Diary
The first Howick Dip of ‘23
Its an odd old place Howick, only a short distance as the crow flies from Beadnell but quite a silty area, the vis can be quite acceptable at Beadnell and silted out at Howick,
A day of unwanted confusion
Everything started fine, there was a plan, get Calypso onto her moorings at Fluke Hole and then off to the North Side of Beadnell Point for a splash with a mate, but as always snags!
Has Spring finally Sprung?
After a bloody awful month the stars were finally aligned for a second 'first of the year dives' in Knacker Hole at Beadnell!
Back in the South Side
With the conditions being so good topside I really wanted to go in from the North Side of Beadnell Point for a mooch about but my back said '12l tank, no way', so it was a simple dawdle to the South Side
South Side of Beadnell Point
The problem with a gash back is that although the conditions look promising you really don't fancy lugging a 12l tank for the first time in a while down to one of the various dive sites around Beadnell, but today I did!
The Red Hand Gang
Otherwise known as 'I must have been mad ten years ago diving with no gloves or hood'......
A buddy dive in Knacker Hole
Well thats a turn up for the books, Nunkie pulled out of retirement!
- No lumpsuckers.....yet!
- First dip on the North Side of Beadnell Point
- Askham in the winter
- Sometimes......just sometimes
- A timely break in conditions, but my it was a short window of opportunity!
- Freshwater diving starts, well it has to there was a 7m swell at the weekend!
- Well thats yer whack for 2022 I reckon
- Busy day on Calypso - part two
- Busy day on Calypso - part one
- Looking a bit battered in Knacker Hole
- A nice boat ride, fruitful dive in shocking vis!
- A dive or two at Knacker and Lady Holes
- September 2022 has been a bloody dry month
- Another Tale of Two Points
- Its like the Med only fish and better!
- Howick and bloody plastics
- Two different dives at the same site
- What a difference a few miles make!
- All around Howick and Beadnell for a weekend diving
- Babbacombe.....end of break round up!
- Its Spring Bank Holiday and that means one thing.....Babbacombe!
- What a day for the 'scrap', or what a bloody toxic mess, you choose!
- The poor mans Ernest Cox, or something like that!
- All around the 'Little Rock' at Beadnell
- The North Side of Beadnell Point, the gift that keeps giving!
- What a lovely dip on the North Side of Beadnell Point
- Ohhhhhhh its a long old drag back from the 'North Side'
- I think (hope) that the salt water dive season has started
- A gap in the weather means get in quick
- Is the shore dive season for 2022 back on?
- I still reckon that West Coast Sea Lochs offer the best muck diving
- The joys of a local water park!
- Beadnell shore dives in January, you sick and twisted boy!
- Howtown pier was busy as a summers day
- England's lake-district again, still at Ullswater
- I reckon thats about it.......
- Ullswater and our yesterdays
- It's that time of year........
- Something you seldom see
- What excellent conditions!
- An afternoon on Beadnell Point
- Back on the beach after a while on the boat
- It's always 'different' at Howick
- A series of dives at Seahouses Powder House
- First side on the North Side in 2021
- The sea giveth and over the winter the sea hath taken away!
- Rather variable vis this weekend!
- Gone to shite.....again!
- Third time lucky? Well guess!
- Second time in and the viz is not really any better
Latest Photographs


A bit odd, most of the time when you see Velvet Swimming Crabs (Necora puber) they are on their legs and very agile in getting out of the way. This particular animal was hunkered down like the edible crabs.
This is the 'gutter' in the middle of the site, with the steep side and shelving northern side meeting about 1/3 way out from south skeer.
One of the observation slits on the conning tower, like 'Knights visors' these were designed to minimise the chance of shrapnel and metal splinters being blasted into the tower
I have never seen this particular species of Starfish (Echioderm) here in the North East although they are common in warm water further south or on the West Coast. Apparently this species is quite ancient.....
A common Hermit crab (Pagurus bernhardus), this one was far too small for the shell in which he had set up shop!
Picked up almost on Brownsman by the wreck of Snowdonia. Not sure what it is, it is most like a loom weight and I 'buy' that monks lived on the islands and will have weaved.
Asked the experts so let's see!
The John L coming in for a pick up on quite a blustery day
The second anchor, again of a Danfort design.
Wreckage from SS Loch Leven which foundered without the loss of life, not an oft dived site but very nice scenery plus rust!
This is the other side of the same assembly.......
Huzzah, I do like finding a tosheroon, in this case where tide and rock formation have caused a build up of lost fishing weights. You can rapidly find a huge amount of weights if you are scouring a virgin area as there tends to be quite a few of these on any length of reef
Another breech assembly, you can see where someone has cleaned the 'crud' from the brass section
The horizontal boiler, again quite good condition, I assume that its relative depth saves it from most of the pounding damage
Bits of MV Yewglen wedged and jammed into the Little Rock
So it was constructed from baulks of oak and glued and pinned together, I would have liked some brass staples but the wood was mineralised so not practical really
L - And this is how it ended up, picked up on 1st March 2018 and finished a year later
That 'light-bulb' moment, this is the slightly bent bit that made me think 'keel' it doesn't move and has that 'look' about it. I will need to clout and see if it is solid or a 'U' section with wood inside.
A scaling shot of the thinnest section, this one doesnt seem as tapered as others and may be a spar rather than mast......
This is the lair and just visible part of the Common octopus (Octopus vulgaris) that lives there, if you look in some of the 'squattie burrows' quite a few contain octopus that have eaten the original owner and set up shop!
A Northern Prawn (Padalus borealis) sitting on a Dead-mans finger (Alcyonium digitatum), when you slow down and l-o-o-k there are loads of these prawns all over the sites.
The site is very,very tidal and as such smothered with Dead Mans Fingers and other species, some of which are not common on any other farnes site!