Went for an evening dive on Tuesday with guys from SUSAC. As the conditions were favourable, we decided to head to the east coast. I'd been wanting to try & find Cathedral Rock (a submerged double archway) at St Abbs for ages. This was my fourth day of diving in a row following our weekend liveaboard trip!
We submerged at exactly 20:00 (30 min after HW). Resultantly, access was easy. Headed SE, skirting several walls. They were adorned with the most voluptuous display of anemones & corals with large friendly ballan wrasse making us feel very welcome. Much to my relief, I brought us to the archways. The tide was running against us, so we had to get down low & pull ourselves along the rocks to get through the big arch. We then ascended beside it and allowed ourselves to be sucked through the upper small archway. Stopped to poke our fingers into the "air" (expired gas from divers) which had gathered on the ceiling.
We then made our way back. I was instructing Joe, so we carried out a shared buddy breathing ascent from 15m. He managed it without any bother: could see the other buddy pair almost the whole time during the ascent as the viz was 10m+. I then tried to guide us home. After a short time, I was flashed to join my buddies. Gus had found a sedate but beautiful octopus sitting on a rock. Absolutely wonderful!
We submerged at exactly 20:00 (30 min after HW). Resultantly, access was easy. Headed SE, skirting several walls. They were adorned with the most voluptuous display of anemones & corals with large friendly ballan wrasse making us feel very welcome. Much to my relief, I brought us to the archways. The tide was running against us, so we had to get down low & pull ourselves along the rocks to get through the big arch. We then ascended beside it and allowed ourselves to be sucked through the upper small archway. Stopped to poke our fingers into the "air" (expired gas from divers) which had gathered on the ceiling.
We then made our way back. I was instructing Joe, so we carried out a shared buddy breathing ascent from 15m. He managed it without any bother: could see the other buddy pair almost the whole time during the ascent as the viz was 10m+. I then tried to guide us home. After a short time, I was flashed to join my buddies. Gus had found a sedate but beautiful octopus sitting on a rock. Absolutely wonderful!
Unfortunately, my navigation was flawed on the way back & we ended up doing our safety stop mid water. At least we had the delight of being surrounded my multitudinous comb jellies: quite amazing. We had a long surface swim back to shore but all agreed that it was a fantastic dive.
Our plans for a 2nd dive were scuppered by the news that night diving is not allowed at St Abbs Harbour so we returned to Coldingham to visit the pub for a coke & log book filling. We weren't made to feel very welcome in there... perhaps not local enough?!
Our plans for a 2nd dive were scuppered by the news that night diving is not allowed at St Abbs Harbour so we returned to Coldingham to visit the pub for a coke & log book filling. We weren't made to feel very welcome in there... perhaps not local enough?!
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