Octopussy

Started off a little grey and little cool but the sun shone upon us come the end of the day. And what a glorious day it was and not just because we were loaded and out the harbour by 9:11am (almost on time for a change).

Heading out to lift the pots before the mad rush starts

Little bit of chop on the surface with  a 2 knot Easterly but it wasn't a problem, apart from one young lad up from down South who was used to diving in quarries. He was greener than brussel sprout by the time we got back on the boat, poor bugger.

Edible crab eating

First port of call was Skellies, which was reliably awesome with the gullies proving a real treasure trove of scenic opportunities and marine life. Vis was average today with 6-9m, could have been better but seen it a lot worse. Big shoals of pollock crusing around with the obligatory wrasse on our heels like little puppy dogs and we had some nice big cod and flat fish which were a good find towards the end of the dive.

Thou shall have a fishie, when the boat comes in....

During surface interval, reports came in from Pathfinder of an angler fish mooching around at Black Carr, so being the kind of divers that we are, it would have been rude not to dive it. And you should know by now, there's never a bad dvie on Black Carr! As regular as clockwork, the wolfish where in there usual hiding places just past the anchor, but the little buggers were hunkered down at the back of their hole and weren't for moving. Inconsiderate or what?

Nope. Not coming out to play today

No angler fish but we wererewarded with a semi-regular visit from an octupus who was more than happy just to sit there and have camera rigs pointed in its direction. Put a little vid of it below ( the intermittent white outs are from Elaines strobes). And I didn't turn my lighting on it as I didnt want to scare the little fella off.

I'd like to be, under the sea, in an octopus's garden in the shade

A perfect way to end the day with a quality find, as well as professional level SMB deployment by Mabs and a fresh batch of fudge from Peter when we got back on the boat. It doesn't get better than that really. Apart from seeing two octopus....octopi....octopusses....two of them things.......

"Where does this bit go again?"

13 degrees in the water is not to be sniffed at and definately better than the 5 degrees we had in December, so I'm not going to complain. Another couple of degrees and Mab's might be able to go in hoodless. 

Mr O'Callaghan (Pathfinder) modelling the wallpaper I used to have in my bog in the 70's

With any luck the weather should hold for next Saturday as guided diving beckons again with a request for Cathedral Rock amongst others. Don't know if I'll have my rig in the water with me, but you'll see the end results here next week if I have.

And the obligatory post dive celebratory octopus hug and dance

Oh, and before I forget it was the lifeboat open day at St Abbs today so if you dont already support your local lifeboat, please do so as they are an essential service in communities like this and without them, we'd be right in the brown smelly stuff, as evidenced by the emergency a diver had today. Donate now!  Click Here