Loch Long shore dive weekend
Neil and Paul arrived outside my house cars full of dive kit and snacks. Once the van was loaded we headed up the M6 to Helensburgh to meet up at the Couty Hotel, with the rest of the dive team.
A quick unloading of kit and of we went to meet up to the Argyll bar and listen to some ‘heavenly’ Scottish karaoke and a chat about the next days dives.
A few whines about an early breakfast but once we had all arrived at the site the reason was easy to see, Finnart (A Frames) (Finnart (finstrokes.com)) is a popular site. There were already 8/9 cars present and at least 15 – 20 divers. The site is used by local dive clubs and centers as a training area due to its locality and its ease of access.
We started with a briefing. The site is an easy one, go straight out, explore the concrete blocks and come back the same way. Depth depends on experience and desire with the potential of 30 meters and firework anemones.
Buddied up and ready to go we all entered the water. The tide was out so there was a 7 meter walk to the water’s edge. We entered and completed a quick equipment check heading down the slope to the first of remains of the old pier. The area used to be a large pier that has been dismantled and much of the remining structure has been left on the loch bed where it has formed artificial reefs. We headed past and straight down to 29 meters to have a look for firework anemones, unfortunately none were to be found so we turned round and slowly made our way back, exploring the debris as we went. Reports back after the first dive were extremely positive with everyone seeing plenty of marine life, the highlight being the 10 small squid at about 20 meters.
For the second dive we repeated Finnart but spread out a bit more with still more marine life being spotted. The highlights were hundreds of shrimp and an unusually friendly ling.
It was back to the hotel for some and off to Aquatron for fills for others. A few hours later, 23 fills later and one repair I arrived back at the hotel and had 25 minutes to rest, shower and get changed before we left for the evenings curry and then a trip to the Argyll for a late beer.
The second days weather didn’t look promising so we headed off early to get to the Conger Alley dive site (Conger alley (finstrokes.com)). Sadly the parking was taken up so we pulled over onto the verge and dived the Twin Piers instead (Twin piers (finstrokes.com)). To get to the pier there was a climb down to the shore where we could kit up and then enter in. The plan was to investigate the piers and turn east to the wrecks, however surface visibility was poor. This turned out to be a good dive although we had to get below the 8m mark for the visibility to improve. Heading east we found the wreck and then the rock reef and explored it finding large edible crabs and huge eels.
On return the gales were incoming and the rain threatened so we decided to head home.
Three good dives and great company, already planning next year’s trip.
We saw
