View Full Version : A Frames, Finnart, 02/01/07
Scuba-Doh!
02-01-07, 15:50
Well, this was a bunch of firsts...
My first dive of the year, my first dive as chief navigator (eep, seems so long ago I did that lesson), first dive with my neoprene drysuit (£20 from e-bay), first dive with my new torch (UK400, beats the little LED thing I had before by far).
Anyhow, long story short, entered water took yellow bouy as heading and headed for the concrete posts. I was slightly underwieghted to begin with but didn't take long before it was under control. Two dive buddies in tow behind me we managed to hit the concrete posts no problem, lovely vis at this stage with sunlight and at least 6m. light level dropped rapidly and we were left to torchlight for the rest of the dive. Headed for A-Frame but my rusty navigation lead us to a rope at 18m which we inspected (nice wildlife) before heading back to zig-zag up the concrete posts and back into the daylight.
Second dive was much more enjoyable if seemingly a little colder. In and back to concrete posts, this time to max depth of 14.2m (target was 15m but my Aladin was reading slightly less than the other two boys). The concrete posts seemed to stop at this depth, might have gone on a little deeper but no biggie. Fantastic time inspecting all the rocks and holes, the other two saw a conger but had chased it away before I got close enough to inspect. I picked up a tiny empty urchin shell and took it safely to shore, promptly managed to leave it on the car and forgot about it until we were half way over the mod road.
All in all a most enjoyable day, weather was fantastic dispite the last few days and I was suprised by the water temperature.
sounds like a good day out,
what was the water temp? 10-12 degrees?
re: your computer calibration, check the battery.
im going to post details of something that happed to me recently regarding a computer with wrong readings.
can you stick some details in the 'main forum' visibility report?
take care when changing multiple items of kit at the same time, this can lead to difficulties.
general rule of thumb being change one piece of kit at a time.
your neoprene suit being the most likely reason you were underweighted. (£20, good price by the way).
good choice of site for testing kit :)
cheers for the blog.
safe diving,
stewart
Scuba-Doh!
02-01-07, 17:39
Thanks for the advice stewart, I'll need to bear that in mind in future. I had tested the suit out in the pool a few times and I was pretty happy with how everything was set up, ment to say that buoyancy was much better on the second dive with added weight.
Temp, no idea, was 7Degrees on land according to the car's thermometer, will check with the other guys if they got a reading. It was certainly warm enough for us.
alexmaclennan
02-01-07, 18:49
Hi Scuba-Doh,
I'm glad you enjoyed the dive. I suspect you were a bit to the left (towards the Finnart pier, away from Glen Mallon jetty) of the A-Frame. I think the Finnart site is great and still haven't sorted the complexities of navigating around it in my head.
The last time Alan, Charlie and I were there we managed not to hit the deep concrete blocks at 20 to 26m instead went down a rapidly sloping muddy slope to 28m. We then came up onto a line of wreckage at 15/16m and cruised around. Coming out we ended up on a three to four minute drift dive that took us well up towards Glen Mallon - none of us had ever experienced current like it and we've got >50 dives at that site between us.
Charlie is the expert at navigating onto the A Frame. Generally swims straight out to 18m and turns right (away from the Finnart pier, towards Glen Mallon jetty). If you hit a big perforated concrete block flat on the seabed around 18m, then the A Frame is slightly shallower and slightly more to the right.
Happy New Year,
alex
Scuba-Doh,
A good blog: glad you had some pleasant diving! :)
The last time Alan, Charlie and I were there we managed not to hit the deep concrete blocks at 20 to 26m instead went down a rapidly sloping muddy slope to 28m. We then came up onto a line of wreckage at 15/16m and cruised around. Coming out we ended up on a three to four minute drift dive that took us well up towards Glen Mallon - none of us had ever experienced current like it and we've got >50 dives at that site between us.I've never experienced currents like that in a loch before. There was initially a mild current pulling us up the slope which then turned into a voracious cross-current heading to the left (northwards). It reminded me of the Falls of Lora. :eek: We were hanging on to rocks to slow our progress! It died out after a couple of minutes of excitement. When we surfaced there were white strands of foam all around. We didn't hear any propeller noise.
Charlie is the expert at navigating onto the A Frame. Generally swims straight out to 18m and turns right (away from the Finnart pier, towards Glen Mallon jetty). If you hit a big perforated concrete block flat on the seabed around 18m, then the A Frame is slightly shallower and slightly more to the right.
Cheers, alex, but any expertise that I possess in finding the A Frame is thanks to your site guide! http://www.congeralley.com/sites/aframes.htm
The most important aspect is not to stay on the first big blocks you come to after turning right at ~18m, but to continue on to the major structure which extends upwards for ~6m into the water column.
SPOOOKY! Could it have been a submarine??? :eek:
SPOOOKY! Could it have been a submarine??? :eek:
running in stealth mode!!! :eek:
silent running whispers only
Scuba-Doh!
03-01-07, 01:14
Coming out we ended up on a three to four minute drift dive that took us well up towards Glen Mallon - none of us had ever experienced current like it and we've got >50 dives at that site between us.
Yikes, we had some current coming in from the second dive, not a problem though and was just the tide turning.
