BEDSAC Dive St. Abbs
35m or Bust!
by Bedford Sub Aqua Club

Thursday evening, 6:30pm, the car had been stuffed to the gunwales with cylinders, wet and dry dive gear, a few spare pairs of big white baggies and half of the Sainsbury's confectionery aisle. Cathy and Simon had picked me up and now we were parked outside Boots waiting for Fiona to chase out the last customer with his emergency prescription in his hands.

The traffic was pretty good the whole way up and after a fine picnic on the move, a stop for the two Ps (petrol being one of them) and four and a half hours we pulled into Herrietfield, our B&B for the next three nights, and were greeted by Margaret. "Och! Do come in. Here are your rooms. Would you like a tea or coffee, or will you be away to the pub?" Ah, Scottish licensing laws, don't you just love 'em. We made it into the bar only 50 minutes before last orders and shared a few pre-bedtime pints with the landlady, landlord and a couple of Rhodesian Ridgeback dogs. I don't suppose that Sue and Charles have much trouble getting rid of the slow drinkers at chucking out time. Apparently the dogs are both capable of downing two and a half pints each before falling over - that's better than some of the members of BedSAC.

The next morning, after a hearty breakfast, it was off to St Abbs harbour to grab a good parking space and to meet up with the other 6 who had gone for the full three day 6 dive package (Andy, John, Terry, Patrick, Dave & Richard).

We were kitted up and ready to board the 'Guiding Star' by 10 o'clock, but there was to be a change from the outset. Peter, the skipper, had got a new boat since last year - he also has a wicked sense of humour. "You'll laugh when you see her." He grinned, and off he went to get her. A few minutes later he rounded the harbour wall in a open backed wooden boat, painted white and with its name proudly painted along her bows "OUR PHYLLIS".

"SIR PHYLLIS", as she soon became referred to, was brought alongside and loaded up with the gear. Peter seems to be able to juggle 15 litre cylinders with ponies and integral weight belts so the rest of us ran around trying to stow everything securely whilst Peter lowered the heavy stuff down to us by rope.

The first two dive sites were the 40 metre long Tyes Tunnel and the beautiful Anemone Gully. We found an angler fish, played with an octopus and had guilimots diving down to us whilst we carried out our 6 metre safety stops.

One of the great benefits of hard boat diving is the hot and tasty cup of tea after you come up. Peter's tea was hot, so I guess one out of two wasn't bad.

Between dives we loaded all of our empty cylinders into the back of Andy's people carrier and took them up to Scoutscroft and the DIY air station. DIY in that its coin operated and you fill your own cylinders. Its always exciting - will I get the full 250 bar into my cylinder before my 4 minutes run out, the system's valves change and 3000 litres of filtered air is emptied back into the atmosphere in 10 seconds flat.

With our two dives for the day completed, we left those who had driven up this morning (Greeba, Jim, Richard, Kevin, Bryce, Dave, Paul, Steve, Jane and Ian) to catch "SIR PHYLLIS" and head back to the crabs of Anemone Gully, whilst we headed back to our B&B for afternoon tea, home-made scones and a few rallies from Wimbledon. Rufty, tufty diving at its best.

Everyone met up in The Anchor for a pub meal at 7pm. Because of the size of our party we had to be split up into two groups. We were concerned in case the 6 in the other room should feel excluded. We needn't have worried as the rest of the diners in their room consisted of 21 year old girls dressed in boob tubes and small diamond shaped scraps of material, like those worn by the Coor sisters. Saturday got off to a good start when the parking ticket machine got jammed and most of us didn't have to pay the £5 a day parking fee.

The full complement of 22 (Inger and Tim having arrived before dinner last night) was split into two groups of 11 and dived Black Carr, The Barnyard and Petticowick (the sea having got a bit choppy and the second group not being able to dive The Barnyard). The sites, as with most dive sites around St Abbs, were covered with anemones, sea urchins, and dead men's fingers. Black Carr, being a little deeper, meant that Cathy and Simon got to see wolf fish for the first time.

Tea, home-made Victoria sponge cake and the latest from Wimbledon then it was off to the pub again for dinner at 7pm. This time we were all in the same room, which was great for us but not so great for the only other people in the restaurant - a young couple hoping for a quiet and romantic meal. Sorry!
Well the evening progressed, the beers went down and the volume went up. Then it was time for that old favourite, the animal game. I won't bore you with the rules of the game but I will tell you about some of the notable impressions of a bat, a barnacle, a one-eyed trouser snake and a great breasted Greeba! As we had a birthday boy in the party we had a presentation of a piece of hot chocolate fudge cake with a candle stuck in it and a tear jerking rendition of 'Happy Birthday'. You think the singing was bad Steve, you should have been there for the rehearsals.

Sunday morning, no hangovers (to the best of my knowledge) and the ticket machine still wasn't fixed. Just how good can things get?

Jim, pining for the usual lousy Gildenburgh fill, had managed to get only 140 bar into his cylinders (were you able to fry eggs on them last night Jim?). A quick scout around for some full cylinders and then before anyone else could do anything rash it was back aboard the "SIR PHYLLIS", off to dive the "Glanmire" and to pay second visits to Tyes Tunnel and Anemone Gully.

Dave found himself an angler fish which he managed to annoy by removing his own fin and sticking it in the fish's mouth! Apparently angler fish, basically a large tooth-filled mouth with a tail, can move quite quickly when the urge takes them.

A note for the next time I'm doing surface cover in the RIB, don't give hard boat skippers the finger. You should have seen how quickly the expression on the RIB driver's face changed when this bear stepped out of "SIR PHYLLIS'" wheelhouse.

Apart from great diving around the St Abbs Voluntary Marine Reserve, St Abbs harbour has a rather fine teashop and so between dives it was smoked salmon rolls with cream cheese and chives, special coffees and caramel slices.

Three days and 117 person dives later its back down the A1 and back to work on Monday for a rest.
A big thank you to Fiona for all the planning and arranging, to Peter for a good laugh and putting us on some great dive sites (and for picking us up again afterwards), to Andy for the use of his car and time for the lunch time air runs and to everyone there for a great weekend. We didn't get to 35 metres, but.......

Bedford Sub Aqua Club


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