St Abbs

Just got back from my first trip to St Abbs, and was very impressed. I
haven't seen that many soft corals, etc anywhere else I've dived in the
UK. To top it off I even saw and played with an octopus during a night
dive in Greenends Gully.

I really can't imagine why only 3 members of our club could make the trip.
I will definitely be going back.

--
Gareth Ansell
UNIX Team
Computing Services
Coventry University

Gareth Ansell wrote:

> Just got back from my first trip to St Abbs, and was very impressed. I
> haven't seen that many soft corals, etc anywhere else I've dived in the
> UK. To top it off I even saw and played with an octopus during a night
> dive in Greenends Gully.

We spotted one on ness end reef (same site, but follow the the concrete
pipe cover rather than jumping straight into the gully itself) a couple
of weekends ago - but it seemed very skittish, and quite refused to be
photogenic which was very annoying!

Ben

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ben Panter, Edinburgh, UK
email is false. Use my name (no spaces) at bigfoot which is a com.

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:31:01 +0100, Ben Panter wrote:

> We spotted one on ness end reef (same site, but follow the the concrete
> pipe cover rather than jumping straight into the gully itself)

We looked at that site as a possible candidate for Greenends Gully, and
then compared it with the book and decided it wasn't.

If it wasn't for my 'fantastic?' navigation we wouldn't have seen the
octopus. However, the price for finding the octopus was an exit over
boulders in the dark.

--
Gareth Ansell
UNIX Team
Computing Services
Coventry University

> > We spotted one on ness end reef (same site, but follow the the concrete
> > pipe cover rather than jumping straight into the gully itself)
>
> We looked at that site as a possible candidate for Greenends Gully, and
> then compared it with the book and decided it wasn't.

You must have done the "proper" GEG dive then -
http://divesite.calumscott.me.uk/gal...enends2_01.jpg

The other one is
http://divesite.calumscott.me.uk/gal...enends1_11.jpg

> If it wasn't for my 'fantastic?' navigation we wouldn't have seen the
> octopus. However, the price for finding the octopus was an exit over
> boulders in the dark.

And those two getting out in the second picture spotted this cheeky little
chappie...
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/daniel....s/octopuss.jpg

I need to go back again.

Ben? You finished that bloody thesis yet?

CAS

CAS wrote:

> I need to go back again.
>
> Ben? You finished that bloody thesis yet?

Nearly there, nearly there....

I'm hoping to submit thursday/friday. Then off to Scapa for the week to
celebrate. Flights booked to go to Munich on the 30th Sept... I'll be
back at the end of October for the viva, and some diving.

Ben

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ben Panter, Edinburgh, UK
email is false. Use my name (no spaces) at bigfoot which is a com.

> > I need to go back again.
> >
> > Ben? You finished that bloody thesis yet?
>
> Nearly there, nearly there....
>
> I'm hoping to submit thursday/friday. Then off to Scapa for the week to
> celebrate. Flights booked to go to Munich on the 30th Sept... I'll be
> back at the end of October for the viva, and some diving.
>
> Ben

Good stuff, you having a beery night before you go? A couple of jars in the
big smoke always goes down well...

....in fact, let me just think about this! 30th September? Munich?

Chancer! You're just going for the beer!

CAS

"Gareth Ansell" <g.ansell@no-spam-please.coventry.ac.uk> wrote in message
newsan.2004.09.14.11.13.55.388973@no-spam-please.coventry.ac.uk...
> Just got back from my first trip to St Abbs, and was very impressed. I
> haven't seen that many soft corals, etc anywhere else I've dived in the
> UK. To top it off I even saw and played with an octopus during a night
> dive in Greenends Gully.
>
> I really can't imagine why only 3 members of our club could make the trip.
> I will definitely be going back.
>
> --
> Gareth Ansell
> UNIX Team
> Computing Services
> Coventry University
Gareths trip report and some pics can be found at
http://www.marlinsac.org.uk/abbssept04.html
Apologies if this appears a multiplicity of times as I am having trouble
with usenet since changing ISP.
For some reason I can post to alt.test with mozilla, but not to here.
OE seems to work with other uk.rec groups and I'm about to find out if it
works here !
Cheers
Graham

I can give you 3 reasons why 2 members of your club didn't go on this trip:

Distance
Cost
Family commitments



Kath Hall

"Gareth Ansell" <g.ansell@no-spam-please.coventry.ac.uk> wrote in message
newsan.2004.09.14.11.13.55.388973@no-spam-please.coventry.ac.uk...
> Just got back from my first trip to St Abbs, and was very impressed. I
> haven't seen that many soft corals, etc anywhere else I've dived in the
> UK. To top it off I even saw and played with an octopus during a night
> dive in Greenends Gully.
>
> I really can't imagine why only 3 members of our club could make the trip.
> I will definitely be going back.
>
> --
> Gareth Ansell
> UNIX Team
> Computing Services
> Coventry University

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 18:00:49 +0000, Richard Hall wrote:

> I can give you 3 reasons why 2 members of your club didn't go on this
> trip:
>
> Distance
> Cost
> Family commitments
>
>
>
> Kath Hall

Kath, three valid points, but in my opinion, (the validity of which may be
questionable), if you live near Coventry then everywhere with real,
'salty' water is a fair distance away. If you're willing to travel 4
hours to Angelesey, then the extra hour to get to St Abbs is well worth
it.

This trip really was a budget job, the cost was kept to a minimum. Petrol,
camping, and chips and a few pints were the only none diving expenses. We
did use a good few air fills though! Of course we could have upped the
cost and gone for B&B's or Hotels. I for one know that my poor aching
hips could have done with a soft bed and a warm bath on the Saturday.
(Note to self, really must ditch the old lead block weightbelt and replace
with shot.)

Can't get away from family commitments, although I seem to remember that
Richard was missing a family party, oops!

It was definitely a very worthwhile trip.

--
Gareth Ansell
UNIX Team
Computing Services
Coventry University