“Not the best spectator sport!” by Neil Smitham
Debbie Robinson organised this trip for 10 of us to St Abbs. Accomodation was two chalets at Coldingham loch, reasonably priced and equiped for nine divers and my wife Linda and daughter Olivia to come along too. Six in one, four in the other and Olivia in with us. The price of the rental included it being 3 nights, Thu-Sun or Fri-Mon, so we went up on the Thursday and had an extra day there. The weather on the Thursday was perfect for diving !
All the rest of the divers came up at various times on Friday, Richard Watters on Saturday morning. Some needed guiding in the last two miles of the trip as it was a dark single lane carriageway for the last two miles.
Thursday night Linda and I had gone to The Anchor pub in Coldingham to eat. Only to be told it was now bookings only – some change there. So we ate at the restaraunt at the campsite at Coldingham.
Saturday morning and waking up in the chalet, seeing the trees bending in the wind, it looked like we wouldn’t be diving as the weather forecast had also led us to believe. After some cooked breakfast we all set off in cars down to the harbour car park for about 10:30. We all managed to park OK though 15 minutes later all the 30 or so places on the car park were gone.
St Abbs harbour map
The wind had died down round the harbour, the sun shone abit but a walk round the harbour wall to the entrance site wasn’t possible as repairs to the harbour wall were being done. Seagull rock it was then and walking in off the small “beach” near Springbank cottage. We dived in two waves with shore cover, as this was the first shore based sea diving for some of our divers. Jenny Armstrong was due to dive in a three with Debbie Robinson and Sarah Jones, her fin strap broke as she was getting in so whilst a replacement was got from a car, with Richard Watters and Ian Brown already in she was moved on to the next pair of Phil Robinson and Stuart Owen. As Andy Crosby helped Jenny back on with her gear, his wrist seal ripped and so Jenny was again moved to dive with me as the last pair in after shore cover. The dive was good, nice clear sea and lots to see around the base of Seagull rock.
It would be an understatement to say Andy was devastated by ripping his cuff, thinking he would now not be diving all weekend. He was packed off to the dive-shop at Scoutscroft campsite at lunch to get a repair done, and as we expected, it could be patched and a couple of hours and only a few quid later it was ready for diving in.
In the afternoon we walked round to the end of the harbour wall to check going in there, too much swell meant we would be doing Seagull rock again. That was handy as it meant Jenny and I could show Andy all the lobsters we had seen on the first dive! Everyone enjoyed their diving again and the late afternoon sun and warmth meant sitting round as shore cover waiting for Phil and Stuart to come out from a mammoth dive wasn’t too bad.
Sunday morning. Same scenario, we woke to howling wind, had breakfast, packed up the cars and set off for the harbour. Easier to park on the car park, we were probably abit earlier. Loads of other divers about though using the day boats. This time we were fine to go in off the end of the harbour, but I think a few of our number thought we were having a laugh about walking round with gear on, especailly when they saw others carrying their gear on trollies.
Wolf fish at Big Green Carr
Andy Crosby and I surface swam out to Big Green Carr and dropped down where the Wolffish used to be. I so wanted it to be there to show him as I had shown other divers in the past (later learnt that there are rumours it was stabbed a few years ago – how sad if true). We still had a good dive and surfaced just at the entry point. Phil Robinson and Stuart Owen had dived between Big Green Carr and Broad Craig and had a bit more of a surface swim to get back. Debbie, Jenny and Sarah had navigated their way under water to Cathedral Rock. Debbie and Jenny were chuffed with their navigation and Sarah with the dive.
The afternoon saw 3 divers less. Richard had to pick his wife up from where he’ld left her on route, Ian wanted to be back early, and as much as I would have liked to do a fourth dive, a poorly daughter and a wife bored with watching bubbles hit the surface persuaded me it would be best to head back home.
Harbour entry point
A good weekend in all. Have been to St Abbs before for a weekend and got no dives in with a better weather forecast. This weekend and the accomodation at Coldingham Loch was a good weekend with first shore sea dives for Sarah, Andy and Stuart. Thanks Debs.
Neil Smitham
