It twas a perfect day at 18 degrees C as the intrepid explorers of the Fell Divers club ventured outwards to the harbor of St Abbs. Upon arrival the tide was at low eb so we had a little time to wait so that out boat Pathfinder could come in. We all kitted up and worked as a team to load the boat using a dock hoist and rope hook, the trip was full with 13 divers, skippered by the dreaded pirate Paul O’Callaghan and his first mate Ian.

We were soon underway to the first dive site of the epic shipwrecks of Alfred Earlistan and Vigilant sitting in the water at staggering 14m. As it was the first dive of the season for most we wanted to keep things simple. With a view of Coldingham Bay we entered the water and dropped down in our buddy pairs (trying not to follow the wrong buddies!) There was a shelf with kelp growing on the way down at around 6m on which we paused to watch a large whale swim overhead which turned out to be a shoal of small dark coloured fish.
We set about searching for the legendary leviathan and came across a variety of sea life; a butterfish, jellyfish fry that look like UFO’s, squat lobsters, large sea stars, deadmens fingers without arms. Towards the end of the dive we came accross some wreckage but were disappointed that it was not in fact RMS Titanic. A fantastic dive with 7-8m visibility, using some tips from a recent dry lesson we deployed our DSMBs. Upon surfacing a nearby RHIB came over to check on us and radiod our position to Pathfinder. We were welcomed back aboard with a hot cuppa and fortified with cake baked by the hand of our very own Captain!

After a port-stop for air fills we headed back out to the second site location. After the dive brief we dropped down on to the reef and followed each other looking for the Wuddy swimthroughs. We missed the first opening but went through the second which meant we were on the wrong side of the rocks (right-left-right) to plan. Then navigated with the reef on right hand side to come back around where we encountered a series of lobster pots. In one was a giant sized crab battling with and a mysterious sea monster – the cracken, aka comon octopus! We saw brittlestars, dahilla anemoe, spiny starfish, orange and white corals were everywhere. A buddy tried to feed a codling and haddock by bashing an urchin shell but the fish were having none of it. We caught a nice gentle drift towards the end of dive before surfacing. There was alot of boats in the area and we were again approached this time by a catamaran offering assistance. We with a hot brew in hand we returned to shore and unloaded the boat.

A thoroughly great time was had by all and we exchanged notes in a nearby pub.