A small team completed the first Barnsley BSAC UK sea dive of the year in St Abbs, Scotland. PaulR, MarkH, Rob, Lauren (with Irene), Ann and Mary met up at Green Ends Gully in Eyemouth on Friday for a shakedown shore dive. Mary completed her first UK sea dive – in a 5mm wetsuit in 8 degrees – Respect!
Following a hearty Friday night meal at the Scoutcroft Caravan Park, the team headed back to Eyemouth on Saturday for a mid-afternoon shore dive on the Green Ends sister gulley, Nest Ends. Mary’s family arrived in time to see her complete her first ‘proper’ dive!
Mark, Paul and Rob then headed into St Abbs harbour for a ‘leisurely’ shore dive around Broad Craig. A nice dive with some good wrasse interaction, spotting anemones, lobsters and crabs on the way. But things went slightly awry – Rob’s dry suit sprang a leak, and, MarkH suffered a navigation malfunction resulting in a long surface swim back to shore! Oh, how we all laughed about it afterwards in the New Inn pub during our Saturday evening meal…
Sunday – Mark’s birthday – saw us all head down into Eyemouth harbour for a boat dive from the Divestay ‘Wavedancer’. Mary completed another first – a UK sea dive from a hard boat onto ‘Black Carr’ just outside of St Abbs. More anemones, sun stars, wrasse, lobsters and crabs – a good dive (aside from Paul pulling his calf muscle following his giant stride entry). After a minor diversion to pick up two stranded divers from another boat, we then headed to the classic St Abbs dive – Cathedral Rock. Yet another first – PaulR finally logging this wonderful dive.
So in summary, a great weekend, interspersed with a few minor hiccups:
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Big thanks to PaulR for organising this trip (and we hope your leg gets better for Egypt!!).
