26th October 2014
by Richard Booth
With lots of the Tyneside members away in the warm clear blue waters of the Red Sea, others had to make do with the cooler green waters off the East coast of the UK. Strong autumn winds limited available dive sites, although the steep high cliffs off St Abbs offered a measure of protection from the gusty SW breeze.
So it was that a small team of Tyneside divers loaded their kit aboard the MV Shore Diver in St Abbs harbour, sharing the boat with a Yorkshire based dive club.
Soon the boat headed out of the harbour along the cliff face and past the lighthouse on the Head, before Paul maneuvered his vessel into a small sheltered cove. Here we dropped into the water and headed out along the sandy bottom before descending into the submarine gully’s of the Skerries.
The further we swam out from the shore, the more the visibility appeared to deteriorate, possibly due to the movement of water pushed by the big spring tide.
Torch beams cut through the dark green water, emphasizing the bright colours of the amazing Dahlia anemones that are to be found within these gullies.
Some of the Yorkshire group even found some wolf fish.
Once everyone was safely recovered it was a short journey back to the harbour and after unloading cylinders for refills, it was off to the Ebb Carrs café for another coffee and a bacon and egg sandwich.
For the second dive Paul dropped the group up current of Craig Rock.
Here we drifted onto and explored the reef’s cliff face before drifting gently around the rock in the current to further explore the gullies and pinnacles behind the rock.
A fantastic dive to end the days diving. Thanks to Paul Crowe for skippering a great days diving.