View Full Version : the slates, loch leven, glencoe
i dived the slates at the weekend, took the video cam out for a wetting.
the video does no justice to the site/dive as its far better in reality.
i left my green water filter in the bag in favour of lights, bad mistake as the water is very green in the film.
GerryO is the diver in the film who im sure will enjoy the soundtrack & write a blog shortly. :p
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excellent vid as always, stew. :D
lots of life & great viz: it's well worth travelling up there. :)
great editing and music choice as usual Stewart, viz looks good in the shallows!!
Nice edit Stewart. I like the anemone tea ceremony. What happened to Seth Lakeman though?
What happened to Seth Lakeman though?
he was too short!
what happened to the blog?
chris,
the viz was exceptional in the shallows, even at depth it was around the 10m range.
the camera only picks up strong light, the footage always looks darker than reality.
stew & gerry,
Was there much in the way of life in the crevices between the slates?
When we were there in April there wasn't a lot in there but I could imagine that there will be all sorts of critters now.
lots of little wrasse were among the slates.
we were told lobsters live in there as well although i didnt see any myself.
sounds good.
definitely want to go there soon.
give me a shout when your going, i plan to go back.
most likely take the 'big' cylinders next time.
For some reason I thought the slates was near Fort William so Stewart and I agreed on an unpleasantly early start to the day. So, surprise was in order when we realised that the site was just on the other side of Glencoe, which in reality is about the same distance as Furnace Quarry.
We rolled into the car parking in our borrowed van – thanks Chris- and soaked up some sunshine as I kitted up and Stewart got all artistic setting up shots for his opening video sequence.
We were on the verge of heading into the water when three very well appointed cars drew up- they looked too elegant and poised to be divers but turned out to be a contingent from West Lothian Scotsac who use the site quite a lot. They told us that this was a great place but that we should keep it quiet, so don’t tell anyone that you have read about it here.
The dive site guide on CA gives a good general overview of the site.
The entry to the site is very gentle, nothing like the alpinism required on most Loch Long sites , and the water clarity was great. The point of the promontory shelves fairly steeply but could not really be described as a wall. There were plenty of medium to large wrasse and pollock in evidence, although the wrasse seemed to be skittish in nature, perhaps less accustomed to bubble-wreathed divers than those at other sites.
It has to be said that there is not the profusion of animal life in terms of soft coral and anemones that may be in evidence in some other sites. However, the reduced amounts of silt and clarity of the water means that those that are there really stand out in sharp clarity.
We descended to about forty metres with into that lovely clear outer space effect that clear, dark water creates. ( I don’t think I was narked as I was diving with nitrox 28)
We chased back up the slope to avoid deco and spotted some old machinery and a big dogfish. We rounded the other side of the promontory in the shallows and headed for the concrete pier wall in about two metres of water.
We stayed shallower on the second dive, with a max depth of twenty five metres. We were heading for the wreck of a yacht in about ten metres off the second promontory- see the dive site guide. I thought that we had missed the shallow gully that leads to the yacht, it appears to be further away and shallower than the dive site guide indicates. The wreck itself is very nice- it has been entirely stripped out but the curved hollow of the yacht’s hull is coated in life and there are some fish playing hide and seek around the structure. Given the water clarity, the easy entry, and the interesting wreck at a safe depth, this would make an ideal site for trainees.
Whooshed up the road with only a quick decompression juice stop. I then picked up my car at Stewart’s suggested choice of car park to find that it had a lurid yellow DO NOT PARK HERE AGAIN sticker on the window. A big drop point diving knife soon sorted that out. Ha Ha Ha…didn’t spoil my day.
nice blog matey:)
& erm.. yes.. your not allowed to park there :o
this site definitely on the hit list now!
looks fantastic!
this site definitely on the hit list now!
looks fantastic!
would be a safe site for the family too
site looks well worth a visit. Cheers for the vid.
Nice vid Stewart.
Gas Guzzler and I are heading up to the Slates on Saturday, if anyone wants to join us. I'll not be taking my video camera as I'm planning on trying out the new digital camera before heading to Malta on Tuesday.
enjoy your dive on saturday & dont forget to give us a viz report at least :)
unfortunatly i have a hangover booked in for that day, so no diving or driving for me...
Have fun, guys! :D
I'm on kid duty this weekend so no diving for me (my first diving-free weekend since March). :o