St ABBS

Seizing an opportunity to dive I headed north to drop my daughters off at the inlaws in Teesside and grab a couple of dives at St Abbs. With no idea what was in store I arrived on the Friday and joined Jim at Marine Quest. Jim explained that although there were only three of us he would still go out but just to a local dive site near St. Abbs so we headed up to dive near to Black Carr.

My buddies were from Sheffield and one of them had a new and novel idea for a dive suit. His boots had started leaking so he had replaced them with a pair of green wellies. Sounds strange but they worked and, as he said, great for walking about.



Eyemouth harbour in the morning



View out of St Abbs

We completed two dives both of them on then on Skerry Rock. Basically the first dive was so good that we decided to repeat it from a different direction. The dive was around a series if rocky outcrops which were covered in anemones and sea fans. It was wonderful with great visibility and plenty of sea life. Not just small critters but large friendly Wrasse, crabs, lobsters and all the usual fish in abundance.

On the second dive we found the swim through and made our way down the three meters tunnel and into a mild current to drift along admiring the view. The swim through was disguised as a dark cove and only became obvious once we had advanced up the ravine. Although not long (4 - 5 meters) it was about a two meter ascent as we travelled through, which explained the dark entrance. On the other side were more interesting rocks to look under and in between. A wonderful dive and well wroth the repeat.
That night I checked into the Eyesleepover. This is a small version of a premier lodge, very comfortable, clean and convenient.
Heading into the centre of Eyemouth I settled down for some food and looked up to see some friends, who were diving out of St Abbs, entering the restaurant, turned out to be an excellent night.

The second day I travelled up to dive with Paul from Rock House divers. He set me a pair from Bolton and we headed up to dive Tyes Tunnel. This is a wonderful dive site, as I was soon to discover. He backed the boat into a small alcove just round the coast from the Black Carr dive site and pointed at an alcove. 'Drop two meters, the gap is tight but even the biggest will fit, as you descend the tunnel opens up'. Those were his words and that was what I did. Dropping below the surface at about two meters was what looked like a small dark hole to nothing, but trusting the skipper and seeing my buddies disappearing inside I followed and quickly the tunnel descended to about 15 meters and opened up to a reasonably sized passage. It went on for about 20 meters and eventually came out in a large ravine. We headed to the right following some large boulders and so we explored the area. We allowed ourselves to drift round and eventually reached 20meters and drifted over a moonscape scattered with sea urchins, large anemones and hundreds of black brittle stars; their legs waving madly in the current as they clambered over each other.
We drifted like this for about fifteen minutes until it was time to ascend.

For the second dive we dropped onto the Black Carr and explored the area swimming over the Plumose covered cloud like rocks. A lovely scenic dive with the bonus of a foot long Wolf fish glaring out at us.

Hopefully back there soon.