Charlie is the expert at navigating onto the A Frame. Generally swims straight out to 18m and turns right (away from the Finnart pier, towards Glen Mallon jetty). If you hit a big perforated concrete block flat on the seabed around 18m, then the A Frame is slightly shallower and slightly more to the right.
I'm looking forward to giving the navigation of this site another go.
A good blog: glad you had some pleasant diving! :)
Thanks =D
Cheers, alex, but any expertise that I possess in finding the A Frame is thanks to your site guide! http://www.congeralley.com/sites/aframes.htm
I too would like to give my vote of thanks for that great site guide, wouldn't have had the courage to navigate that site without the guide and I'm very glad I gave it a go.
SPOOOKY! Could it have been a submarine??? :eek:
running in stealth mode!!! :eek:
silent running whispers only
Have there ever been any reports of divers being sucked into submarines' props? :eek: Could be a nasty way to go. Apparently subs do still patrol that part of Loch Long. Would they be able to detect & avoid a diver making a mid-water ascent in front of them? Some of our club members once dived to 40m at Finnart, so must have been half way across the loch; the mind boggles...
subs are like children, often seen, but never heard.
unlikely a sub would care less if you asceneded in front of them!
unlikely to 'jap' the brakes on in time whether or not they can or cant make mince meat pies out of you & get away with it.
Large sub sandwich please! :)
I think the sub's sonar can pick up divers. I would like think that the skippers/Captain's of subs would be extra vigilant when near popular diving areas.
subs are like children, often seen, but never heard.
not like my children then! :eek:
I think the sub's sonar can pick up divers. I would like think that the skippers/Captain's of subs would be extra vigilant when near popular diving areas. Yeah, you would hope so. Maybe that's why the MOD police got so sniffy about alex & me diving in Gareloch.
Lizardland
03-01-07, 01:59
Some of our club members once dived to 40m at Finnart, so must have been half way across the loch; the mind boggles...
When I first bought a scooter a few years ago I took it for a play at Finnart. I got to 40'ish on it as well. I went straight out for 20min so that's about 900m offshore, not sure how wide the loch is at that point. Scariest part was when I realised I'd drifted down the loch a bit on the return leg and ended up in the oil terminal. Some interesting structures underwater but I really didn't want to hang around, I didn't find it a nice area to be in.
Cheers,
Stuart
dive granny
03-01-07, 21:48
I think the sub's sonar can pick up divers. I would like think that the skippers/Captain's of subs would be extra vigilant when near popular diving areas.
I don't think they would be that bothered about a couple of divers. there have been several fishing boats over the years that have mysteriously 'come to grief' near 'suspect subs', which have vehemently denied any involvement:mad:
Lizardland
04-01-07, 00:01
I don't think they would be that bothered about a couple of divers.
Submarines are big buggers, the hulls are 10-12m deep (the Kursk was 18m deep) and about the same wide. I'm no expert but I'd guess that driving a sub in sport diver depths would mean driving a very big, very expensive and very unmanoeuverable lump of metal very close to the shore. I'd imagine shore diving wouldn't be much at risk from subs.
Divers' bubble streams can show up on fish finders and sonars on boats, a sub would be bound to see them. OC divers are very noisy too. You would know it though if a sub was running with active sonar in your vicinity, it's quite powerful. Military and commercial divers have minimum safe working ranges around various strengths of sonar.
Cheers,
Stuart
Submarines are big buggers, the hulls are 10-12m deep (the Kursk was 18m deep) and about the same wide. I'm no expert but I'd guess that driving a sub in sport diver depths would mean driving a very big, very expensive and very unmanoeuverable lump of metal very close to the shore. I'd imagine shore diving wouldn't be much at risk from subs.
Divers' bubble streams can show up on fish finders and sonars on boats, a sub would be bound to see them. OC divers are very noisy too. You would know it though if a sub was running with active sonar in your vicinity, it's quite powerful. Military and commercial divers have minimum safe working ranges around various strengths of sonar.
Cheers,
Stuart
Interesting information: many thanks, Stuart.
Out of interest, what kind of signs would be perceptible from strong sonar activity? Do you actually hear pings or something?
I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theory nut here, but another couple of curious things happened with regards to that dive. At 25m, I felt the most narked that I've ever been aware of, despite having been pretty well dived-up with much deeper dives over the last few months. Also, my computer's infra red transmitter mysteriously stopped working. :o
Maybe I've been watching too much Dr Who & reading an excess of Robert Kurson! :eek:
Interesting information: many thanks, Stuart.
Out of interest, what kind of signs would be perceptible from strong sonar activity? Do you actually hear pings or something?
I'm not trying to be a conspiracy theory nut here, but another couple of curious things happened with regards to that dive. At 25m, I felt the most narked that I've ever been aware of, despite having been pretty well dived-up with much deeper dives over the last few months. Also, my computer's infra red transmitter mysteriously stopped working. :o
Maybe I've been watching too much Dr Who & reading an excess of Robert Kurson! :eek:
have you by any chance dived the Hispania of latley Charlie :D
good info Stu
have you by any chance dived the Hispania of latley Charlie :D No. But I can't wait to get back to the SoM: I'll take my camera in case of any supernatural occurrence. :eek:
No. But I can't wait to get back to the SoM: I'll take my camera in case of any supernatural occurrence. :eek:
ectoplasm show up on film? ;)