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Final Evening
Van packed, a few beers drunk, final photos taken and reports finished off we headed to the Gigha Hotel for dinner. Bob started the meal with ice cream confusing the poor waitress, who thought he was joking. Lots of sea search and information gathered we will put together the reports and definately be heading back.
Thanks to everyone for all their contributions to make the trip run and especially Andy who facilitated the whole expedition and Ann who undertook massive amounts of research for the Group.
Final Day, Group One - Riant (i.v.o) and Kartli
Great start to the day as on the way out we saw a basking shar. After capturing some adhoc and not great video footage (camera held over boat tubes) we headed to the Riant. Unfortunately it's not the easiest wreck to locate as there is a huge reef that confuses the echo sounder and looks like a wreck which meant first 2 pairs were diving in vicinity of - and pair 2 were so close but lots of life and sponges to see around the rocks on the sea bed.
Following rebreather leaking we moved on to the Kartli. A very broken up wreck in approx 8m of water. It still has some big structure to see and was covered in kelp and fish - big pollack, cuckoo wrasse and starfish. We hit the jackpot again as the second wave surfaced and 3 basking sharks were circling the bay on the surface. Dick of the day went to Sophie for jumping in to recover the boat with her drysuit zip open.
Final Day, Group Two - South East Pier
Group Two opted to do hour plus dives under the pier after talking to Group One about the previous day. Some videoed high stride entries and great pics and video came from the day. Even a basking shark skeleton was found as well as loads of small critters - crabs, scorpion fish, prawns and wrasse.
After the diving it was final fills and kit tidy up. Joe cooked a feast of scallops and bacon and a couple of pans of prawns. Then we had to haul the compressors and J cylinders down to the boat for the final day Group photo shoot!
Mark and Jon did a high stride entry from the Pier, Sophie and Jamie opted for the more sedate stride entry. The pier was covered with sponges, plumose anenomes and dead mans fingers. Lots of cuckoo wrasse, scorpion fish and crabs and prawns everywhere. In the afternoon we discovered why there was so much life it’s a fisherman’s dumping ground – described by Bob as ‘Fish Armageddon’ and this wastage feeds the huge numbers of crabs scavenging on the sand.
Day Three, Group Two – Riant and Kartli, U482
Shot was just off the sub. Andy and Alvin went down to investigate on trimix. Unfortunately due to run time constraints didn’t have time to locate the sub from the shotline but found an artefact that would appear to be from a U Boat.
Remainder of the group dived the Riant, a pretty intact wreck. At the stern the rudder and prop were visible as were the boilers. A great 10m swim through and lots of life – edible crabs, bib and loads of deadmans fingers and plumose anenomes. Porthole with glass discovered on the wreck. Stan carelessly lost his lifting bag.
Highlight was swimming with a 10ft basking shark on way to next site – we saw it on way and the shark circled to see what was going on with the boat and divers in the water. Fantastic.
Whilst someone was having a pee off the back of the boat it appears we may have found a new uncharted wreck! Timing is everything!!!
Last dive of the day was the Kartli a really broken up wreck with lots of small life hiding in wreckage.
Stan was pleased to see Group Two had made use of time to promote his mobile vicar services by creating point of sale on his car and attractive pink bows to attract attention. Thank you to Kathy Collier for being the first to take up these mobile services.
Day Two, Group One – Boat diving
The sun’s still shining and the water is still glass like. Took little Mo out for a tootle to Osprey II. Mark and Andy dived first and came back beaming – having videoed the wreck in fantastic vis with loads of life: bib, Pollack, edible crabs, lobster and some congers! Not to mention the brilliantly in tact boilers. Andy was please the video was on lanyard as he let go of his shiny new camera on entry. Bob and Jon followed for another great dive, with the rebreathers in last (no deco) and fish like the lack of bubbles.
Dive 2 was the Moncouso with 3 divers getting in (one drying out on the tubes, one skippering and one sleeping!). The skipper who shall remain nameless did suggest apple ‘bobbing’ on the surface as Bob was in the water. Huge congers and loads of life on this very broken up wreck used for target practice, before being scuttled at Gigha.
We aided with the boat diving party by unloading some of their kit and driving off with the remainder to be chased by Jamie in the car to return the kit. Most of the group got approx 1.6m depths except Alvin and Sven who swam 200m off shore to get 3m.
Lots of dogfish, common shore crabs, dab and tompot blennies. Ferry came a little close.
Snorkelling in the afternoon, Sven decided it was so warm he’d go for a swim in shorts!
Sven and Anto demonstrated their need for cookery lessons feeding Jon and Bob.
Day One, Group One – Shore Diving Port Mor
Having waved the boat diving group we headed to Port Mor for shore diving with amazing weather on our side. White sandy beaches, Bob’s ‘party sandwiches’ and bucket loads of Avon ‘So Soft’ which is highly recommended by Scotland for repelling relentless midges. Visibility was amazing at this shallow bay. 2 waves dived both sides over the day seeing dogfish, scorpion fish, lots of crabs, cuckoo wrasse, starfish, kelp and a massive plaice – photos to follow. 2 divers were mistaken by tourists for seals but Sophie and Jamie are convinced that they are not able to balance balls on their noses yet.
Back to base for cylinder filling, food and a couple of pints....and did we mention the fantastic weather and glass like water??
Over a few pints some of the locals gave Ann some interesting info on the U482 to be revealed later...
Group 2 saw dolphins, 5 basking sharks and we have located what we think is the sub – to be dived Sunday...watch this space.
We’ve arrived!
Well our adventure to Gigha started early this morning and the journey took a number of unexpected turns! Between four vehicles we took three different routes to the ferry at Tayinloan – the A83 was closed so the boat and the van took a ‘scenic’ route up and back down again to get to the ferry slip way. One car decided to wait for the road to reopen at 3pm and the other chose to take the three ferry route! Needless to say we were all racing to make the last ferry at 6pm – and thankfully we all made it (just)!
The weather is looking promising too – we arrived on Gigha to calm seas and sunshine (unfortunately accompanied by countless midges!). We’ve all tinkered with our kit, eaten and planned (as far as possible) tomorrow’s diving.
The boat is aiming to pinpoint the U-boat before heading off to dive the wrecks of the Osprey II and the Moncouso while the shore diving team are making a start on the sea search dives.
Three days to Go...
Its been a long time in planning, even longer in preparing and now like christmas its suddenly here...
We've had our final sit down to iron out any last minute issues, and we're ready to go.
All the equipment is readied, and is due to be transported thursday morning along with Little Mo (a 7.2m Rhib we will be using as our diving platform). Hopefully we will arrive on Gigha around 5.00pm, were we will ready our equipment for the coming few days.
At this moment the weather is looking like it is going to be kind to us, so hopefully we won't have to make major changes to our plans.
As long as we can find internet access, we will update this diary page on a daily basis.
Andy. |
