St Abbs – A last minute decision
The club has a motto/mission/maxim ‘To go diving and to maximise the opportunities to go diving’. Often this means that we go diving with other clubs. on holiday, basically once qualified we try to take the opportunity to get wet.
With this in mind a space came up on a trip to St Abbs and, seeing as I was free, it seemed a shame to waste the opportunity.
A quick trip to booking.com and accommodation was sorted and off I went, travelling up to Eyemouth via the A77 borders route, parked up and met everyone in Oblo (a bar in Eyemouth). Its always good to arrive on these trips and meet up with old friends and make new ones. It turned out that I also knew the group sitting next to us and many of those divers on the Scottish Nudibranch festival. Always great to see so many friends about.
Saturday morning rolled around and our skipper hobbled aboard bemoaning his broken knee cap. The weather was a bit choppy with a cold wind blowing, but still diveable. We set off for the first dive site. One not normally dived but with swell and tides it seemed a good idea. The dive site ‘Pauls Gulleys’ is a smaller version of Anemone Gulley, not such great topography but non the less, still full of the expected life from a St Abbs dive. We found dahlia anemones in abundance, small wrasse crabs, lobsters. A very pretty dive with plenty of life to watch.
The second dive is a regular favourite, Black Carr. A stunning dive around rocks covered in dead mans fingers and plumose anemones, it often feels as though I am flying above clouds on this site. We worked out way down to 20m with visibility at about 8 meters, hunting for the familiar landmark of the anchor. From there I worked around the base of the overhanging rocks and then up over the top, searching every nook and cranny for the glum blue/grey faces staring morosely out at us. There is was the first wolf fish of the day, quickly followed by another. From this point we headed to shallower waters and identifying at least three different types of nudibranch.
A day of two fabulous dives completed by the sudden appearance of a small pod of dolphins escorting us across the bay. Back in time to watch Leicester Tigers beat Northampton in the semi-finals.
That evening we headed to the Ship for tea once again meeting up with the other diving groups, it seems as though we all have the same idea!
Day two dawned brighter and less choppy but still a reasonable swell. The wind had changed so we headed over to Wuddy Swim through, next door to Black Carr. The skipper was unable to drop us in the normal place as a lobster creel buoy had been dropped dead centre. He dropped us round the corner and off we went. Wall to the left shoulder and below 10 meters, brought us to the swim through. we found all the regulars but the favourite was a juvenile Wolf fish just sitting out in the open, we also found a couple of Butter eels, not always easily seen.
Our final dive was Cathedral rock. Skippers and some divers always feel this is a bit of a cheats dive for a boat as it can be reached from a shore dive. I love it, a dramatic start to an area of contrasting sand and ridges that never fails to excite. Locating the double arch we swam through and began exploring the nooks and crannies, once again finding some butter eels, squat lobsters and a large school of fish passing by.
Overall a great dive weekend, four incredible dives with plenty of interest and good group of people with whom to share the weekend.
