2004: ST ABBS TRIP 2
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Debbie and I headed up to St Abbs on the Friday morning in great spirits, hoping to do a dive together off the harbour wall at St Abbs. All was going well until we got there and saw the swell - it was like a bubble bath! We bumped into Dan and Laura who were looking as equally miserable as us and we all decided to brave walking along the harbour wall to the usual dive entry point, wishfully thinking that maybe our eyes were deceiving us and actually the water was still!
The harbour wall was wet and slippery as at regular intervals sheets of water were landing on the walkway as huge waves hit the wall behind it. We had to time our run along the wall to perfection in order not to get wet. Three of us made it along in time, but Debbie, who decided to walk, arrived looking like a drowned rat. It was a good job she could laugh about it as the rest of us were in stitches!
As diving was out, we retired to the campsite and pitched the tent, before Deb and I walked down to the local shop, trying to find a way to get over our disappointment. Like a pair of teenagers, we settled on a park bench and drank beer before wobbling back to find those who had travelled up on Friday afternoon. After a few more beers in the pub we all retired to bed excited at the prospect of our boat dives the following morning.
Saturday morning arrived and after climbing down the harbour wall on to Billy's boat (I hate heights) I was looking forward to it more and more. My buddy George and I were the first to kit up and get in the water. We were told we would have a max depth of 12 to 18 metres, but after travelling for what seemed like an age through water that got darker and darker, eventually becoming pitched black, we literally hit the bottom at 24 metres. Oops. After a couple of minutes of not being able to see our own hands due to the sediment, George aborted the dive and we returned to the boat, absolutely gutted. Soon enough SMB's started to appear until the entire group had surfaced after very short dives.
The afternoon held more disappointment as we decided it wasn't worth trying to dive again. After a long walk along the beautiful cliffs above St Abbs, we wandered down to the beach at Coldingham, where George and I donned our drysuits, hired bodyboards and hit the water to demonstrate our severe lack of skill. Jonny soon followed us into the water although we were confused to see him in a wetsuit - why would he choose to be cold and wet when he had lovely warm drysuit in the car? All became clear when he told us to look at the boards we were lying on - our drysuit dials had ripped chunks out of them! On returning the boards we apologised profusely and quickly left the shop.
Sunday was our day of happiness - two boat dives, both wonderful and with plenty to see. Quite honestly I think that we'd all have been happy just to get into the water, even if there was absolutely no life and no scenery!
All in all it was a very memorable trip, particularly for the drunken session where our former Chairman confessed secrets he would rather we didn't repeat!
JLF