St Abbs – The Craig and Black Carrs – September 2014

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

Back to St. Abbs at the beginning of September for a couple of days of diving  in bright but breezy weather on Paul Crowe’s boat ‘Shore Diver’. The water temperature varied from 13-14 degC and the viz was very respectable following a period of settled conditions.  This meant that photographing things further than a few feet away was a possibility!

The morning’s dive was at The Craig (Craig Rock on the map below) which is situated just below St Abbs Lighthouse.  It was great to see plenty of fish around and you were never far from a Ballan Wrasse hoping for a feed.   There were plenty of Pollock swimming around too and Ling peeking out from hiding places beneath large rocks.  This was a relatively shallow dive with a maximum depth of 18 metres although our average depth was only 13.  It was great being able to stop, look up and see the surface of the water overhead with the sun shining down.  The carpets of yellow and white Dead Man’s Fingers looked stunning with their polyps out feeding.

 

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After filling up with a bacon and egg roll from Ebb Carrs Cafe, there was still time for a wander around St Abbs before the second dive.  It was nice to see the place busy with divers and other visitors making the most of the weather. We wandered up to the front street and along to the memorial to the Eyemouth Disaster.  The brass figures of the women and children were looking out onto a sea you would scarcely believe was capable of what befell these small fishing towns back in 1881.

Black Carrs made for an enjoyable second dive and some unsuccessful Wolfish hunting.  Out of the corner of my eye I caught sight of something shifting on top of a rock which turned out to be a Lemon Sole.  It was very cooperative and lay still long enough for me to get some close up photographs of this flatfish’s oddly arranged eyes and mouth.

On the Sunday we dived at Ebb Carrs (the rocks, not the cafe) on the wreckage of the Alfred Erlandsen and had a sighting of a pod of Dolphins on our way back from a dive at Wuddy Rocks.  Those are deserving of a post of their own once I sort through the photographs.  A great weekend of diving at St Abbs yet again.

St Abbs Harbour
Harbour view from end of Seaview Terrace
St Abbs Harbour
View North to St Abbs Head
Memorial to Eyemouth fishing disaster of 1881.
Lobster
Velvet Swimming Crab
Dead Man's Finger soft corals.
Dead Man's Finger soft corals.
Dahlia Anemones
Velvet Swimming Crab and Dahlia Anemone
Dead Man's Finger soft corals
Ballan Wrasse
Ballan Wrasse
A sunny day!
Common Ling
Pollock
Lemon Sole
Lemon Sole
Lemon Sole
Deeplet Sea Anemone
Yarrell's Blenny
Dead Man's Finger Soft Coral.
Ballan Wrasse and Dead Man's Finger Soft Corals.
Long Spined Sea Scorpion
Long Spined Sea Scorpion
Edible Crab

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