West Coast of Scotland trip report – part 2

Rob Andrews · May 9th, 2006, 01:23 AM

For anyone that read part 1 and needed more punishment here’s part 2.

Well, after a cracking days diving at the weekend we were heading for a day in Oban so I dropped the tins into a well know dive centre for a 32% fill. I paid my £8 (quite reasonable I thought) and arranged to collect them later that afternoon. Well on returning I was told they couldn’t fill them due to them not having nitrox stickers. I told them they had o2 clean stickers and asked if that was ok and was told that they never saw o2 clean stickers but would fill them while I waited as that was sufficient but I really should have big nitrox stickers round the tanks! I was going to explain rule 6 but just kept quiet as I wanted the fill. :D After some faffing around we eventually got to 32% on their analyser so away I went.

I phoned James again on the Friday to find he was doing a dive looking for an unknown sub so I decided to give Fyne Divers http://www.fyne-diving.co.uk/ a call as I’d seen there boat in Tarbert to see if they had a trip going out I could tag along with. They hadn’t but much to my surprise the skipper/owner Malcolm said he’d take the boat out for just me and he’d have a dive or two, service or what! Excited I started the check the kit only to find the mix was 34% on my analyser and only 190bar not 230 as expected (maybe that £8 wasn’t such a good deal after all). Another quick call to Malcolm to see if there was anywhere local for a quick air top off (I’d worked it out roughly that it would give me 32% as well) and again he came to the rescue, they had there own compressor!

A relaxed 10am start saw me at their yard in Tarbert for the fill then away we went to a site called the Garden in Loch Fyne. Now apparently the vis the day before had been 20m+ but it was down to about 12m now. We stepped off the back of the boat and dropped onto the top of the reef in about 12m. We then made out way down the reef to around 22m and I could see immediately why they called it the garden. It was carpeted in brittle stars with lots of other types of starfish everywhere and loads of velvet swimming crabs as well. There were a couple of edible crabs as well as quite a few scallops. We headed down the reef to a max depth of around 30m where we turned and went back up the side of the reef where we found a dogfish resting in a gulley. We completed the safety stop at 6m where we could clearly see the surface ripple above us and the reef laid out 6m below us! Fantastic, max depth 30m, dive time 45mins.

We returned to Tarbert for lunch/surface interval as the second dive was a shallow wreck only 10-15mins from the harbour.

The first task on the second dive was to attach a new piece of rope for a shot line to an existing piece of rope and send the end up with a lift bag. This completed we set off around the wreck. It is well broken up as it only lies in around 14m of water but there was still quite a lot to see and loads of holes to poke around in, I even managed one small swim through. There were a couple of huge edible crabs and some good sized Pollack on the wreck which we swam around twice but the resident conger was out for the afternoon. At the end of the dive we lay on the bottom and could clearly see the boat 11m above us and the heads of the deck hands poking over the back. Resisting the urge to fire a dsmb at them we headed up. I really enjoyed this dive even though it was quite shallow, max depth 12.5m dive time 35mins.

My thanks to Malcolm who not only took the boat out for just me and buddied me but also took my parents out for the ride on the first dive. They also have an intact wreck with great access in 40m so I can’t wait to get back up there after a bit more experience!

May 9th, 2006, 01:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
Rob Andrews(Offline) New Member Join Date: Nov 2005 Location: Wombourne, West Mids, UK Posts: 133	West Coast of Scotland trip report – part 2 For anyone that read part 1 and needed more punishment here’s part 2. Well, after a cracking days diving at the weekend we were heading for a day in Oban so I dropped the tins into a well know dive centre for a 32% fill. I paid my £8 (quite reasonable I thought) and arranged to collect them later that afternoon. Well on returning I was told they couldn’t fill them due to them not having nitrox stickers. I told them they had o2 clean stickers and asked if that was ok and was told that they never saw o2 clean stickers but would fill them while I waited as that was sufficient but I really should have big nitrox stickers round the tanks! I was going to explain rule 6 but just kept quiet as I wanted the fill. :D After some faffing around we eventually got to 32% on their analyser so away I went. I phoned James again on the Friday to find he was doing a dive looking for an unknown sub so I decided to give Fyne Divers http://www.fyne-diving.co.uk/ a call as I’d seen there boat in Tarbert to see if they had a trip going out I could tag along with. They hadn’t but much to my surprise the skipper/owner Malcolm said he’d take the boat out for just me and he’d have a dive or two, service or what! Excited I started the check the kit only to find the mix was 34% on my analyser and only 190bar not 230 as expected (maybe that £8 wasn’t such a good deal after all). Another quick call to Malcolm to see if there was anywhere local for a quick air top off (I’d worked it out roughly that it would give me 32% as well) and again he came to the rescue, they had there own compressor! A relaxed 10am start saw me at their yard in Tarbert for the fill then away we went to a site called the Garden in Loch Fyne. Now apparently the vis the day before had been 20m+ but it was down to about 12m now. We stepped off the back of the boat and dropped onto the top of the reef in about 12m. We then made out way down the reef to around 22m and I could see immediately why they called it the garden. It was carpeted in brittle stars with lots of other types of starfish everywhere and loads of velvet swimming crabs as well. There were a couple of edible crabs as well as quite a few scallops. We headed down the reef to a max depth of around 30m where we turned and went back up the side of the reef where we found a dogfish resting in a gulley. We completed the safety stop at 6m where we could clearly see the surface ripple above us and the reef laid out 6m below us! Fantastic, max depth 30m, dive time 45mins. We returned to Tarbert for lunch/surface interval as the second dive was a shallow wreck only 10-15mins from the harbour. The first task on the second dive was to attach a new piece of rope for a shot line to an existing piece of rope and send the end up with a lift bag. This completed we set off around the wreck. It is well broken up as it only lies in around 14m of water but there was still quite a lot to see and loads of holes to poke around in, I even managed one small swim through. There were a couple of huge edible crabs and some good sized Pollack on the wreck which we swam around twice but the resident conger was out for the afternoon. At the end of the dive we lay on the bottom and could clearly see the boat 11m above us and the heads of the deck hands poking over the back. Resisting the urge to fire a dsmb at them we headed up. I really enjoyed this dive even though it was quite shallow, max depth 12.5m dive time 35mins. My thanks to Malcolm who not only took the boat out for just me and buddied me but also took my parents out for the ride on the first dive. They also have an intact wreck with great access in 40m so I can’t wait to get back up there after a bit more experience!