Glen Douglas Road End, Loch Long - 17th October 2006.
This is beginning to become part of my regular dive schedule, yet another Tuesday evening dive.
This time Paul & I met up with Stewart & Chris to dive at GDRE.
Neither Paul or myself had dived this site before and the only site guide available on Conger Alley, unusually didnt include a site map. (Conger Alley is a great Scottish Dive forum, very friendly with some excellent site guides)
After a quick discussion with Stewart and Chris, we created a really informal dive plan whilst Stu and Chris planned, deeper, longer and mixed gas ascents making us look like complete cowboys.
Our simple plan was go in, head right for 20 minutes at 25-30 Metres, turn around and come back shallower for another twenty minutes, gradually ascending to off gas.
I am back on air as a back gas and have dumped the twin 12’s in favour of twin 10’s.
I havent got my stage rigged up yet and my spare first stage hasnt got back to me from being adjusted so no deco gas available for me.
I have dumped two kg’s of weight as well, the 10’s are much easier to carry from the car over the barriers and down the stupid hill to the entry point. It is pretty dark and its sure to eb Pitch black by the time we get outso I weight a strobe at the edge of shore to help us navigate back at the end of the dive.
After a quick buddy check on the surface Paul and I head in and downwards, we settle for most of the outbound dive at around 25 Metres although I dip down to 33 at one point for a nice little cluster of anenomes and consider dropping down further then remember the plan. Stewart had told us about a large lobster at at around 23 Metres but we cant find it. The water is pretty clear although its dark, I reckon 8 Metres of Viz maybe even more. Lots of little gobbi’s, Hermit Crabs, Prawns and some Pollack & mackeral. the odd wrasse and a few squat lobsters.
Most of the outbound dive is a scree slope with the odd little reef or wall.
After 20 minutes we start our ascent to 12 Metres and turn around, this is the only point the viz is kicked up as we get a bit close to the scree and make a right soup of the water. At Shallower depths there is a lot mroe to see and we then ascent to 6 Metres and work our way back, at forty minutes we meet Chris and Stu who are just surfacing. we join them haev a quick gab and point out that the strobe is a good twenty metres on from the point they decided was the exit.
After a surface swim we all get back to the right bit of shoreline marked by the strobe.
Off to the Village Inn at Arrochar for a quick pint then down the road.
Dive 91: 40 Minutes, Max Depth 33.2 Metres. Air in 210 Bar, Air out 140 Bar.
Total Dive time: 62 Hours 44 Minutes.
