View Full Version : SS Island, Isle of May & North wall, Bass Rock 22/4/07
alexmaclennan
23-04-07, 07:00
Trip was organised through this forum by Chris. Left Dunbar at 10am on Pegasus, the new hardboat owned by Dive Safari. There had been a major spill of sewage over the weekend in the Firth of Forth from Seafield sewage works. Brian (skipper) did not seem too bothered as the Isle off May used to be a dumping ground for 'The Gardyloo' and it didn't affect the diving then.
Weather was calm and sunny. No swell to speak of. Took one hour to get to the Isle of May.
The first divesite is the wreck of the SS Island (divesite description to follow). Brian described it as a bowl of rocks with occasional wreckage and ships boilers in 8 to 15m. Buddied with Fran from CUSAC and went in as a foursome with Stewart and Chris. Landed in 13m. Finned slowly towards the shore. Topography was flat sheets of rock with occasional gullies or ridges. Towards the shore the rockfaces steepened forming walls 3 to 4 m high. Shallower walls covered in kelp. Some of the faces covered in dead mans fingers. Everywhere seaurchins, small crabs and occasional starfish. Only fish we saw were 2 pipefish and Fran also saw some large nudibranch. We did not see the boilers but saw bits of wreckage mostly rusting metal girders and curved perforated sheets in the gullies. Lots of ambient light. Gentle if unexciting divesite. Going deeper than 15m led to a brittlestar carpet so we stayed at less than 15m for most of the dive. Came up on DSMB and from there to the hoist on the back of the Pegasus. Chris found and retrieved an old weightbelt with loads of lead using his DSMB line to pull it up from the boat. 17m max for 43 mins.
Sat and chatted for half an hour and had sandwiches before Brian started off for the Bass Rock. En route saw lots of Puffins in the water and went past a huge seal colony on the south side of the island. Took about 40 minutes to the Bass Rock. Fran drove most of the way.
The second dive site was a gentle drift on the North wall of Bass Rock. Again went in as a four but quickly split up. This was a fantastic dive. Brian described it as wall to 12m then a ledge, then wall to 25m then a boulderslope to 46m. We kept the wall on our LHS and drifted past a wall covered in dead mans fingers at 14m. The wall began to peter out so we followed the brittlestar covered ledge straight out onto the next wall which was covered in DMFs and which fell away into the dark. Again very scenic and easy drift. Started up across a boulderfield with lots of crabs and at least 6/8 lobsters. No fish again. Finally, we gradually worked our way to the kelp surface again on the DSMB. Pickup this time was more complicated as Brian had to continually circle round as the current took him off station when the engine was off. 23m max for 45 mins (I think Fran got to 28m on the second wall).
The weather stayed sunny and there was no swell despite the current.
All in all a great days diving. No mishaps and plenty fun. Pegasus is a good diveboat. The divedeck is a little cramped for 12 but easily doable. However, warm wheelhouse and cubby below for storing kit, continual tea and coffee, endless Twix fingers, a toilet and diver hoist, plus knowledgeable skipper made it a good choice. We were back at Dunbar by 3.40pm
Well done Chris for organising the trip :) . Please put me down for the next one.
alex
The wreck of the Island is a not bad dive for a second dive of the day, nice and easy, nothing too difficult.
There is usually a huge big lobster living in the bottom of one of the boilers.
gogs
Good Blog Alex. I was going to do one last night but was too tired. Not too disimilar to yours anyway, apart from depths and critters.
Glad you enjoyed it and I am going to try and set another trip up for later. Gary's boat is pretty booked up through PlugDivers and I have quite a schedule arranged for myself down in ST. Abbs and hoping to do the HMS Campania later in June, if Peter ever gets round to organsing it.
Here's my blog from SD
PeterM and myself buddied for this trip on Pegasus (DiveSafari)
1st Dive
May isles was a nice site to motor out to, plenty of puffins and seals top side, but life was limited below the water. Although we did manage to come across a pipefish.
Crabs and squatties and that was about it.
We did a site called the Island Wreck, not much left of the ship, but a few steel plates, a couple of ribs and parts of the boiler, the rest is on the island!!! :o
Viz was about 8-10m and it dropped from 8degC to 7degC, max depth of 18m
2nd Dive
We then motored out to Bass Rock for the Northside wall! We maxed out at about 26m, temperature about 8degC but it didnt feel as cold on the hands. Viz was slightly less and darker. Usual Bass Rock critters, but also a few large wrasse and a conger,which I have never seen a Bass Rock.
Great Boat, Great Skipper (box of twixes and endless tea and coffee), Great Divers Lift and good dive sites!!
