It is a popular scuba diving destination because of the clarity of the water which contrasts with the more silty conditions to the north and to the south. Warm and cold currents meet here, which may be the explanation for the clear conditions, and contributes to an extended range of marine life. Shore dives are easily accessible from the harbour wall to depths of up to 15m and boat dives can be arranged with the local fishermen.

A more recent claim to fame is that it was the site of New Asgard in the filming of the last Avengers film, Endgame. Apparently this has led to a dramatic increase in visitors. Who knew. We were happy when it was just a beautiful village by the sea!

St Abbs Harbour
On our first evening we arrived quite late but could not wait to get in the water and jumped in for a quick snorkel around the harbour wall to Big Carr. Beautiful clean water and so much life. Usually in UK diving we are happy with 5 m visibility but here we had 10m and more. Almost unheard of and we were ecstatic. At 7C the temperature was chilly but it is the North Sea after all.

Cathedral Rock
This is a famous dive site in St Abbs, also accessible from the shore but a hard swim. It is a couple of arches covered in sea life. To be honest, despite a couple of attempts and lots of rather inept compass navigation, I am not sure we actually found it but all the topography was beautiful with rocks and gully’s and abundant sea life.

Having exhausted our shore diving we roped in a local fisherman, Alastair, and his brother to take us out a bit further afield. We met Alastair for the first time on the quay where Dudley was perched on the harbour wall. The first thing he said to him was ”you’ve got shite on youuurr troousers” in such a broad Scottish accent Dudley was at a loss until we managed to translate in gales of laughter. From there we probably understood about 1 in 4 words out of Alistairs mouth.

He told us that his previous boat had been confiscated because the fishing authorities had boarded it and found 1 salmon scale on the deck. It seemed a bit harsh and reinforced the rather feudal laws still firmly in place. The only people allowed to catch salmon were the landed gentry with estates. Not the hard working locals. Most unfair although I have no doubt that Alastair was up to his eyeballs in illegal salmon fishing, the ill gotten gains of which had purchased him a new boat!

The town of Millport is on the Island of Cumbrae in the Firth of Clyde in Scotland. The Clyde estuary has long been considered of marine interest, in 1884 a floating laboratory was established there and Millport Marine Biological Station was opened in 1897, run by the University of London. It had an active academic and research curriculum and in the university holidays the halls of residence were available for rental and divers were able to book in and use the diving facilities. A long pier ran out into the estuary from a wooden building and the end of the pier was equipped with hot showers, a dive chamber and a lifeboat station.

The first dives were taken straight from the pier, essentially you geared up in the wooden hut, walked down the pier and jumped in. We did a few of these dives, freezing cold, 5C max, but with good visibility and lots of life under and around the pier.

Several night dives were done here, the bottom alive with crustaceans and star fish. To be fair, day or night, the temperature was about the same but the hot shower was a life saver.

Ammo barge
The Ammo barge was an old shipwreck lying off the lighthouse in 15 m of water. It was in good condition but all the non ferrous had been removed as had the old ammo. Still we were there to observe the marine life so there.

Flying Catalina
In March of 1983 we returned to Millport to explore some more. The famous wreck here is a Catalina Flying Boat, an amphibious aircraft that crashed and sank in 1943. The plane was doing practice water landings and a miscalculation by the pilot saw the plane crash into the sea. The pilot died but the crew were rescued.

The Salford BSAC arranged another outing to dive the Isle of Man over a long weekend. We dived off the Harry Slater, a 55 ft modified pilot boat which sailed across to Holyhead in Anglesey to pick us up. The sea was so flat it was like a mirror and believe me this does not happen on the Irish Sea very often. I have done the ferry crossing to the Isle of Man before with every passenger heaving over the side. But we sailed on glass in sunny weather and a gentle breeze. Dudley still managed to lose his fishing rod overboard though. I think it was trying to tell us something. Fish are friends, not food.

We headed for the south where a small island called the Calf of Man lies.

One of the major features around this area are the vicious tidal currents up to 8 knots so diving requires careful calculation of the tides to determine the time of slack current. Unfortunately for us our skipper had calculated his slack from a Liverpool tide table. Enough said, some of the Isle of Man dives were the fastest drift dives we have ever known. On one occasion we were carried 5 km out to sea in about 20 minutes. But it was exhilarating and beautiful and packed full of sea life. Often we hung with white knuckles onto rocky shelves, our bodies strung out like flags vibrating in the current and watched the world go by.

Not surprisingly the south of the UK is perhaps more popular for diving than our stamping grounds North. It is generally cleaner, warmer and more civilized, so, on a short staycation down to Devon and Cornwall we packed our dive gear and went for a look see.

We were on a 2 day course. The first day they tied 15kg of lead around our waists and made us swim on the surface between 2 buoys until we drowned. Well not quite but you get the drift. The moral of this test was you cannot swim with weight….ditch your gear. All of it. Even the pretty new expensive stuff. Of course we are always told this but I think you retain a sense that maybe you can decide at the time, maybe you can compromise or save stuff. From that day, when incidentally I nearly drowned and had to be towed in by safety marshals in a state of exhaustion, I have never doubted the truth.

As the candidates were now knackered. We were sent back in to rescue a dummy at 20m with a controlled buoyant ascent in pitch dark. Good job the dummy was already dead. We slept like the dead that night. Ironic really.