Cheers Paul

This is no ordinary bucket it is a galvanised steel bucket with a generous amount of lead attached to it and a window to see out of. Yes, and it leaks!

Each year as part of the Jock Davison trophy a number of brave souls see how far they can walk with the bucket on their head. Of course, being the diving club, this is done on the bottom at the deep end of the swimming pool. Its only three meters deep.  

Mick has had a calendar printed for the diving club featuring a different picture each month.

 Copies are for sale at £5 each.

If you would like copies let me know or give Mick a call.

(The pictures are not all from Porth Colomon, despite the excellent diving that was had there recently)

Divers- Lee Wright, Stuart Greatorex, Paul Smith, Mick Hyde
Boat Handler, Dive Marshall, Onboard Catering Manager, Helen Hyde.

Autumn well and truly here, and weather should be getting colder, however there had been a 2 week period of settled calm weather prior to our trip. A big high was sat over Scotland and this gave us calm seas, clear skies and relatively warm air temperatures, the sea was still as warm as it has been all summer at 12C.

After an early morning start we arrived at Puffin Dive Centre, just south of Oban, after lunch.  We got the boat sorted, launched and headed out to get a dive before the sun started to go down.  The first dive was on the SE corner of Bach Island on a vertical cliff that drops to 30M and then onto a coarse sand sea bed which slopes off into even deeper water.  It was very dark once we got below 15m as we were then in shade.  However the viz was excellent, at least 10M.
Stuart at 20mt depth, Bcah Island

 Loads of fish about, plenty of deadmens fingers, Devonshire Cup Corals and small anemones on the cliff face.  There were also plenty of scallops on the seabed, right up to the base of the cliff, although most were on the small side, so earned the right to stay there a bit longer!  Lee and I headed along the base of the cliff for about 150M, and then we ascended a bit and drifted back on the current before slowly ascending through the kelp and back towards where the boat was moored.

Back on board Helen had coffee, tea and biscuits waiting for us, which were very welcome.  Great start to the weekend.

Back to Gallanach and got settled into one of the small houses which are available to rent on site at Puffin.  After tea we decided on a night dive, Lee opted for a shower and his book instead, so just three of us, Stuart Greatorex, Paul Smith and myself went for the joys of the Puffin Reef at night.

We kitted up and headed out down the slip, moving slowly and concentrating on the vast variety of life that was out and about.  Paul found a large lobster out for a walk, it posed for a few photos and then we let it go!!  Several large nudibranchs on the kelp,
Nudibrach

 a large red, quite disgusting looking worm was inching its way across the seabed, none of us had seen one like that before.  Once on the reef, we followed it round heading slowly south, Stuart found an octopus, and took a few photos!!  There were lots of smaller fish around throughout the dive, together with squat lobsters that were very aggressive and wanted to take on the world.

After 25 minutes I was down to 70Bar, so I headed back as we had planned.  Back for a shower before the others returned.  I think they got a little lost coming back, but they made it eventually. We all went to bed at 9:00pm

The next morning dawned on a beautiful day, flat calm, so we decided to head out for the day, taking lunch with us to go on a bit of an explore south of Kerrera.

Having looked at the charts the night before we decided to headed for the Garvellach Islands, about 15 miles away from Puffin.  Took us about 40 minutes to get there and we then spent another 10 minutes or so cruising along slowly using the echo-sounder to find where the deepest steepest bit of wall was.  Initially Stuart and I dropped in at the southern end of the wall, but the current was going the wrong way.  So we got back in the boat and did it all again at the opposite end of the wall.  No point in swimming against the current unless you have to.  Dropped down the cliff to its base at 27M, there were large boulders everywhere.  Lots of fish, including ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, a ling in a cave, several large pollack. 
Male Cukoo Wrasse giving me the once over. (he started life as a female)
Inquisitive large ballan wrasse  (both male and femaile look the same to divers), female cukoo wrasse  in the background.

There were also yellow Boring and elephants ear sponges, urchins and bat stars, the others went a little deeper than we did and amongst the boulders saw lobsters.

 
 Once again the viz and clear water made it a great dive.

We then headed for Insh Island and after a load of fannying about we eventually got ashore to have lunch, an explore and to claim this uninhabited island for Rochdale Sub-Aqua Club!!!  Flat calm, sunshine and no wind, what more could we ask for?

After lunch we eventually got back aboard Holly and headed round to our next dive site on the South East corner of the Island.  Dropped in right next to the wall and dropped down vertically to 25M, there was a rubble slope at the edge of the cliff and small fish, urchins and squat lobbies were hiding everywhere.  On the cliff itself there were Northern sea fans,  these are quite rare and are slow growing, if you want to find out a little bit more, check out this link which explains a bit more about the Insh Island colonies.  http://seasearch.wisshost.net/downloads/Insh%20Seafans.pdf

As we headed along the base of the cliff we could feel the current pulling at us , so we hugged the cliff face and then the subsequent boulder slop to stop us getting carried away, we surfaced very close to the boat and got in, just as Paul appeared, also quite close to the boat.  That just left Lee who we picked up about half a mile away, he had got separated from Paul as they were making their way back to the boat at 12m.  Lee did a very slow ascent on his DSMB and drifted a long way.  Quick pick-up, and we headed back for Gallanach. 

