SubMarineBiologist
Registered
Hi folks, a wee trip report from a dive I did with my HSE part 4 cd buddy (3600+ dives).
Eilean Horrisdale (Isle Horrisdale) is a small island in Loch Gairloch.
In this very professional picture, you can see we departed from the harbour at Charlestown using our tender, a very small Avon SIB, to carry three people (two of us divers and therefore with all our kit) to the sheltered bay area as indicated by the elegant cross on the map here.
It was a much slower journey than we could have anticipated.
Our dive commenced in the early evening at 1700, 45 minutes before low tide. We descended through some nice kelp forest. Visibility was great the whole dive at 7-8 m! Plenty to see, even as you descend a sandy slope there is plenty of life. Edible crabs, velvet swimmers, flying crabs, butterfish, lion's mane jellies, crustaceans a-plenty. Hydroids colonising in delicate form. We found a greater pipefish at about 25m deep. A spoon worm, ascidians, bivalves, huge scallops (we didn't remove them - they weren't abundant), shoals of sandeels and juvenile saithe, corkwings and goldsinny wrasse. Our max depth was 26 m and our dive lasted for about 50 minutes. A very nice, relaxing dive in the beautiful Scottish highlands. Just be aware of the creel lines!
Happy, safe diving.
SMB
Eilean Horrisdale (Isle Horrisdale) is a small island in Loch Gairloch.
In this very professional picture, you can see we departed from the harbour at Charlestown using our tender, a very small Avon SIB, to carry three people (two of us divers and therefore with all our kit) to the sheltered bay area as indicated by the elegant cross on the map here.
It was a much slower journey than we could have anticipated.
Our dive commenced in the early evening at 1700, 45 minutes before low tide. We descended through some nice kelp forest. Visibility was great the whole dive at 7-8 m! Plenty to see, even as you descend a sandy slope there is plenty of life. Edible crabs, velvet swimmers, flying crabs, butterfish, lion's mane jellies, crustaceans a-plenty. Hydroids colonising in delicate form. We found a greater pipefish at about 25m deep. A spoon worm, ascidians, bivalves, huge scallops (we didn't remove them - they weren't abundant), shoals of sandeels and juvenile saithe, corkwings and goldsinny wrasse. Our max depth was 26 m and our dive lasted for about 50 minutes. A very nice, relaxing dive in the beautiful Scottish highlands. Just be aware of the creel lines!
Happy, safe diving.
SMB
