St Abbs – June 2014

First off, a big thank you to everyone who came to St Abbs for what turned out to be a very successful trip. It’s a long way to drive to St Abbs (7 hours) but it was definitely worth it. Diving in St Abbs is all about the scenic diving, St Abbs head a short ten minute boat ride from the harbour is covered in beautiful reefs. This weekend we were in luck, both the weather and visibility were good which meant we had two days of relaxed diving exploring the abundance of life that lives on the reef.

The dive site being so close to the harbour meant we could return to shore between dives, which added to the whole laid back atmosphere of the trip. The weather was so good we could sunbathe whilst eating our lunch at the village café between dives, not something I expected we would be doing in Scotland.

Darren and Dale travelled up a couple of days early to get two days diving in at the Farne Islands before joining us at St Abbs. They arrived in St Abbs with the usual tales of underwater encounters with seals that seems to come with every trip to the Farnes. Dale allegedly had one encounter with a seal that Darren described as ‘so intimate Dale’s no longer a virgin’. Make of that what you will.

We had our share of comic mishaps that seem to be part of every Putney BSAC dive trip, the lessons we learnt this time:

  • Put your fins on before getting onto the lift in preparation to step off the boat
  • Don’t take a shortcut back to the village after several hours of torrential rain if you want to stay dry
  • Puncture repair kits are surprisingly good at fixing dry suits
  • And finally, don’t let Darren order ‘duck breast’ in a restaurant if you don’t want to offend the female waiting staff