After an excursion by car to The Bridge Over The Atlantic and Easedale,

Clackan Bridge known as “The bridge over the Atlantic”

View from looking north towards Karrera

4 of us sampled the delights of the Crystal Palace Chinese Restaurant which was excellent. Stuart and Aylin headed off for a romantic meal for two at another restaurant. Then we went to bed at 9:00pm.

Saturday morning and once again it was flat calm, we picked up some more fuel and decided to dive the wreck of the Hispania in the Sound Of Mull.  It was about 23 miles away, so we took lunch, flasks and 2 tanks each and away we went.  For the first part of the journey from Puffin to the bottom of the Sound of Mull, the sea was like a mirror.  After that it got it got increasingly lumpy until there were waves 0.5M high.  It took us just over an hour to get to the dive site.  We were expecting slack water to be at 11am, but we had been advised to get there early in case slack came early.  We got there at 10:20am to find that there were already 2 hard boats and 2 ribs already dropping in a total of 30 divers.  We thought that the hardboat skippers must have the local knowledge, so we kitted up and piled in as quickly as we could.  Lee and I were first down the shotline, there was a bit of current, but nothing to worry about.  The viz was about 7-8M initially, except in the bottom of the holds where other divers had already stirred up the silt.  The Hispania sits the right way up in about 30M of water, it is not enormous and you can easily go round the entire wreck on your dive.  The whole ship is covered in plumose anemones; deadmans fingers and Devonshire cup corals, there are large wrasse and enormous Pollack patrolling the wreck.  We didn’t see any congers, but I am sure they were there, inside the wreck in all the muck.  We made our way slowly around the wreck, the current slowly dropped off to nothing as did the number of divers.  They had all got in too early, for the last half of our dive, there were only the Rochdale divers on the wreck.  Towards the stern you can see the spare prop sitting in a small hold, or rather what I have been told is a replica of the prop that would have been used to make a working replacement should they have lost or damaged the original. 

After 45 mins the current was starting to pick up and we headed back up the shotline to be picked up by Helen.

We then headed back down the Sound and had lunch moored up under Duart Castle, http://www.duartcastle.com/castle/castle_intro.html.  There is a protected wreck nearby which you can only dive under the supervision of a licence holder.  This is the “Swan”, a Cromwellian warship that was sunk in 1653  http://www.historic-scotland.gov.uk/duartpointsitedescription.pdf   http://freespace.virgin.net/lochaline.divecentre/visitor%20scheme.htm

The wind dropped again while we were having lunch and after a swift crossing, we were back at Bach Island for a dive on the western side. 

Then it was back to Gallanach, tea and a night dive for Paul and myself, similar to the first dive, except that we found a granddaddy lobster out for a night-time ramble, it’s claws were as big as my torch. Then we went to bed at 9:00pm

The wind and rain started during the night and as the engine was by now being a little problematic, we decided against diving on the Sunday.  We got the boat back on the trailer and gave it a hose down.  Although to be frank it rained so hard on the way home and the puddles (lakes) were so deep, that at one point I thought Paul was going to use the boat to tow the car!!

Thanks everyone for a very enjoyable trip, we dived 4sites that we have not dived before from the RIB.  Viz was fantastic, roll on next dive season.  An especial thanks to Helen for boat handling while having to listen to us twittering on about how good the diving was.

Mick Hyde

Medical Form

Well after Paul had done a bit of arm twisting we finally had four divers and Helen as a boat-handler. 

We met at the boathouse at 6 in the morning and after two minor diversions by Paul, (his new Sat Nav isn’t all it’s cracked up to be), we finally arrived at Porth Colmon down on the Lleyn in North Wales.

Never been here when it has been as busy, couple of fishing boats, two other dive boats from a local club and all the extra cars that that brings, however there was parking space for all…just!

Got the boat and kit ready, Paul reversed down the slip and we hand-balled the trailer the last 20 yards to the sea.  It was at that point that we remembered why the club had christened this place Pong Bay many years ago.  Tides push a lot of rotting seaweed into the bay and gives the place a rather awful aroma.

Into the boat and off we go to the first dive site.  Lots of people ask me where my favourite dive site is and I have always said that it is the reef offshore between Porth Ysgaden and Porth Colmon.  So that is where we headed, usually we do this as a drift dive but we entered on slack water, expecting the current to pick up while we were under.

Steve Dennison and myself went down first, 20m to the seabed, 10Metre viz and loads of natural light.  We were on a rocky bit of reef with a lot of large Ballan and Brown wrasse charging about, plenty of starfish on the top of the reef, large orange 7 armed Luidia starfish on the go and the occasional dogfish.  We saw large edible crabs, tiny delicate spider crabs and some jocking great big spiny spider crabs.  After about 10 minutes we found an enormous boulder with loads of very big Bib tucked underneath it, milling around were a shoal of Pouting and a few colourful Cuckoo wrasse.  We saw two octopus, the first one ducked straight into a crevice, the second stayed out to play for a few minutes, before swimming off in a cloud of ink.  We saw several large dragonets which were incredibly docile.

