Due to a bit of a shuffle around of boats, timing and skippers, this was our fist club dive with Danny of St Abbs Charters. We all arrived on the harbour with kit, ready for the very pleasant 1pm ropes off. The swell seemed to be receding, having been quite significant in the previous days. This was to be Catherine’s first dive out of St Abbs too, so we were hoping for some good visibility and some pretty sites to dive.
The first dive was undertaken on Ebb Carrs. This is a 10 – 18m deep reef which lies just south of St Abbs. In good visibility (which we had) it is a very pretty dive, with gullies full of life, including octopus, as well as some wreckage. For those into macro photography there were also lots of nudibranchs too. The visibility was so good, and the current minimal, SiFish enabled Catherine to make her first in sea DSMB deployment.
Back on the boat we were treated to some fantastic raspberry muffins – they went down very well with a cup of tea. We took in the amazing cliff scenery of St Abbs while we had a surface interval for our second dive. With a bit of swell and now current running, it was decided to do a wee pinnacle in the Waddy Rocks area, just north of St Abbs, as this was sheltered from the north easterly swell.
Most of the group managed to jump in and do the pinnacle dive, however me, SiFish and Catherine ended up having an amazing reef dive, while we drifted along Waddy Rocks, then on to Black Carrs. The visibility was excellent, and there ware lots of very friendly wrasse around. Catherine learned very quickly that you have to just relax and swim with the current, otherwise your air doesn’t last long!
All in all the seven club divers who came had a lovely day. The visibility was the best we have seen in a while. Paul learned to be patient with Tiago’s photography and Catherine perfected her DSMB skills. Diving with a new skipper was a nice experience too, even if the tide had gone out on our return and the climb up the ladder was a long one! 😉
