On the third we went through the gully system just as fast as we could cope with. Hit a slack patch, then found the current again and hit the cliff! Suddenly everything went dark - I was pummelled from all sides and felt a strong pressure on my ears as I was dragged down. With one hand on my suit inflator and the other on my mask I eventually hit the surface. Mindblowing. A seriously difficult dive. (Times: a: 5 mins, b: 3 mins, c: 7 mins). Tide: near neaps, incoming tide.

Club 78

314

21 Dec 1986

Wallachia

The Gantocks

Clyde

The less said about this the better. Perfect conditions made irrelevant by the fact that Kirkintilloch got there first. Graham had a jar, but all Mark and I did was break one and lose the lifting bag (duly returned by Joe Murray). Aaargh!

Club 78

337

14 Apr 1987

Meldon

Loch Buie

Mull

Launched at Carsaig in flat calm. Wreck easy enough to find, with rudder post above water level (on which the old boat was holed). Stern intact, with prop and rudder - wreck becomes progressively more smashed up as you go forwards. Others have said that the bows are nice, like the Thesis, but we didn't see them. We did see a wrasse and a lobster sharing a pot. Finished by swimming along the prop shaft tunnel to the end - by far the best part of the dive. It rained all the way back.

341

16 Apr 1987

Hispania

Sound of Mull

Mull

Full flood and springs! NFP. Tough pull down the line to the stern, into hold and through tunnel to forward hold, then up onto the bows and into chain locker. Back into the teeth of a gale to the engine room (more collapsed than I remember). Back to stern and up.

381

2 Jan 1989

Shiprock

Port Hacking

Sydney

Rough weather, so plans for an inflatable boat trip scaled down to another Shiprock dive. A larger group than usual - Sarah, Mark, Andy Holroyd and Jackie as shore cover, along with John Ward, Andrea and Derek from Richmond RAAF BSAC. It was Mark's first dive in Australia and, like me, he was amazed at the quantity, variety and colours of the fish. We trogged slowly along, peering into crevices, seeing what we could see. What we saw was a moray eel, several catfish (or rock ling), scorpionfish, a big shoal of old wives (which have poisonous dorsal spines), leatherjackets, rock code, yellowtail, and on the crustacean front, hermit crabs and some really delicate little shrimps. The highlight was an octopus, which retreated over the rocks in an incredibly fluid motion. The poor thing was desperate to get away, but it wasn't until Sarah tried to grab it that it jetted off into the murk leaving two spots of ink behind it. Two cuttlefish finished things off nicely. Good curry afterwards.

382

14 Jan 1989

Tuggerah

Royal National Park

Sydney

Iain Hosking, Mark Inall, Sarah McCracken

Took Mark and Sarah out for a real Sydney wreck (birthday present for Mark). Met Peter (the Swede) and Jeff, who dived with me on the 'Undola' last month, and Richard. Sea horrible - divers all chunderous - but worth it. Visibility on the surface was brilliant - clear blue water - well over 100 foot vis. Not so good on the bottom, though - about 40 foot. Thousands of fish forming not so much a veil around the wreck as a wall. Headed to the bows first, where Sarah met a numbfish, and was totally shocked by the experience. They're very lazy, and I was lucky not to be fried while digging it up. Anyway - back to the boiler (with resident small moray) and the stern, with yellowtail, old wives and toadfish. Back to the line inside planned time despite being temporarily lost in fish. Deco stops and anti-chunder stops.

(wet sleeve)

391

18 Feb 1989

The Steps

Bicheno

Tasmania

Still sunny, but rough - many white horses. Descended to weedy bottom at 16m, swam anticlockwise round reef to SE corner, where there's a big cave formed by house-sized boulders. Max depth here of 30m. Abundant fish - bullseyes most common, then leatherjacket, banded morwong. Saw scalyfin for the first time in Tasmania (white-ear). Other fish - blue-throated wrasse, catfish and ornate cowfish (in weed at the end of the dive). Usual masses of sponges. Basket star - a black and white starfish with branched legs. When unravelled from the sponge it looks like [illustration in logbook]. Found two cuttlefish under an overhang and witnessed their amazing colour changes. They go red when startled (ie when they first see you) and spread their tentacles wide. When relaxed their colour matches the background. It happens very quickly. With torch off it was easier to see the changes - one showed bands of light and dark moving swiftly forwards to its head (4-5 per second). Amazing. Vis was tremendous - saw the boat from the bottom at 30m. Watched the others get into the boat (and cavitation bubbles from the prop) from the 6m stops. Forgot to unplug suit inflation hose before getting into the boat, and pulled the fitting out of the suit. Very wet!

392

18 Feb 1989

Muir Rock

Bicheno

Tasmania