Scuba Diving in Skye, Scotland – Flossnan, Near Idrigill Point

Dive Site: Flossnan

Location: Near Idrigill Point, Isle of Skye, Scotland

Description: Wall dive

Depth: 20 metres (65 feet)

Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)

A picturesque wall covered in dead man’s fingers, sea urchins and sponges with kelp in the upper levels. In cracks in the rocks lobsters, edible crabs and velvet swimming crabs hide and can be seen without too much hunting around. Wrasse and pollack swim in and out of the reef and one can find a jellyfish stuck in amongst the kelp fronds. Dahlia anemones and cup corals also decorate the rocks.

Scuba Diving in Skye, Scotland – Conger Crevasse, An Dubh Sgeir

Dive Site: Conger Crevasse
Location: An Dubh Sgeir, Isle of Skye, Scotland
Description: A quick drift dive around a small rocky island
Depth: 21 metres (68 feet)
Visibility: 6 metres (20 feet)

This is one of the best dives in the area. Current is nearly always present here, so despite diving around the time of slack we still had an exciting and rapid drift dive through the gulleys that carve their way around the islands underwater. The dive site is called Conger Crevasse because at the around 20m there is a ledge that has been hollowed back a significant distance into the rock (at least as far as my torch beam would penetrate!). The ledge is home to a large number of lobsters and conger eels, although the congers don’t seem to hang around for long when they see divers.

The point of this dive is to head down to the seabed to see the crevasse, but the rest of the dive site is also stunning. Seals lie all over the rocks at the surface and are in the water. Aside from seals, the rocks are decorated with jewel anemones as well as the usual dead men’s fingers and kelp. Sizeable pollack glide in and out of the limits of visibility.

Scuba Diving in Carriacou, Caribbean – Millennium 2000, Jack-A-Dan

Dive Site: Millennium 2000

Location: Jack-A-Dan, Carriacou

Description: Reef

Depth: 7 – 22 metres (20 – 72 feet)

Visibility: 25 metres (80 feet)

A shallow reef that slopes steeply down to 22 metres. There is no strong current here so it is especially suited for training for beginners. It also makes an ideal location for night-diving and underwater photography. Marine life includes nudibranchs, shrimps, lobsters and moray eels as well as the occasional stingray or eagle ray. There are also many seafans and a large variety of hard corals.

Scuba Diving South Coast England, UK, Europe – M2, 50°35.59N; 2°33.97W

Dive Site: M2

Location: 50°35.59N; 2°33.97W

Description: Submarine

Length: 90 metres (295 feet)

Depth: 36 metres (118 feet)

Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)

The M2 is an intact submarine that was used to carry small two-seater aircraft. It sank in 1932 just west of Portland during a routine trip. It is thought the hanger doors failed to seal properly, allowing the sea water to flood the vessel. If one heads down to the rear of the submarine and turn his torch off, he can view the silhouette of the propellers in all their splendour. Brightly coloured sponges cover the upper parts of the submarine, and there is the possibility of seeing conger eels, crabs and lobsters on the seafloor. Slack water is 3 to 4 hours after Portland high water.

Scuba Diving South Coast England, UK, Europe – The Hood wreck, 50°34.10N; 02°25.22W (Portland Harbour)

Dive Site: The Hood

Location: 50°34.10N; 02°25.22W (Portland Harbour)

Description: Royal Sovereign Class battleship

Length: 115 metres (377 feet)

Depth: 17 metres (56 feet)

Visibility: 10 metres (30 feet)

The Hood was sunk across the entrance to Portland Harbour to prevent any submarines firing at the fleet anchored there during World War One. It makes an excellent first wreck dive. The depth means it is easy to plan for, with the only difficult part of the dive being dealing with the current on ascent that rips across the top of the wreck. There is a permanent buoy marking the Hood’s position, which you descend down and follow the distance line from it that traverses the huge boulders of the harbour wall. The Hood is a huge wreck with big open holds to look in and explore. The only downside of the wreck is that its popularity means that water is often very crowded. For the more advanced diver it is possible to swim the entire length of the Hood inside along the top level. You access the entrance before dropping down to the sea bed when you first encounter the wreck. Not many divers do this, but care must be taken not to kick up the silt, and be prepared for the ripping current as you drop down over the end of the wreck. There is a lot of marine life in and around the wreck including spider crabs, lobsters and fish.

Diving has currently been suspended on this wreck by the Portland Harbour Authority, due to forthcoming development work in the harbour and disintegration of the wreck.

Scuba Diving Southwest Coast of England, UK, Europe – Galicia wreck

Dive Site: Galicia
Location: Off of the Torbay coast
Description: Wreck
Depth: 18 metres (60 feet)
Visibility: 5 – 6 metres (15 – 20 feet)

This is a very broken up wreck but worth a visit, much to see congers, pollock, white cluster anemones, sea fans, Devonshire cup corals, lobsters, crabs and much more. Viz can be poor but still worth a visit. Teign Dive Centre visit this wreck most weekends.