It was a fantastic day out: many thanks to Chris for organising it. :)
Great blog as always, alex! :D
It was fascinating to visit & dive at the Isle of May. On descent we too landed on the metal plates of the SS Island but didn't spot the boilers. We headed out to 23m on the brittle star carpet and were rewarded with some beautiful specimens of dahlia anemones, other related species and a very large starfish. We then returned towards the island skirting the walls adorned with deadmen's fingers. Swam through a narrow gully only to find T2T & Loudy coming the other way. Ascended on my dSMB shortly afterwards finding ourselves just a few metres from the shore so we had to gently fin out into the open water to be collected. The diver hoist is a revelation: pure luxury.
The Bass Rock dive was of a very high class: wall dives like that are just so satisfying IMHO. I spotted a nice butterfish + an unidentified toothy-mouthed fish in a crevice which I unfortunately wasn't quick enough to photograph before it receded and a nice little siphonophore. Highlight of the day for Sarah was spotting a free-swimming octopus on the second dive; by the time I looked over there was only a trail of ink to see! :eek: I also like the contrast of life on different parts of the wall. Some sections seemed relatively sparsely populated but then just around an outcrop would appear an area completely engulfed in life: really beautiful.
As said before it was great meet up with the forum members. Sorry that we couldn't join you in the pub afterwards but my parents were rather tired after looking after our brood for 24 hours! :rolleyes:
my photos (http://www.charlesmcgurk.ndo.co.uk/diving/) & blog (http://charlesmcgurk.blogspot.com/2007/04/easy-access-to-island-diving.html)
good blogs guys. :)
think i will save my efforts for editing the video.
as i never got a shot of a single fish, octopus, lobster or crab, any ideas on making rocks look interesting on video would be very much appreciated.
although i did notice that the rocks on the May isle were more sharper in profile than the rounded boulders of the Bass rock.
good blogs guys. :)
think i will save my efforts for editing the video.
as i never got a shot of a single fish, octopus, lobster or crab, any ideas on making rocks look interesting on video would be very much appreciated.
although i did notice that the rocks on the May isle were more sharper in profile than the rounded boulders of the Bass rock.
PMSL :D
I got a hermit crab - does that count as something other than a rock?
I forgot my diffuser though so it'll be a green hermit crab
I got a hermit crab - does that count as something other than a rock?
I forgot my diffuser though so it'll be a green hermit crab
This may sound like a dumb question, but what colour of diffuser would you use to mask the green tinge?
I seem to be plagued by greenness in my photos...
This may sound like a dumb question, but what colour of diffuser would you use to mask the green tinge?
I seem to be plagued by greenness in my photos...
It was the diffuser for my HID torch that I forgot - meaning I couldn't use it as a video light (which would have made the hermit crab less green as the torch is white light) as it had hot spots.
You should use a magenta filter for taking photo/video in green water. This makes it less green.
It was the diffuser for my HID torch that I forgot - meaning I couldn't use it as a video light (which would have made the hermit crab less green as the torch is white light) as it had hot spots.
You should use a magenta filter for taking photo/video in green water. This makes it less green.
magenta, as in blue?
sorry I'm not big on colours, being slightly blind in that department...
Magenta is a reddish pink. The point being is that it returns the missing red that is filtered out by the water!!
is magenta blue, PMSL :D
magenta, as in blue?
sorry I'm not big on colours, being slightly blind in that department...
oh my god, there's another one out there.....sorry, but I have to put up with a husband whose entire wardrobe was purple when I met him, because he thought it was blue.
There are 3 colours of light - cyan, magenta and yellow - don't you remember your physics lessons at school?
No there isn't. The are only the following colours - red, blue, yellow, green, black, white, maybe grey and probably brown.
All the others are only used by interior designers, computer printer manufacurers (which is where you got the cyan / magenta thing Tomy) and, of course, girls!
pah - physics - what's physiacs ever done for you?
i turn my back for 3 hours to edit my first 'Rock Video' & you guys start arguing about primary colours.
BLUE... PMSL :D
anyway, the vid is done...
appologies to the ugly people who ended up on the cutting room floor.
you will know who you are by the end of the video when you dont see yourself in it. :D ***
kinda makes you wonder how good looking the rocks were now!!
*** with the exception of Claire who like myself would rather be at the back of the camera.
(did i get away with that:confused: )
No there isn't. The are only the following colours - red, blue, yellow, green, black, white, maybe grey and probably brown.
All the others are only used by interior designers, computer printer manufacurers (which is where you got the cyan / magenta thing Tomy) and, of course, girls!
pah - physics - what's physiacs ever done for you?
Hmmm, got me an A at higher and into Law at Uni, that's what it has done for me.
Anyway, back to the light thing, white light can either be made up of red green and blue (the primary colours of light) or cyan, magenta and yellow (the secondary colours of light).
Your concept of black light is an interesting one. A lot of us are familiar with this type of light from diving in the Clyde.
