Quick Update on last weekends Moray Firth Trip organised by Debbie...Ally and Andy had hauled both Boats up to Burghead and we all met up at the caravan park at 10pm. The Weather forecast had been poor all week but the latest indicated it would be diveable so the Trip went ahead.

We had Boat issues on the Saturday which caused a quick drastic change of Plans to allow us to run a shuttle service from Lossiemouth to the the Wreck of the Unity, then out to Dive the Skerries and Lossiemouth Harbour Reef. The Weather was marginal with winds of F5 gusting 6 and 7 and Swell heights of 1-2metres but we managed to get all Divers 2 Dives.

Saturday Night saw the Boat issue resolved and we enjoyed a nice Evening Meal in Forres.

Sunday Morning we were up early and the conditions looked ok, but the forecast was for it to blow up again at Midday, due to an intermittant starter issue on one Boat we had a delay before setting off in both Boats to the Wreck of the San Tiburcio, a Tanker sunk during WW2 which lies 9 miles from Burghead. As we set off and headed offshore the wind picked up and the seas became much rougher, when we reached the halfway point our speed was down to 12 knots in 2m+ swells, so we decided to got to Plan B and Dive one of the Burghead Bay Tanks, even here the seas were picking up and the wind increasing but everyone managed a Dive. With the weather deteriorating it was decided to recover the Boats for an early Finish, so we all headed home earlier than planned. A good weekend and we plan to do the same Trip again hopefully with better weather conditions.

Thanks to Burghead Sub Aqua Club for kindly providing us with Air Fills, and Deeside Sub Aqua Club for details of Slipways and GPS Positions.

Trip Report with Pictures to follow

Dived this with Ross Coventry and two other Gas Divers, Paul and 'Manchester Clive' on Friday.

Ross had dived it last year and had recovered china with a shipping line emblem and a small bell inscribed 'Taff' which unfortunately fell to bits when Iain Easingwood tried to clean it, he had found what he thought was the Main Bell on the Bridge but couldnt shift it.

We have been waiting a year to get a chance to dive here again and lift the Bell, finally we got a chance on Friday. Ropes off at 08:30 and we left Eyemouth in great conditions for the 8 mile steam offshore to the Wrecksite, I had only one dive to 17 metres on my Rebreather since major repairs so was a bit nervy about having any problems at 70 metres, shot went in and the seabed was 71metres with the highest point at 64 metres. Kitted up and we jumped in, I had decided I wouldnt look at my Computer until on the Wreck, once below 6 metres Visibility was excellent with ambient light, dropping further i could see the first Divers Strobe flashing below, as we arrived at the Strobe I could see Ross on the wreck about 4-5m away, signalled OK with my torch i switched to High Setpoint on my Rebreather and put my strobe on the line.

Looking across no torches, I headed over to the wreck and turned left, lots of brass lying about and large sections of collapsed Timber perhaps from Wooden Deck house, after 10 mins i had decided that was enough and headed over to the shot.

Bugger I dropped my strobe but could see it flashing away below me, so down to the seabed to retrieve it, checked my computer 73metres...as i headed up the line to my first stop at 40metres i could hear lots of whooping and shouting...they must have found the Bell...after 2 mins at 40metreso and 2 mins at 26metres i was on my 19 metre stop when i could see the rest ascending below me, after 25mins at 6meters and a total inwater runtime of 63 minutes i surfaced leaving the other 3 to complete their Decompression.

Once on the Boat there was the Bell attached to a huge lump of wood and encrusted in marine growth. Ross Paul and Clive surfaced after a runtime of 104minutes and we headed back to Eyemouth, lots of Photos taken and Ross set about cleaning it to try and find a name, there wasnt one, areally high quality Bell with no name. It is thought that when the Ship was sold the original bell with the name Taff was taken for the next vessel of that name and the new owners purchased a bell but never had it engraved. A good Dive which proved to me my rebreather was working perfectly after the repair, hopefully we can get back to Auriac again, a cracking Dive. Well done to Ross for finally getting his bell, thats the third bell in a few weeks lifted from Wrecks around Eyemouth that had no name on it.

SS Auriac was built in 1890 and was carrying a cargo of emty oil drums from Rouen to Leith on 23 April 1917 when she was attacked by U-Boat UC44 which surfaced 1/4 mile away ,shelled her and sank her approx 10 miles from Eyemouth

FIRST PICTURE IS 'BELL IN A BUCKET' AS IT CAME UP FROM THE WRECK

SECOND PICTURE IS A SMILING ROSS COVENTRY WITH HIS AURIAC BELL

Finding ourselves idle after the Clyde trip was cancelled due to bad weather, and with East coast conditions not being ideal, Nathan and I headed north to Loch Creran. I don’t know why we don’t go there more often as it’s not actually that much further time wise than to get to Anchor Point on Loch Fyne. Our first dive was the worm reef – and as the name suggests we were there to look at the serpula worms. We headed in at the worm reef and then went up the loch exiting two laybys later. This is a great loch and the sea bed is littered with critters probably because this is a protected site. While the worms were amazing the highlight for me was coming across a ray. It was not a large one but what struck me was how different it looked from the Thornback ray we had seen earlier in the year – it had darker coloured spots and didn’t seem to have any ‘thorns’ along the back. Keen to id the ray when we came home we looked at ray identification sites and nothing seems to match. There is a picture of an undulate ray on finstrokes that is exactly like our ray but it looks different from what other sites call an undulate ray! So I’m not convinced that it is an undulate ray but would be happy to be wrong. A pint to the first person who can make a positive id on the ray in the picture...Our second dive was the drift under the bridge (entering and exiting on the same side of the bridge to make the car shuffle manageable). The tide hadn’t yet reached full strength and it was nice see the carpet of brittle stars, nudibranch eggs fluttering in the current, the kelp bent over and the fish and crabs being moved about in the current. All in all a nice days diving.

Well a bit of a dead loss we arrived down at Marine Quest at 9pm Monday and weather was blowing hard NW...had a Beer with Iain and discussed Tuesdays Plans. Tuesday Morning dawned with wind howling from the North and 4m breakers crashing into Harbour...so Tuesday's Diving was binned as we couldnt get out the Harbour.

Wednesday looked better and although wind was now NE it was decided we could just get out and do the Rosso a Steamship in 70+m its a good dive so although deeper than i wanted it would be ok. time we left Harbour wind was now Easterly so instead of turning right we had to turn left and head up towards Dunbar, not many options here either a silty Scotia( Iron Dredger) in 47m or Steamship Halland in 65m, so it was to be Halland. Time we got onsite it was quite rough and boat was rolling so i was feeling a bit 'squiffy' so decided to give it a miss...after a few kit issues they all got in and had a passable dive with 2-3m vis...Alex couldnt get back to the shot so bagged off and ended up a mile away which caused Iain an issue trying to trck his DSMB in the huge swells and still cover everyone else on the shot. Everyone was recovered and we headed back. later that night we got torrential rain and a NE wind, forecast which looked good friday and 50/50 Thursday suddenly was 15knot NE Thursday and 15Knot SE Friday so we decided to head home early Thursday Lunchtime.

This was the worst Dive week Iain has had in 5 years of Charters but it just wasnt our week, cant control the weather...east Coast Diving will be out for a week or two to allow swells to drop and the rain runoff to clear....there is always next year!