Autumn 2007
 

Nearly No Nudis by Gavan Byrne

Wednesday 18 April, 1800 hrs
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Shore Dive, Scotsman's Bay, Sandycove, Co. Dublin
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Total Dive Time: 35 Mins – Max Depth: 9 Metres
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Divers: Gavan Byrne & Brian Stone
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I had already arranged to get off work early so I could do the Wednesday evening dive. By some good fortune, my new dive video light and arm set arrived in the office that morning, so it went straight on the charger ready to go for later. Excellent. I left work with the sun shining down on me as I headed for the clubhouse. When I got there, the tide was out farther than I ever remember seeing it. We were on springs at the time, and it was such a long way off that most of the people that were there before me had already decided not to dive, thinking there wasn't going to be enough water, the viz would be shite, etcetera.

If I hadn't been on a mission to try out my new setup I probably would have canned
the dive myself, but I was, so myself and Brian, who I hadn't dived with before,
decided to go for it. This involved a few minutes walk in the evening sun (not a bad complaint in mid
April!), fully kitted, to the steps at the other side of Sandycove beach. A quick (but thorough!) Buddy check, gingerly down the steps and ... still no water! We had to walk out a bit more, over what is normally seabed. We finally got enough water to put the fins on, and swam on our backs for about ten minutes into Scotsman's Bay, direction Howth. We descended into about five metres of middling viz, headed west and after about four minutes found the rocky reef.

  
     
     
 
 
 
   
 


It wasn't long before we started spotting things, the usual suspects were all out, the
crabs, wrasse, the white 'dead men's fingers' coral, sponges, sea squirts, urchins, sea
stars were all evident. We came across a really nice 'Bloody Henry' sea star. The new light showed its worth, and lit him beautifully, as you can see in the picture. By now the viz was getting better, we were down to eight or nine metres depth, enjoying every minute, glad that we stuck to our guns.

  
                     
We carried on and what we saw next made the whole dive worthwhile - the first Nudibranch of the year! From the book, I reckon he was a 'Coryphella Pedata', a real beauty. He was only about a half inch to an inch long, a deep pink colour, with long white tipped spines two little horns and a tail and quite rare apparently. We soon spotted two more, different, less spectacular nudibranchs, [check names with Brian] even tinier than the other guy, but the camera wouldn't play nice, so you'll have to take my word for it. Still, not bad, three types of Nudibranch in the space of 5 minutes.
There was still plenty to see, we saw a lovely little Butterfish, hiding under a rock, and I got a video clip of him trying to dodge the light. As we carried on there were lots of nice Anemones around, we saw some lovely examples of both Daisy and Dahlia Anemones, and also some Plumose. Lots of typical (for this area) white coral and sponges, swimming crabs, including one guy that was missing a claw, but what he lacked in limbs, he made up for with balls, he wasn't backing down for us!
This was a nice little dive, lots of colour and plenty of life to see if you were willing to slow down and have a look around.We didn't really even have to poke around much, they were all there waiting for us - they must have known we were coming!		  
                     

It goes to show that you don't need loads of depth to enjoy a dive. I saw more life on this dive than on many other deeper dives, at far more exotic locations. After about thirty minutes, I got the signal to turn around and head back, when my buddy took off like a man in a real hurry! I was knackered keeping up with him, definitely one of the fastest swims home ever - he must have had a hot date! After packing up, filling the tanks ready for the next dive, we finished off with a nice pint of the black stuff, for medicinal purposes you understand!

Sure beats watching crap on the TV!

Gotta love those midweek dives – they're like a little weekend in the middle of the week!

Gav

Newsletter Articles

The Los Erizos Wrecks by Colm Lowney
Gozo Trip by anon
L'Estartit by Mark Seavers
Nearly No Nudis by Gavan Byrne
Schull Easter 2007 by Maire Kirby
The Fleet at Scapa Flow*
Diver Profile: Lionel Crabb*

*sourced from the web by an enthusiastic member

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Updated – February 2007