Last night, Vasilis, Charlie, Joe, Dot, and I made our way back to Eyemouth for a quick dip in the North Sea. It was quite an exerience.
I'd heard of a dive going on but decided to give it a miss as I'm currently right in the middle of finals. However, when I heard the morning of that it would be a boat dive and there was one space, I jumped at it (this was probably my first and last opportunity for a boat dive before I go home).
We were told to meet at the cage at 4:45 so that we could beat the traffic through Edinburgh. Unfortunately, I was the only one who had not sorted my kit and all of the drysuits I normally use were already taken. It took me a few minutes to figure out a drysuit to use (one of the blue neoprene ones, never again! ) and get all my other usual kit together. Joe was late as well so, between the two of us, we didn't leave until almost half five. Luckily for us, the traffic wasn't as terrible as it could have been and we finally made it to Eyemouth.
We worked quickly to get our kit sorted and within a few minutes we were motoring our way out of the harbor and towards Hawkness Caves, near where the club dived on Saturday. A quick kit-up, a roll, and Joe, Charlie, and I were in the relatively warm North Sea (~10 C). The plan was to make our way back along the coast towards Eyemouth, do one of Joe's shared ascents early in the dive, and then just fin around and have fun. Simple enough. Joe and I began the share, but after a few cycles, Joe noticed that my mask was slowly filing up with blood. Eeek! I had a nosebleed . We considered my returning to the surface but as I hadn't noticed (I just thought that my mask wasn't seated right as was leaking slightly), we decided to continue on and see what happened. We did decide to abandon the ascent as the change in pressure could have caused some problems.
We continued on our plan. There was an amazing amount of life with incredible 10m vis , including a flatfish, a scorpionfish, lots of little fry which we think may have been scorpionfish as well, nudibranchs, dahlia anemones, pipefish (Joe said he counted five), a very nice sunstar specimen, and of course, as many dead men's fingers as you could ever wish to see. Very nice. My torch flooded about halfway through though so I had to follow Joe and Charlie pretty closely so I could see into the crevices. Oh well. Apparently cheap torches from Lidl don't work that well.
Joe and I had brought dSMBs along and we got a bit of practice deploying them. Unfortunately my reel jammed after a couple of feet and I had to let mine go. Bummer. We did our ascent without any issues and then, after a clamber onto the boat (we were the last up), made our way back to Eyemouth. Upon taking off the masks, we discovered that Joe had a small nosebleed as well (cue jokes about Charlie punching his buddies).
We stopped off for a pint and filling dive logs at The Contented Sole, the pub a few small feet from where we got off the boat. A pint and a packet of crisps later and we made our way back to Stirling, getting back just after midnight. I think that was a record time for kit washing. The call of our beds was a ery nice motivating factor, especially for me who was slightly groggy after a kip in the car on the way back.
So... that was my first boat dive. It could have gone better but I give it a thumbs up anyway.
Anything anyone else wants to add?
Max
joe
it was more like 15 pipe fish!
prydain55
Ah, well caught! It must have been the blood in my mask.
Max
charlie
bloody buddies!
Glad you enjoyed the diving, guys: great blog, max.
It was such perfect weather & calm conditions too. Just a shame that we weren't able to splash a bit earlier and benefit from sunshine under water. Nevertheless, it was a cracking dive despite max's bloody mask. Was a nice current to let us drift passively across the quite extensive reef but not so much that it was an effort to swim against. I also enjoyed playing with the shrimp & the tiny squatties.
Going to have to return soon to try & spot an elusive anglerfish and/or wolffish!
Good to see Alex getting a dive too. He seemed genuinely pleased that we were there. A very nice bloke! Good to catch up with the legendary Don Lees too
) and get all my other usual kit together. Joe was late as well so, between the two of us, we didn't leave until almost half five. Luckily for us, the traffic wasn't as terrible as it could have been and we finally made it to Eyemouth.
. We considered my returning to the surface but as I hadn't noticed (I just thought that my mask wasn't seated right as was leaking slightly), we decided to continue on and see what happened. We did decide to abandon the ascent as the change in pressure could have caused some problems.
, including a flatfish, a scorpionfish, lots of little fry which we think may have been scorpionfish as well, nudibranchs, dahlia anemones, pipefish (Joe said he counted five), a very nice sunstar specimen, and of course, as many dead men's fingers as you could ever wish to see. Very nice. My torch flooded about halfway through though so I had to follow Joe and Charlie pretty closely so I could see into the crevices. Oh well. Apparently cheap torches from Lidl don't work that well. 
