When I dived the Farne islands in August last year, it was my first visit there in many years. It was great having a chance to dive with the seals again which is the reason that most divers visit the Farne Islands. Most of the visiting birdlife (the other main visitor attraction there) had departed by August and the skies were relatively quiet.
When I visited this year in mid-June, it was a very different place. The sky was full of birds criss-crossing overhead, making their way out to fish or heading back with a beak-full of their catch for hungry chicks waiting back on the islands. Birds were packed tightly together on ever flat surface and there was a lot of jostling and bickering going on. The rocks were white with bird droppings and when you were downwind of it the smell was enough to put you off your sandwiches! Continue reading “The Farne Islands – June 2014”
Conservation Bay, Loch Carron – May 2014
Back in May I visited Conservation Bay at Loch Carron again and did three dives over the course of a weekend. This wasn’t originally the intention, but the weather was so good on the Saturday that after completing the morning dive at Low Water Slack we decided to stick around and dive it again at High Water Slack.
You can read more on Conservation Bay in these previous posts. Continue reading “Conservation Bay, Loch Carron – May 2014”
Bass Rock and Isle of May – May 2014
It’s been a good year for making it back to dives sites that I haven’t visited in a long time. I hadn’t done much diving around the Firth of Forth in 3 or 4 years, so it was great to get the opportunity for a return to the Bass Rock and Isle of May. We were diving with Shadow Marine from Anstruther aboard Skipper Steve Haddow’s catamaran Mako. It’s a well equipped, roomy boat with a diver lift, toilet, Bauer Mariner compressor for air fills, hot drinks served in proper cups and posh biscuits!
The Wreck of the Nar, Moray Firth – June 2014
The SS Nar was on route from Sunderland for Burghead on the shores of the Moray Firth carrying a cargo of coal when it foundered off Garmouth on the 13th December 1904. It is well broken up now, lying in 12 metres of water on a sandy bottom where its boiler, various plates, capstans, winches and other rusting remains have become home to a large variety of marine life. This was my first opportunity to dive the Nar during a weekend of wreck diving out of Lossiemouth with North East Dive. We also dived the San Tiburcio and the Unity, both of which I hadn’t dived in 6 or 7 years at least.
Continue reading “The Wreck of the Nar, Moray Firth – June 2014”