21st August 2010
by Richard Booth
With all dive kit safely loaded aboard the Lazy G charter boat it was full steam ahead up the coast to the first selected dive site of the day, Branders point.
This particular site is situated further up the coast past Petticowick, so is not a regular destination for most of the St Abb’s boats that tend to select sites closer to the harbour. The skippers briefing was simple; head south until you hit the wall then keep the wall on your right until you reach the tip of the point, then head inshore and you will hit the main area of gully’s. Following these instructions we soon encountered the wall which was steep but fairly devoid of life. Swimming around the point however we were soon entranced by the colourful gullies and pinnacles that are tucked in behind the point. We were met with a profusion of life with the rocky walls carpeted in a luxuriant covering of soft corals. Wrasse patrolled along the gullies, whilst Pollack hung patiently on the edge of visibility.
For the second dive we headed back towards St Abbs. The intention being to dive the Black Carrs and locate the large old anchor that can be found on this site as well as hopefully find some of the wolf fish for which this site is noted. Swimming down, we eventually reached the main area of reef and came across the remains of the old plotter casing.
Nearby we soon located the large anchor before swimming on around the point of the reef. In one of the holes in this area of the reef we also came across two wolf fish sharing the same home!
Pausing only long enough to take a couple of photo’s of the beautiful couple it was time to head swiftly back up the reef all too conscious of the mounting deco time that was building up on our computers. Once up in the lee of the Black Carrs, our deco stops were completed exploring amongst the kelp in the shallows, before swimming out to the waiting Lazy G. Thanks to Andy Moss for organising this days diving.
