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The sun setting over Skye on the way up. Of course we only saw this particular view due to a substantial navigational error...
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The visibility is fabulous (15-20m), easily the best I have seen in the UK so there is plenty of natural light. Alison uses it to find a nice big Plumose anemone for me...
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...to take a photo of!
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This is a close-up of the base, where you can just see a tiny baby anemone splitting off, thus a new plumose is formed!
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A long-clawed squat lobster in his hole, waving his claws threateningly at me. Plucky wee beastie!
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This is part of a big spiny starfish, but the rest seems to have vanished into a hole in the rock.
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Although there weren't many bigger fish around, you can see thousands of tiny juveniles near the rocks behind this anemone.
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A lovely red cushion-star on the bottom, which is composed mostly of broken shells.
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This big starfish (about a 50cm across) has dug out some buried prey to eat, hence the bulked up centre and piles of excavated sand.
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This cushion star is walking along the rocks. I always expect the arms of the starfish to move when they walk, but usually they stay still and the hundreds of tiny legs underneath do the moving.
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To complete the catalogue of most of the UK's starfish species that we saw on this dive, here's a wee Bloody Henry. Odd name, no idea where it comes from.
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A crab scurries away from the strange bubbly divers.
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The subtle colours of these Dahlia anemones are strangely fascinating to me.
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Starting at the left we have the Stein Inn (top notch beer and decent grub), then the slipway in the distance and the moorings in Lochbay (the Elena C, our dive boat, is on one of them) and finally to the right is the dive centre where we stayed and got our air fills. You may need to scroll to see it all...
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The dive centre across the calm waters of the bay.
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Loading up the Elena C.
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Urchin, doing that which Urchins do.
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A brightly coloured nudibranch at the base of a big plumose anemone.
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This rather handsome fellow (dubbed "Willy") is about 6 inches across the shell and is trapped in a lobster pot. Normally he'd stay there as divers can't afford to annoy the local fishermen, but the rope has snapped so he's not destined for the plate...
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...so I let him out and he lost no time scuttling away. Free Willy! Sadly there were a lot of other crabs in the pot that were dead already. I left it open, so hopefully this particular abandoned creel won't take any more lives needlessly.
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A painted top shell wedged in against a dead mans finger.
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In front of the dead mens fingers (which grow in wierd shapes in these parts) you can see some delicate sea pens, almost like feathers.
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Can you spot the two nudibranchs in this picture?
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Sheila taking a photograph...
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...then looking up and wondering why a camera is pointing at her!
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A wall covered with dead mens fingers.
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In shallower water there are many different red and green algaes, including the well known weed varieties.
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A tiny nudibranch grazing.
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Not sure what this is, wedged in a gap in the rocks. Looks like parchment parcels, but I suspect it is an egg case of some sort.
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Dead mens fingers.
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A rather large Orange Boring Sponge, failing to live up to its name by being really quite interesting.
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This bizarre spiral structure is nudibranch eggs!
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A nudibranch posing nicely on top of a rock. Funky hairdo!
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Sea pens form a forest on the this wall.
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Another nudibranch - this time in pink. I can't believe how many there are in these waters, and the number of varieties. It's amazing!
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Sea squirts nestle in a corner in the rocks, while weed grows above.
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This painted top shell was on the top of the seaweed, but he's so small you can't see him without a real close up.
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This edible crab is wedged safely in a hole - no creel adventures for him.
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A worm so stripey that it is called a "Football Jersey Worm".
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Moonrise over a wind farm.
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Looking out from Lochbay towards the outer isles. The last photo taken with my camera before it flooded. RIP Olympus SP-560 number II (the last one flooded in Egypt). I'm really careful with my cameras, so I'm either cursed or there is a deign flaw with the housing... A slightly frustrating end to an otherwise lovely weekend.
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