A lovely trip up to Ullapool with friends and SQSAC for four days diving - a great way to start the season! Six dives in total, five on big walls and one on one of my favourite wrecks...
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A peacock worm on a wall on the south side of Loch Broom.
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I think this wall goes down from near the surface to about 60m, so I didn't find the bottom!
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My buddy Gav found an abandoned lobster pot so he opened it up to stop it killing any more crustaceans. I think the silt in this looks a bit like smoke as he swims away.
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A Seven Armed Starfish marching across a ledge.
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Yesterday was windy and wet. Today was WINDY and WET. We did manage to find some shelter for a dive on the wall on Isle Martin though. Sarah helpfully sheds some light on the scene...
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My buddy Sarah kindly pointed out this dogfish wedged in a crack in the wall, before we climbed back into the boats to battle 2m+ swells on the way back.
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Bright, sunny, dry, still, calm. What a difference a day makes. We got all the way out to the Fairweather V,, and here's Alison posing at the stern.
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Alison under the bow of the Fairweather V.
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Alison on the deck of the Fairweather V, in front of the wheelhouse.
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Inside the bridge of the Fairweather V.
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We found another wall (this time on the shore opposite Isle Martin) for a second dive, and it was beautiful.
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This spiny starfish looks like it's had one too many and is sliding down the wall!
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Urchin feeding in the shallows.
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Sorting out the boats back at the harbour, in the glorious sunshine.
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Brian paddling out to his boat on the last morning to collect it from the mooring. It's so calm you can see the wake of his kayak spreading out over the loch!
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The anchorage in the bay was beautiful in the slightly watery light.
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Gav sunning himself as he waits for a lift out to the SQSAC boat.
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I've dived Secret Garden a few times without finding the wall. This time we found it - and it's lovely. Exhibit A - a big Dahlia anemone.
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Father and Son: Ullapool is a place with lots of lovely childhood memories for me, and there were lots of kids about on their Easter holidays so I was thinking about bringing mine up here one day. In my vaguely sentimental state of mind I saw this pair (a little excessively anthropomorphically) as a proud father towering over a son that was just learning to stand up on his own..
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There were plenty of tiny hermit crabs scuttling around too.
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Up near the kelp line it was like a garden, with life everywhere.
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Unidentified critter near the surface - on the way up from the last dive of a lovely trip.
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