In too deep

Well that was a shock to the system!! It was just the other week we were diving in 28 degree waters now it's back to throwing ourselves off a boat into 6 degrees. 

Warm water diving is great, but diving in the Scotland is far more challenging and for me more rewarding as you have to work hard to find the good stuff and the conditions are harsher. Call me a masochist if you must.....

Winter repairs for the boats

It's still a while before the season officially starts but as we dive all year round, we jump off a boat whenever we can and luckily the conditions were good for Saturday. Not too many boats where on the go and the numbers aboard were low. Peter still has some work to do on Selkie, Paul had nearly a full compliment on Tiger Lily and Billy was going mad in his new Wavedancer powered by ridiculously large engines! I'm sure you could feel the wake hitting the shores of Norway....

We were jumping of Pathfinder with Captain O, and the fact there was only five of us made the deck management even better.

I elected not to take my camera rig with me due to some changes I had made to my cylinder configurations and I want to do some shut down drills without faffing with taking photos.

The set up worked perfectly but I am kicking myself a bit for not taking the camera. First dive was on Black Carr (never a bad dive on Black Carr) where the wolfies were being difficult little buggers, but right above the anchor on the wall, Elaine spotted a nice big lumpsucker gliding along which is unusual to see them out and about as opposed to hiding amongst the kelp.

Not many boats out today

We hid Ebb Carr for a second splash and and again found another big lumpsucker cruising along in the open. Never a camera in your hand when you need one.....

With a vis of about five metres and quite a surge underneath and some chop above, it was typical for this time of the year on the East coast but I wouldn't have missed the chance to get into the cold waters again. 

Two weeks time, we'll jump back in weather permitting but next weekend we have our final powerboat course which will be a long weekend with most of it done at night time. Challenging!