Review by Trevor Bunner

 

With the Liverpool Bay trip postponed due to bad weather I’m pleased to say we did get to St Abb’s. Although having left Liverpool in 23-26oC and getting to a misty St Abb’s about 4 hours later at 18 degrees C we did wonder if the decision was a wise one.

 

The guys who arrived early on the Friday avoided the mist and got a shore dive in around Seagull Rock, which they said was a great little dive with lots of sea life, and was a good place to snorkel.

 

The rest of the group arrived later on and we all met up at the Priory B&B, our home for the weekend. The rooms were nice, comfortable and clean, there was however only one on-suite bedroom leaving 7 guys to share the main bathroom but I’m pleased to say it didn’t result in any fisticuffs but some queuing.

 

We ambled down to the local pub for refreshments, and our evening meal. The food was good but as we were in Scotland the smokers amongst us had to step outside to get there fix.

 

After a very hearty breakfast (cooked to your liking) although the only Scott amongst us doesn’t like the haggis (the Scottish twist to the full English breakfast) we drove down to St Abbs harbour. Parking at the harbour cost £5.00 per car per day which was half the price of the local parking area only a few metres away.

 

The sea was looking a bit rough but our Captain Peter gave us the low down on some sites and soon we were on board with all our kit. The boat was a good size rigid with space to move about.

 

Our first stop was a bit rough for a first dive and to enable us to do weight checks so we carried onto another site further round the mainland that was calmer. Captain Peter was very knowledgeable of diving conditions although not a diver himself, he informed us that there would be a fair current on descent and he wasn’t joking. Unfortunately the strong current stayed with us for the whole dive and it was quite hard work.

 

We returned to dry land for a light lunch, then on to our second boat dive for the day. This was a much more leisurely dive current not so strong. 

 

The dives were all around 16 Meters and if nothing else had one surprising similarity, the lack of fish. However the lack of fish life was compensated for by the variation of crabs, lobsters sea anemones and carpets of brittle stars covering the bottom in some of the areas we visited.

 

The hardened sea fairing amongst our group did the two boat dives planned for each day, unfortunately my stomach isn’t quite as robust as everyone else’s so only did 3 boat dives. My buddy/wife was unable to dive due to a viral infection and stayed ashore, she sends her thanks to my stand in buddies for returning me to shore in one piece (even if I was somewhat green).

 

St Abb’s was overall a good diving weekend, even thought the weather/sea wasn’t the best we got to do all the planned boat dives.

I would suggest however that those thinking of diving at St Abbs, to do just one boat dive followed by a shore dive per day rather than two boat dives a day.

Author: Trevor Bunner  

Check out the Gallery for the St Abbs photos

B&B details: www.prioryview.com