18th July 2010
Well, with yet another dodgy weather forecast and having had such a good dive at St Abbs last weekend, it was decided at the last minute to go for the St Abbs option again, but this time taking both club RIBS.
Assembling at St Abbs, the RIBs were swiftly launched into the harbour.
Initially however, we had a bit of a problem starting the Ospreys Mercury engine, but with the aid of a set of jump leads eventually the engine fired into life and then proceeded to run smoothly and without any further problem for the rest of the day.
With both boats engines now firing on all cylinders we headed out of the harbour and up the coast to a site known locally as the Barnyard.
Dropping into the water it was a case of gently heading down and out into deeper water in search of the main gully that runs out to sea. This particular gully affords some shelter from the running tide. It is also within this gully that a multitude of different coloured dahlia anemones can found.
Swimming back towards the shore we took the time to explore some of the narrow gullies that cut into the rocky cliffs in this area before swimming back out to the waiting RIBs.
For the second dive we could not resist returning to Wuddy Rocks.
Again, like last week, this particular site was a new one for some of the party. With an ebbing tide however, swimming down the narrow passage or against the current passing through the submarine arch proved a little more challenging than last weeks dive at this site.
Still it is this very current that is responsible for the rich covering of marine growth that covers the exposed areas of this reef and makes this particular site such a colourful and interesting scenic dive.
Returning back to St Abbs harbour we were then confronted with the challenge of recovering the boats via the slipway that was now several feet away on dry land! Tyneside 114 however soon rose to this challenge and with the aid of some strong line and some brute force soon had both boats recovered back on their respective trailers on the slipway. All concerned had experienced another successful days diving.
Thanks to Gordon Lambert for organising this diving trip.