We were pleased to see the forecast for the Berwickshire coast and St Abbs for Saturday and Sunday was pretty good and the forecast for the English Channel was dreadful! Maybe it was going to go our way. As we travelled up the north east coast on Friday, it was clear the forecasters had got it wrong again as there were white horses everywhere! It was getting worse when we got into St Abbs itself and waves were crashing over the harbour wall and the lifeboat station. It's a long way to travel just to get blown out (Chris kindly reminded us on a few occasions!). Even the local seals had retreated into the harbour to get away from the buffeting they were getting. Skipper Billy's outlook did little to brighten our mood as he was confident we would get to dive on Sunday but thought we might want to go into Edinburgh for lunch on Saturday!
St Abbs - October 2008
When we awoke on Saturday morning and looked across the harbour, the crashing waves had dissappeared completely and the expected following swell had not materialised. Billy confirmed we were going diving!
The second dive was at Black Carr, again a short steam away and with a little more depth we managed to get past a lot of the suspended particles. It meant treating the dive like a night dive and it was soon clear that St Abbs and Eyemouth's status as a voluntary marine reserve is paying dividends. The site was crammed with life; sponges and anemones, crabs and lobsters, shrimps and nudibranchs everywhere.
After breakfast we boarded Wavedancer and set off for a dive site called West Hurkar, just ten minutes from the harbour. The coastline is simply stunning in this part of the country and throughout the weekend we were blessed with this dramatic back drop to our diving. Although the weather had calmed sufficiently for us to dive, it had stirred up the bottom quite drastically and visibility was not much more than a metre. Chris and Nik say they saw a Wolfish but they still haven't produced any photgraphic evidence! It was good to be diving and we headed back to the harbour for our surface interval with high hopes.
We all went to dinner that evening in Eyemouth with an enthusiasm for what Sunday would bring. We're pretty much used to limited viz in the channel and the prospect of getting over 5 metres was exciting!
We woke on Sunday to beautiful sunshine and calm seas and we enjoyed an early trip out to Waddy Rocks before breakfast. Visibility had improved to at least 5 metres and we enjoyed a relaxing drift over the rocks. There were masses of brittle stars, starfish, crabs and lobsters, cod and wrasse to keep us company but unfortunately the seal we had spotted from the boat did not put in an appearance on the dive and we headed back to the harbour.
After we had given our full english a chance to settle we were back on Wavedancer, heading for the famous Cathedral Rock. We arrived some 90 seconds after setting off! I know this is a shore dive, but I am the navigation instructor who lost the Wessex in Stoney - twice! I thought it would be more sensible to make sure we didn't miss the site and skipper Billy obliged. It is indeed a beautiful site and has a reputation it thoroughly deserves. Again it was teeming with critters and we were surrounded by fishlife as we explored the maze of caverns and swimthroughs surrounding Cathedral and it's neighbour, Ned's Bum.
That was it for our weekend's dives and all were in agreement that the diving off of the St Abbs coast could be truly spectacular if blessed with the visibility it is renowned for. As it was, we knew we were lucky to get to dive at all after the weather that had greeted us on Friday.
We will return to spot some Wolffish (I'm still uncertain about Nik and Chris' claims - dubious individuals that they are!) and enjoy all that St Abbs and Eyemouth has to offer.
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