Scuba Diving in Tenerife – La Cueva Del Roquete

Dive Site: La Cueva Del Roquete

Location: La Cueva Del Roquete, Tenerife

Description: Reef / caves

Visibility: 30 metres (100 feet)

A mile or so north of the Carbonero, the caves at La Cueva Del Roquete are built on a smaller and more manageable scale. From the RIB one can can see a grey seam of lava in the mostly red rocks of the cliffs rising hundreds of metres above. Below water the lava has cooled and solidified into a reef of billowing pillow lava that splurges across the sand, leaving deep undercuts, caves and arches. Morays, stingrays, octopus, barracudas, lobsters, seahorses and turtles are abound.

Scuba Diving North Wales, UK, Europe – Ynys-y-Moch, Menai Straits

Dive Site: Ynys-y-Moch
Location: Menai Straits, North Wales
Description: Drift or shore dive
Depth: 0 – 15 metres (0 – 50 feet)
Visibility: 4 – 8 metres (13 – 26 feet)

An exciting dive for the marine life in an area awash with dangerous currents. In the northwest of England and North Wales, providing the tides are right the Menai Straits under or around the Menai Suspension Bridge provides the diver with an all-year-round shore dive site, guaranteed! The down side is when the tides are not right it’s running at anything between 6 and 9 knots, but it’s best to dive it at a slack period to appreciate the sheer vastness and bio-diversity of marine life. Screaming drifts can be had but really only with boat cover.

Bangor University of Ocean Sciences regularly make studies of the area, especially under the Menai Suspension Bridge built by Thomas Telford in 1826. The Menai Straits in glacial times used to be estuarial, until afterwards when it became tidal bringing masses of nutrients along its length. The turbo-fed marine life thrives in this area and visibility is reduced as a result.

Under the bridge is a small island called Pig Island and this forms an underwater nature trail usually dived from west to east as the tide flows afterwards. The first thing the diver encounters are sponge cliffs, stepped walls of rocks covered in solidified yellow custard is the best analogy. Look closer and one will find a plethora of filter feeding marine, both sessile and mobile. Lobsters are one thing but hundreds of crabs of differing varieties can be found with an additional load of dragonets, scorpionfish, yellow coloured scorpion spider crabs, gunnell, many pollack and shells.

The depth starts at zero to a maximum of 15m and usually the bottom composition of terminal moraine is covered in dense carpets of very colourful and voracious dahlia anemones. In places huge beds of mussels dangle precariously off rock edges whilst at certain times of year masses of nudibranchs, particularly Dendronotus frondosus can be seen grazing.

The visibility can vary the average being 4m and sometimes it goes up to 8m. With this amount of marine life it’s hardly surprising many of the divers crave this site all year round especially those with cameras with macro lenses fitted!

Scuba Diving in the Red Sea – Sha’ab Umm Godor, Reef

Dive Site: Sha’ab Umm Godor

Location:North Hurghada

Description: Reef / night dive

Depth: 1 – 12 metres (3 – 40 feet)

Visibility: 25 metres (82 feet)

Umm Godor is a site normally dived from safari boats and makes a good night mooring spot. It is an alternative to spending the night at the much more crowed Bluff Point and puts you in a good position to attempt an early crossing of the Gubal Straights when heading north to the Thistlegorm at Sha’ab Ali. There are rarely more than two or three boats here and the coral quality, relatively shallow depths and usual absence of current make for a relaxing night dive, if you’ve spent the day diving the wrecks of Abu Nuhâs.

Like the nearby Sha’ab Umm Usk (located to the East), Sha’ab Umm Godor is a horseshoe shaped reef with the open ends of the horseshoe pointing south. Much smaller than Sha’ab Umm Usk, Sha’ab Umm Godor reef begins just below the surface, with a sand lagoon at around 3m inside the horseshoe. Normal mooring points are on the south ends of each of the horseshoe tips, where the reef wall boulder corals cascade down to around 8m. Here a combination of sand and coral outcrops continue down to a maximum of around 12m as one moves a little further from the reef itself.

There is little to see inside the horseshoe in the sand lagoon, so depending on which side you have moored the best dive plan is to head either left or right around the ends of the horseshoe and then in a northerly direction up the outside of the reef.

As with most night dives in the Red Sea, it is advisable to stay shallow (say 10m on the way out and 5m on return) and to think small. There’s little point trying to cover large distances at this site. There are lots of feather stars, lobsters, hermit crabs, shrimps and a very good chance of seeing Spanish dancers. Higher up the reef, the small overhangs make an overnight sleeping spot for turtles and often seen large pufferfish can be seen in the reef.

Suba diving in Turkey – Balaban Islands, Fethiye

Dive Site: Balaban Island

Location: Fethiye, Turkey

Description: Wall dive

Depth: 18 – 30 metres (60 – 100 feet)

Visibility: 30 – 40 metres (100 – 130 feet)

Divers can start by keeping the island on their left. Because it is possible to swim continuously in one direction all the way around the island keeping an average depth at around 16 mt. Big groupers can sometimes be found relaxing in the blue just below the wall. Shrimps, crayfish, lobsters and moray eels can be located in the holes and small cracks on the wall. Barracudas and jacks keep chasing thousands of sardines for food.