Lochaline September 2008

 by Keith Waugh

The Lochaline trip was a great success. 12 divers from Clydebank Sub Aqua Club, headed up the long road to Lochaline on Friday afternoon/evening. Gordon Anderson organised the trip this year, staying at the Lochaline Dive Centre and diving from the boat “Peregrine”, skippered by Bodie.

Some arrived early Friday afternoon and had a dive at the Lochaline Cliff Face. This face drops, in places, to 90metres and the wall is covered in sponges, soft coral, anemones, hydroids and an interesting spiky hard coral a little like an old style bath sponge/loofer. There were masses of shoaling Saithe, Ballan & Cuckoo Wrasse and Pollock. It was great to see so many fish even though most were not too large at 10-15 cms.

The kitchen at the “Old Post Office” accommodation was a bit busy in the evening as everyone tried to make an evening meal. Nevertheless Michelle made some delicious home made soup for the break between dives on Saturday & Sunday. She plans to market it under “Nana Michelle’s Home Brew Divers Delight”.

Saturday morning found us up at 7am for a rendezvous with “Peregrine” and Bodie down at the pier for 8am. The first dive was on SS Shuna which sits upright in 30metres depth. The deck is at around 20metres. The ship was carrying coal, and this together with the fact that she lies in a reasonably sheltered sandy bay makes it a very murky, dark dive not for the faint hearted. You really do need to find your way back to the Shot-line. Still, there were quite large numbers of Wrasse & Pollock on the wreck.

After a run up to Tobermory and a visit round the town – in the rain again, we headed over to the Calve Island Cliff face. Always popular with “bankies” and similar to Lochaline Cliff Face in terms of life. Visibility quite good at 8metres – ish.

A third dive was undertaken after a good break down at the SS Thesis. Again a favourite of many divers as the plates on the hull of this wreck which lies on a shingle slope in 20-35metres, have fallen off to reveal the ship’s ribs which are covered in white & orange Plumose anemones. The wreck is reasonably safe to penetrate in the forward area and you can also see the boiler and engines. Again there are usually plenty of fish around.

After a shower and freshen up we walked all of 100metres to the hotel for dinner at 7pm. The meal was excellent with the hotel staff running around trying to keep up with us all. They succeeded admirably.

Many of us were in bed by 11pm. Well, some of us are getting older. Another early start beckoned at 6.45am. Bodie wanted us moving off in “Peregrine” at 7.45 to hit the wreck SS Hispania at “slack water” at about 8.45-ish. Everyone seemed sober and we had a good dive on one of the best wrecks in Scotland. SS Hispania sank in December 1954, originally upright in 30metres depth. She now has a severe list to starboard and might, one day, fall over, caused by the fact that she sits across the current flow. The wreck is covered in anemones and red seaweeds and is patrolled by many Wrasse and Pollock. Visibility was not too brilliant at around 8metres plus it was still quite early in the day with a low-ish sun behind cloud.

The last dive was on SS Rondo. Again a very familiar dive to Clydebank members. The ship lies down a cliff slope ranging in depth from 20-50metres. The Rondo stern rises majestically to within about 10metres of the surface. Most of the interest lies in the rear part of the ship with boiler remains and collapsed superstructure. You can, if inclined, swim under the hull in gaps created by the irregular steep rock face upon which the ship lies. Further details on all these wrecks can be found in the excellent book by Peter Moir & Ian Crawford entitled “Argyll Shipwrecks”

Back at Lochaline it was time to clear up and head home. Thanks to Gordon for organising the weekend and the diving. You have passed your “SSAC Expedition Leader” by the way!

Apart from the diving it was great to see Porpoises swimming up the Sound, Seals leaping (like Porpoises) out of the water and a couple of Sea Eagles (in the distance).

Faux pas of the weekend were jointly claimed by Brenda and Alan. Brenda thought she was washing her contact lenses in fresh water. It turned out to be sparkling water and lemon juice! Ouch!!

Alan drove all the way to Tyndrum before he realised that he had forgotten his Drysuit and had to go back to Clydebank. To make it worse, he missed the last Corran ferry and had to drive all the way round by Fort William, Kinlocheil and Camusnagaul, to arrive around midnight.

The party was Gordon, Brian, Michelle, John, Brenda, Iain, John, Jordan, Joe, Alan, Craig and Keith.

The weekend was great, the diving was great as always, though the underwater visibility might have been better. Thanks to Bodie on “Peregrine” for ensuring that no-one got left behind in the water. We’ll be back to do it all again next year.

Sometimes though, diving can be exhausting, especially if you are hell bent on pleasure. However the more experienced divers know how to relax between dives and take in the beautiful scenery in the Sound of Mull.

                                            
AS TIME GOES BY

‘Spawned’ is possibly a less than appropriate word for a salt water based club, but from the old Clydebank Pool and its training arose, at the time,  130 active members (note ye of little faith) and later the branches of Allander and Drumchapel., quite an achievement!

Like so many other pastimes, diving in Clydebank and elsewhere moved with equipment development –or some may say:-“lagged “.Ha, the ‘Twin Hose’, beautifully illustrated in the reading matter and manuals through to the nineteen seventies:- ‘spaceman style’, a tube each side of the mouthpiece. Older members will recall the technique of lying on one side and squeezing the exhaust tube to clear valve flooding. For the less fastidious, ‘DRINKING  DOWN ‘ the residual water could be tried.; good for stomach upsets, even if the pool filtration was working or open waters declared unpolluted. Stick to alcohol, which one New Year we did, passing round a bottle of Whisky underwater at ‘Allies Reef’- slightly  diluted on the final ‘dram’.

The ‘Single Hose’, so much easier to use, was at first rather reluctantly adopted especially when a crab was observed at Tarbert clinging determinedly to an air hose to the detriment of the user. But what are ‘Buddies For’, he survived? Club training practices for a number of years sustained the use of the ‘twin hose’. Sharing with the ‘TWIN’, became almost an act of conceit; but also a great confidence builder for open water, except for the’ sensitive stomach brigade’. Apart from ‘rebreather’ and other ‘full face mask’ procedures, most development for the leisure diver has followed single hose practice, but what next?

How brave we all were in our ‘wet suits, often fitting where they touched, and How Cold! Many were made in expanded neoprene from standard patterns by members before the commercial suits became affordable. The Forestry Hut at Arrochar had an uncertain air of romance with non diving wives and girl friends stoking up the log fire, for the ‘steaming strip off’.

The ‘Dry Suit’ began to appear and apart from some surplus Royal Navy suits –quickly snapped up-there was a far from general switch over –expense  again.  But climate triumphed and complete with ‘woolly bear’ and additions such as walking socks and even ladies panty hose warmth came into its own, with yet another adjustment to the ‘Training Schedule. for Buoyancy Control

At this period the ‘Horse Collar’ buoyancy aid was in general use as the final floatation resource or ’bale out’. Good dry suit practice was deemed to be:- “ use the dry suit’s own air expansion or ‘dumping’ on rising” and keep the HC’s buoyancy for emergency. We could have added ‘And Avoid Possible Strangulation! Thankfully the.

‘Stab Jacket’ (nothing to do with street crime) removed that fear!

Inevitably the computer age has come in on us. Those of us accustomed to reading the Naval Decompression tables (or not, as visibility failed), the emergence of the ‘wrist computer’ caused a predictable risk controversy. The writer having used Naval Tables for 26 years only surrendered to the computer in 1995 on a trip to the Red Sea., and even then with an eye on the original tables. So let development be your guide but SAFETY FIRST!

                                                            A.W.H.