The plankton bloom has arrived for 2019

And as per most years it arrives overnight....

I know that is the case as last night none and today at 08:30 loads, the 'snotty stuff', thankfully it normally dies off relatively quickly.....fingers crossed!

So, to the nuts and bolts!

If you could concentrate on looking 'away' and not concentrate on the strings of plankton snot it was around 7m vis

The temperature was a steady 12degC

Today, for no reason other than I thought it was a 'good idea' I bimbled slightly further and hurled myself into Lady Hole. It isn't a site that I dive so often, probably because it is so popular with dive schools so most summer weekend mornings it is full of trainees kicking up shit and I prefer to dive either early or late and when I dive 'late' you can normally park to dive on the point so it's kinda a no-brainer, but anyway that is where I ended up.

And if nothing else I found out that the weather had dumped quite a large amount of sand in the shallow water, which is 'good' for trainees as they can kneel on sand rather than rock but not so good for any inter-zonal creatures that called this area their home.

Working out to slightly deeper water the magpie in me saw something glinting on the rocks, my initial reaction was 'scrappage' but it turned out that someone has fitted an anchor point to the rocks via a stainless steel bolting arrangement, quite useful for the summer as this particular area is protected from the worst of the weather by the Point to the South and the reef which includes Black Rocks to the north, so who knows the Sea Rider may be dropped in their for some lazy summer dives!

This particular bay does have the advantage that you get a reasonable depth and I managed a 'breath-taking' ten meters before slowly working back up the central gully picking up the odd weight and also the odd golf ball, infact I picked up six of them, possibly a reflection of how long it has been since I dived the site or possibly a reflection that the golfers at Seahouses links are not so good.........

As always on this site there were plenty of flatfish and I spotted a few flounder and also some plaice, none big enough to justify the old BSAC stab but nice to see, not that I would advocate stabbing a flounder as they taste rather 'muddy', that said if there was a reasonable size plaice available, well that would be a different matter. There were also a few saithe on the site but surprisingly I didn't spot any of the resident, red, kelp cod that usually skulk in the cracks and crevices when they sense something large. On this I must say it is not the best approach and the Ancient Diver has a few spots where if he wanted cod, he went with a spear gun to get one and they were usually 'big uns'.

It is strange but the blue fiend presence on each site, even though they may only be one hundred meters appart is variable and though there are a few wiggies in this area I can't say that there are any monsters or even a head of takable lobbies. I am going to be controversial and say that the lack of tidal flow, yup this site is only second to the Haven for 'guts' around my stomping ground that can get a tad stale in the summer with no waves and neap tides, combined with the slate which gives long shallow cracks isn't as much to their liking as the doleritic limestone at Knacker Hole or the mixed ground about the Point.

In the sunshine and lack of wishy-washy stuff this was a very nice dip, plenty of light for seeing things and no problems being pushed about a bit, ideal for me and my back, the only trouble is the awkward entry and exit up the steep cobble beach, so for that reasons dive at the top of the tide or on a flooding tide so that getting out is easier than getting in!

Most of the sites up here and indeed around UK and the world hold some crap and Lady Hole is no different with the old moorings now sunk onto the bottom, if I get the time then a shortish session with an old fashioned bread-knife should see me cut out most of the rubbish and I am sure that there will be rubbish bins about where I can get rid of twenty yards of grotty waterlogged rope!

Talking to the Ancient Diver post my dip it seems that we are in agreement that the lump will be lifted this year, it is 'just' a case of getting some heavy duty liftbags and a trailer that we can immerse in water........should be fun!

Dive safe


Weight this dive - 6.2 kg

Weight this year - 168.4 kg


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