|
Getting kit ready on the first morning.
|
|
Loading up the club RIB on the slip at Puffin Diving
|
|
Nearly ready for the off....
|
|
Off we go! That's Sandras boat....
|
|
...where we lead, they follow!
|
|
Dead mens fingers on the wreck of the Rondo.
|
|
More dead mens fingers, this time with a starfish. Also on the Rondo.... as are the next few. It's a recurring theme here!
|
|
Plumose anemones.
|
|
Plumose anemones and a wierd yellow thing I haven't seen before. According to my book its a sponge, even though bits of it look like sea-squirts!
|
|
A dead mans finger with its thingies out, feeding. I should be a marine biologist with all my technical jargon. Thingies indeed.
|
|
Plumose anemones, two plump orange ones in a sea of white. The nearer one seems to be digesting something...
|
|
More plumose anemones. On the Rondo. Two themes emerging perhaps.
|
|
After lunch in Lochaline (mmmmmmm - bambi-burger) we're at the grey rocks, populated by grey seals...
|
|
...which for some strange reason flee into the water as we approach with a girly sqeaking of "oooh look, seals, seals!"
|
|
One young seal is intrepid enough to investigate the girly boat in more detail...
|
|
Eventually we leave the seals on the surface and go diving. Plenty of big scallops around, but we weren't collecting.
|
|
A little painted goby camouflaged against the stony bottom.
|
|
A large sunstar, eating something.
|
|
Loads of long clawed squat lobsters on this dive - they were under virtually every rock.
|
|
See?
|
|
Common sea urchin. Plenty of these too. The clue's in the name.
|
|
Now I think this is a lesser weever which apparently has venomous spines on its dorsal fin. We didn't get close enough for me to find out.
|
|
This wee fellow fancied a fight!
|
|
A nice purple starfish - I think it's a Bloody Henry.
|
|
Another wee squatie up for a fight.
|
|
This scallop was pretty well hidden under its layer of silt and stones, but you can see it's slightly open to feed.
|
|
A plumose anemone, but breaking with tradition it's on a rock, not a piece of the Rondo.
|
|
This edible crab definitely wasn't trying to draw attention to itself. Would you if your name was "edible"?
|
|
The Lismore Lighthouse.
|
|
On the morning of the second day, we stopped and watched a pod of Dolphins only minutes after leaving the slip. There were about 10 of them in total, and as you can see they were fairly playful and jumped out of the water at times...
|
|
They were coming close in to the boats, we saw them swim under us a few times.
|
|
Jumping for joy!
|
|
These dolphins give a great sense of size and power - some of them must have been 6ft long and weighed twice what I do (yes, even with my massive weightbelt).
|
|
You can't help but get the impression that they are curious, and that they are showing off. There's nothing wrong with a little light anthropomorphism on a Sunday morning.
|
|
This is my favourite photo. They are just so graceful.
|
|
Coming out the water like a polaris missile. I had a diving instructor who did that once. Beautiful creature. The dolphin, not the instructor.
|
|
Eventually we leave the dolphins behind. I won't tell the story here, but we never did get a dive on the Sunday. I will sign off with thanks to HM Clyde Coastguard and the skipper of the "Jacobite II"...
|