St. Abbs, The Craig and Anemone Gullies – June 2014

Click on image to view the photo gallery
Click on image to view the photo gallery

 

Rapidly approaching dive number 50 of 2014, despite the lack of updates here! This was our second visit to St. Abbs this year, having dived the wreck of The Glanmire back in April in what was probably some of the worst visibility I’ve ever experienced on a wreck in 30 metres of water! This most definitely was not the case this time though. We rounded the corner at the top of the brae and descended to the harbour area on a sunny June morning with light winds and a blue sea (not green/brown!) that looked inviting. This was our first opportunity to check out Paul Crowe’s new boat ‘Shore Diver’. We were due to be on it the day after our Glanmire dive (not with Paul) back in April, but Paul rightly called it off given how the vis had been. Shore Diver is a big, wide boat and roomy even with its full count of divers onboard. It can shift too, so travel times to the dive sites are speedy just as they were on his previous boat Tiger Lily.

 

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‘Unknown Wreck’, Moray Firth – July 2013

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Click on image to view the photo gallery

Yet another of this years dives that was a first for me, on a wreck this time and one whose identity is unknown. This is fairly unusual as most of the wrecks dived by recreational divers have been identified and it is usually possible with a bit of Googling to find out how the vessel met its fate. Not so for this particular wreck which consists of a good sized boiler and a collection of other wreckage strewn across the bottom at a depth of approximately 26m not far from Cullen.

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Skelly Hole, St. Abbs – July 2013

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Click on image to view the photo gallery

 
The St. Abbs VMR is a dependable spot for some nice, easy scenic diving and since Summer seemed to finally arrive at the start of July, seven of us decided to make the most of the great weather and booked spaces for the weekend on Paul Crowe’s boat the Tiger Lilly.
We dived West Hurker and Tye’s Tunnel (which I haven’t dived in years) on the Saturday and then started Sunday’s diving with a dive at Skelly Hole.
 
This isn’t a dive to be attempted on a day where there is any swell as the boat has to be maneuvered into a fairly tight spot to drop you off. It’s reasonably shallow too so any wave action would turn it into a fairly good approximation of a dive in a washing machine. Fortunately we had two warm days with reasonably light offshore winds and conditions were ideally suited to attempt this site.

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