| Garvellachs Sept 06
on 17/09/2006
(Click on thumbs for larger image)
Richard, Nichola, Cat, Iain, Chris and Hazel:
We headed up to Inveraray on Friday evening and stayed over in a B&B which meant that we had a gentle start on Saturday. A quick drive up the road to Crinnan and we were launched and kited up for 11am. After a relatively slow motor out, through the Corryvreckan to the Garvellachs in a somewhat overloaded boat we dived the north side of the panicle Bogha ant Sagart. After the dive a quick trip to the Islands for lunch and a laze in the sun. The second dive on 1.5 meter rock which is a lovely wall.
Once the diving was over and we eventually got back to Crinnan we were running slightly late for getting air and making it to the George on time. A quick recovery of the bat, and pilled all the cylinders (14+pony) into the car for a quick dash to Quebec Marine at the campsite on Loch Fyne. Fortunately the guys there were still about and happily filled our cylinders. Richard even managed to get our meal re-scheduled at the George so we had a table when we got there. For future reference Inveraray does not have a Taxi, so thanks to Hazel for Driving.
The next morning we decided to stay in Loch Fyne due to a severe weather warning (which failed to appear). We launched at the Minnards and scooted down the Loch towards the Narrows. Doh Richard forgot his bag which was left on the trailer so we had to go back to the launch site. Second time out we made it to the Narrows, which is an area of the loch which has a large 'covered' spit to midway across the loch. The contours looked good on the chart so we dropped in. Bearing in mind this was super neaps and the tidal diamond was close by had nothing above a 0.7 knot we didn't expect any current.
The site turned out to be a steep slope with lots and lots of Brittle Stars and the occasional Dog Fish, and that was about it. Plus we ended up with a fair current too.
| Dog Fish and Brittle Stars! |  H. Archer |
We headed back to the Minnards (in the rain) and picked up some cash, then went for lunch at a local cafe. Second dive was at the Minnards, and to save time Hazel cox'ed whilst the rest of us dived.
|  I think these are Cuttle fish eggs! If anyone wants to enlighten me feel free. | | | |  Cat | | Nudibrachs | |
What a good dive to end our trip, shame the adventure was not over....
We got back to the cars to find one of my tyre relatively flat, just as Iain's car decided to loch itself with the keys in the ignition.
First we recovered the boat using my car with a low tyre. We then called the AA to hopefully unlock Iain's car. Then unloaded my car and changed the tyre, unfortunately the spare was low on air too and nobody had a pump.
To make matters worse Richard had put his keys in Iain's car for safe keeping! Not only that but the ice-cream shop was closed too ;-(
Fortunately the AA arrived, and we borrowed their pump to inflate my tyre, and whilst that was going on the AA man managed to break into Iain's car and rescue the keys.
Needless to say it was a late finish on Sunday night, once we got back to Edinburgh and put Safina to bed.
 Cat |  Hazel, Who you LOOKing at? Richard Iain |  Nichola |
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