Nearly River Garry

The day started of well with a 5am alarm call and a drive to St Abbs with the sun slouching over the horizon.

Sunrise at St Abbs (iphone quality I'm afraid)

With only six people on the boat, we pretty much had  the place to ourselves, which was nice. First up on the agenda was a visit to the River Garry, which was a steamer that went down in 1893 just off Torness.

With a drive of about an hour and three quarters I had plenty of time get some logged hours in driving up there whilst Paul did the important tasks of making the soup and serving tea, It's nice to be master and commander of the vessel for a change! 

Sunburst on the seabed

The current was ripping at the surface as we found out when we made Mary-Ann jump in first several times to check it (she is DM in training after all) only to watch her disappear off toward Bass Rock before we (grudgingly) decided to pick her up. 

With a shot on the wreck, we headed down to about 22 metres to find the wonders and excitement of the Garry. Only to find nothing there. I suspect the shot game of the wreck with combintion of current and divers hanging on like flags in the wind.

Salvaging a bad situation, we bimbled around the bottom finding some mini reefs with some nice squaties, pink shrimp and dahlia anemones.

This is not the River Garry you're looking for......move along

After 45 minutes of not too much, it was back aboard to some soup and the promise of seals at Fast Castle. So with soup in our mugs, hope in out hearts and a spring in our twin diesels, we motored back South West to see what we could see.

Elaine models the new Autumn look for this year

Knowing that the seal colony doesn't get visited that often, we weren't hoping for great things but we were still optomistic that they wouldn't be too skittish. We got lucky. After heading into about 2 metres and sitting for a while they starting coming in for a look see. 

They didn't come right up for a play and tickle like the Farnes seals but this was still a good experience. Maybe once they get more used to divers they'll be a bit more approachable over time.

Curious but wary

Buzzed by flying seals

We had a good 84 minutes or so in the water with the seals and were suitably revitalised after the nearly River Garry episode. Last but not least was a visit to Black Carr before it gets too dark and what can be said about Black Carr that I haven't already mentioned numerous times? 

Awesomely good dive, only one juvenile wolfie spotted today, but with scenery to blow your mind, who's complaining? Happiest part for me was at the end when I went through my usual smiwthrough and popped out to find the exit point covered in nudibranchs. I love my nudibranchs.

Lovely little nudi

I'll quite happily sit in one spot and take pictures of nudibranchs for the whole dive, which does tend to pee off dive guides abroad no end! I cant help it, they're just such a  challenge to photo and a delight to watch.

Hours of entertainment

Mabs elected to sit out this dive, which was a shame. She mentioned something about cold hands but I think she didnt want to ruin her manicure.

"Nope, not going in. Might break a nail......"

With a final whiff of diesel, we chundered into the harbour and had the added bonus of the tide being at high neep which meant just stepping off the boat onto the wall. What an effortless way to end the day.