All too soon the computers were showing that we were out of time, nice slow ascent up the SMB line and there was Helen to meet us.  Paul Smith and Terry Cuttlefish also had a good dive except Terry’s drysuit was apparently made by Tetleys and has a similar number of holes to one of their teabags.

Back to shore for lunch and a walk for Helen and myself and a chill out for the others.

The second dive was to be at Maen Mellt (Thunder Rock). On spring tides there is only about 20-25 minutes of slack and the current can pick up very quickly after that.  On neaps there is about 40 minutes of slack, fortunately we were on neaps and we dived in the “lee” of the rock.  This small island rises about 10-15m above sea level.

Terry had decided that one underwater experience with Tetley was enough and decided to keep Helen company on the boat.  That left Paul Smith (with his camera), Steve Dennison and myself diving as a 3, as visibility was 10M plus and there was no current, this was not an issue.  We dropped in off the boat on the northern tip of the rock, straight down a kelp covered cliff to 20M, the kelp dying out at about 10-12M.

There were loads of fish including some of the biggest ballan wrasse I have ever seen, easily 1M long.  Saw a number of conger eels on the dive, a few bits of wreckage, loads of cuckoo wrasse, bib, pouting, and a few dogfish.  Lobsters including some big ones were lurking under the big boulders which scatter the bottom,

We made our way round the base of the cliff to the west and followed the line of the reef as it slowly curved west away from the island.  On the vertical slopes there were lots of jewel anemones of all colours, unfortunately most were closed up.  Slightly lower down were hard Devonshire cup corals, tucked away in all the nooks and crannies were squat lobsters and best of all, a baby Crawfish, about 5-6” long and about an inch across,  I have seen the occasional big Cray around here but not a small one, there is hope for them yet!!

As we got to the western end of the reef, we could feel the current wanting to tug us away to the south, we retreated a bit and looped slowly around the way we had come, keeping further out away from the reef.  We hit the main reef and re-traced our steps to the start point.  Found an enormous conger just before we started our ascent, it had shoulders that Gordon would have been proud of and a gut to match!!  I thought Paul was actually trying to feed his camera to it. 

Steve was tugging at my fin and signalling up, he was down to 60 bar, so we told Paul and stopped him from becoming the club’s first one armed diver.  Actually I doubt that the Conger would have stopped at his arm.

Slow ascent up the wall and there was Helen and Terry waiting for us.  Back to the beach, a squelch through the seaweed juice and we very quickly had the boat back on its trailer and ready to roll.

The end of a fantastic day’s diving. The best I have had in the UK for at least 3 years.

I still consider the reef offshore here to be my favourite dive.  The sheer variety of conditions, habitats and life that you encounter are fantastic.

Thanks to everyone, especially Helen who had to listen to me raving about it, when she couldn’t dive herself.

Mick Hyde

See the video … Octopus at Porth Colemon 27-09-2009

We were diving with Los Gigantes Diving Centre

A big Thank You to Fran for letting me use her new camera.

A bizarre sea creature that sends out bright flares from its body to scare off predators has been discovered.

Hundreds of ‘green bombers’, which measure between 0.7 and 3.6 inches long, were uncovered deep in the Pacific Ocean.

 
The worms adopt a similar strategy to fighter pilots, which blast out flares to redirect heat-seeking missiles.
 Defence: When threatened, the worms release fluid-filled balloons, pictured, that burst into a flare of bright light
When threatened, the worms release fluid-filled balloons that suddenly burst into bright light, glowing intensely for several seconds before fading.

Scientists believe the ‘bombs’ function as defence weapons. The green lights shining in the black depths could distract a predator long enough to give the worm a chance to escape.
Seven species of the worms were collected from depths of between 1km and 4km off the Philippines, western U.S. and Mexico.

 Impressive find: The centipede-like worms have transparent bodies coated with detachable ‘green bombs’

The first to be described today in the journal Science has been named Swima bombiviridis – a reference to its swimming ability and the green bombs.

One of the US scientists, Dr Karen Osborn, from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, California, said: ‘We found a whole new group of fairly large, extraordinary animals that we never knew anything about before.

‘These are not rare animals. Often when we see them they number in the hundreds. What’s unique is that their habitat is really hard to sample.’
 New moves: The species propel themselves with ‘swimming paddles’ made from long bristles
The centipede-like worms have largely transparent bodies and propel themselves with ‘swimming paddles’ made from long bristles.

Five species were armed with ‘bombs’, which are thought to have evolved from gills.
‘The relatives have gills that appear to be in exactly the same place as the bombs,’ said co-author Professor Greg Rouse, curator of the Scripps Benthic Invertebrate Collection.
 Prevalent: Hundreds of the worms were found in the deep Pacific Ocean

‘The gills can fall off very easily so there’s a similarity of being detachable, but for some reason the gills have transformed to become these glowing little detachable spheres.’
The worms were discovered during deep sea dives using remotely operated unmanned submersibles.