Deep Seeker
24-04-07, 16:08
Nice Blogs,
You didn't get the boilers because you were a little too far north to see them. There's two of them that sit on their own but you only get flat rock with some hull plates and not much else after that (assuming you swim in the same direction you guys were going in). But the boilers are still a nice dive and as Gog's says... there is usually a big lobster in the bottom of one of them (assuming nobody has stolen him/her)
Cheers
Nick
p.s. I know where you were diving cos I was the guy on the RIB that was loitering about when you surfaced.
pps. I know you're onto colours of the rainbow now but just thought I'd mention it.
Nice Blogs,
You didn't get the boilers because you were a little too far north to see them. There's two of them that sit on their own but you only get flat rock with some hull plates and not much else after that (assuming you swim in the same direction you guys were going in). But the boilers are still a nice dive and as Gog's says... there is usually a big lobster in the bottom of one of them (assuming nobody has stolen him/her)
Cheers
Nick
p.s. I know where you were diving cos I was the guy on the RIB that was loitering about when you surfaced.
pps. I know you're onto colours of the rainbow now but just thought I'd mention it.
Useful info, thanks Nick.
You should use a magenta filter for taking photo/video in green water. This makes it less green. I don't use a filter myself. I "correct" the colour balance afterwards using Photo Shop for stills and Adobe Premiere Pro for videos. One issue connected with filter use is that they function by screening out light from reaching the lens so theoretically you might get a poorer lit image in marginal conditions. Also, the filter only really corrects the balance at a particular level and as we all know the light characteristics change at different depths as varying wavelengths are absorbed. The good thing about post editing is that you can tweak it for different depths: even for shots that contain a mixture of above & below water footage such as some of my octopush stuff.
Deep Seeker
24-04-07, 19:23
Oh... PM me if you want the GPS coordinates. We dive them quite regularly and their easy to see on the echo sounder. I think you get a better dive in terms of sea life along by where you were in any case though.
Cheers!
Nick
Hi Chris,
gimme a shout if doing the Campania, had my eye on doing this for a while.
Cheers
Do not feed after midnight!!
:)
Good Blog Alex. I was going to do one last night but was too tired. Not too disimilar to yours anyway, apart from depths and critters.
Glad you enjoyed it and I am going to try and set another trip up for later. Gary's boat is pretty booked up through PlugDivers and I have quite a schedule arranged for myself down in ST. Abbs and hoping to do the HMS Campania later in June, if Peter ever gets round to organsing it.
Here's my blog from SD
PeterM and myself buddied for this trip on Pegasus (DiveSafari)
1st Dive
May isles was a nice site to motor out to, plenty of puffins and seals top side, but life was limited below the water. Although we did manage to come across a pipefish.
Crabs and squatties and that was about it.
We did a site called the Island Wreck, not much left of the ship, but a few steel plates, a couple of ribs and parts of the boiler, the rest is on the island!!! :o
Viz was about 8-10m and it dropped from 8degC to 7degC, max depth of 18m
2nd Dive
We then motored out to Bass Rock for the Northside wall! We maxed out at about 26m, temperature about 8degC but it didnt feel as cold on the hands. Viz was slightly less and darker. Usual Bass Rock critters, but also a few large wrasse and a conger,which I have never seen a Bass Rock.
Great Boat, Great Skipper (box of twixes and endless tea and coffee), Great Divers Lift and good dive sites!!
Magenta is a reddish pink. The point being is that it returns the missing red that is filtered out by the water!!
is magenta blue, PMSL :D
come to think of it, magenta must be a blue, but not a blue alone.
it must be a red & blue which is why its 'purple' shaded.
anyone else agree/disagree?
Wikipedia says
Magenta is a color made up of equal parts of red and blue light. This would be the precise definition of the color. It is a pure chroma on the color wheel midway between violet and rose. In HSV colour space, magenta has a hue of 300°.
In popular usage, the term magenta itself can be used to indicate a variety of colors. For the names of various of the colors in the magenta range, see the section toward the bottom of this article called "Shades of Magenta".
Magenta is not a spectral but an extraspectral color: it cannot be generated by light of a single wavelength. Humans, being trichromats, can only see as far as 380 nanometers into the spectrum, i.e., as far as violet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magenta
well it looks like T2T is right after all, well at least 1/2 right ;)
well it looks like T2T is right after all, well at least 1/2 right ;)
Nautical term "Always trust the Tiffy!"
Nautical term "Always trust the Tiffy!"
until the needle starts bouncing ;)
Gas Guzzler
26-04-07, 16:48
Nautical term "Always trust the Tiffy!"
Have you met some of our Tiffies!
For those who are wondering "Tiffy" is short for Artificer
Main Entry: AR·ti·fie·cer
Pronunciation: är-'ti-f&-s&r, 'är-t&-f&-s&r
Function: noun
1 : a skilled or artistic worker or craftsman
2 : one that makes or contrives : DEVISER <had been the artificer of his own fortunes -- Times Literary Supplement>
Personally I think definition 2 is closer to the truth some times!
dive granny
26-04-07, 21:56
Thanks for that G.G. I was wondering:)