Duo-Divers

Not sure if this is hull or bent deck, it is on the Point side of you in the main gully at the shore end, always a blue fiend or two in residence but careful as there are always fishing weights and lines in this vicinity.

Feedin' the wrasse!!

In this case Ballan Wrasse (Labrus bergylta) on a smashed edible sea urchin (Echinus esculentus), don't try this at home kids.

A lebgth of conveyor belt, maybe used originally for lifting crushed stone from the quarry?

More wreckage that has just collapsed in on itself

Kelp (Family laminariales) does tend to be quite a long lived plant with the stem above say the first twenty centimeters quite a safe place for a plant to grow without the risk of sea-urchins 'browsing' you away. In this case dulse and other sea-weed encases the stem, making an eco-system up in the water column!

A general 'look' at the topography, in this case shallow troughs and loads of kelp

'Cut me and do I not bleed'.... Alternatively 'Clout me and do I not rust'

When looking for 'bits' look for colours that leap out at you, this piece of copper just doesn't blend in with the sea-bed.

Usually the top of this boiler is the first thing you see when descending, you can make out the access hole for fuel and the steam pipes

Not a good shot but one of the rebreather chaps next to the rudders, these stand about 6m proud of the bottom of the vessel and are intact despite the explosive forces used to remove the phosphor bronze propellors which were located very, very close.

K - So the next step was to find someone to make a base, I thought about mounting on four wooden legs but that was 'too vanilla' so we went to a local blacksmith

Wreckage from SS Loch Leven which foundered without the loss of life, not an oft dived site but very nice scenery plus rust!

The rocks, which are a soft 'holey' shale are coated in a pretty pink coralline growth

Wreckage is strewn all over the site, generally if it is 'big things' then it will have been from SS Abessinia a german ship sunk en-route back from it's internment in WWI

Looks like (Parazoanthus anguicomus) a type of creature called an encrusting anemone. Usually but not always found in deep water so maybe not!

Looking out of the 'sea-side' of the hull, scenic but the shoals of fish are arriving before the tide turns

And when you reach the 'bootlace' seaweed you know that the exit point is near, if in doubt stick your head up, the depth will be down to between one and two meters now depending on the tide.

Haraaaaaaaaaald! More scrap.

First containment done.......

A Pogge (Agonus cataphractus) or is that Hook-nose or Armoured Bullhead, these are a relativeliy common critter but with their camouflage you tend to see their pearly white barbules before anything else.

Some of the armoured plates have been removed and the remaining ribs are quite photogenic

Not a great photograph but this little critter is a Fifteen Spined Stickleback (Spinachia spinachia) it's really camouflaged and only became apparent when it made a dash for some kelp! A small fish maybe 10cm long I am sure that they are more common than they first appear!

A Lions Mane Jellyfish (Cyanea capillata), when they are about deco stops are always interesting!

A scenic of some of the ribs, again plates missing and loads of brittle stars and 'poor cod'