Kenmore Point, Loch Fyne & The Fairy Castle 4th February 2007
As my car is away getting the front bumper realigned after I pulled it out of shape reversing over a bollard Stewart & Fran agreed to come pick me up for a days diving 
What a great pair of Bawbags (thats a technical term) they are! We got off to a later start than planned due to Frans inability to get out her bed after a heavy night babysitting, personally I think she had a night on the fags and wine so just couldn’t handle getting out her scratcher!
So off we head in Stew’s wee RAV4 loaded to the brim with two twin sets, two single 12’s, a pony (neigh!!) and an O2 kit and a ali stage bottle along with all the necessary dry-suits, fins and under-suits (Chuckle, right Stewart, wink wink!) for three tough divers to have fun in the cold sea Lochs.
An easy drive to Arrochar and a hot breakfast at the Pitstop (met up with Billy & Boab) then another drive off to Furnace village and down the back road (AKA the mud and pot hole filled road, 4×4 with decent ground clearance is almost essential!) to Kenmore, stopping to wave at the Atlantic Divers mob just kitting up and to have a quick gab with Ding of www.finstrokes.com
Parked up at Kenmore which could have used a parking warden as it was almost as busy as a big busy street!
We got chatting to Budgie, James (YBOD Diver & Instructor) and the other guy that I forgot his name! (sorry)
After all the faffing about Stewart left his house at the back of seven and we got in the water just after twelve.
Dive: 1 My dive: 118 Start 12:18 (Twin 10’s) AIR in:197 Bar AIR out: 109 Bar Max Depth: 31.8 Metres Avg Water Temp: 10oC SAC: 17.5 SLM Duration: 35 Minutes
Walked down fully kitted to the entry point.
We did a buddy check prior to getting in the water put our fins on sitting in the edge of the water and gave each other the submerge signal to go. Diving in a three is not my favourite however if I have to do it then Stewart and Fran are great to do it with.
Down we go in the cold waters and fin slowly down to the top edge of the wall, we gather together check for bubbles and fin over the edge into the abyss……
The wall is pretty today as normal and visibility is stunning at around 10 metres unless you get in the silt kicked up by each other!
Down we go, the water gets darker and there are plenty of small scallops, squat lobsters, blennys and crabs. Down at the base of the first wall I spy a dogfish off to my left just a little deeper than planned but I decide to go have a wee look, he is a cracker around half a metre in size. I kick up the silt a bit and my SAC peaks (have a look on the graph!) I relax and swim through the silt to the shallower area where my Buddies lights are shining from.
Fran stays above and behind me most of the dive and Stewart stays just in front and about my depth most of the time, everybody’s torch is working great and Fran has a play with a free swimming scallop. I spy a cracker of a big brown striped wrasse (I so need to learn proper fish ID), we come to the end of the wall and the sandy slope back to the shallows, we slowly work our way up the slope doing a safety stop & looking in all the nooks and crannies at the macro life, enjoying watching all the crabs and small fish enjoy life in the sea. I watch a crab chase a small shrimp across the rocks trying to catch its dinner.
We surface and take our wings/ cylinders off and leave them lying on the shingle beach of the second bay, wander up the long path back to the cars for a good gab and huddle round the camp fire that one of the other groups has built, we all enjoy a nice sunny (but cold) surface interval gabbing to various groups discussing the merits of future PADI specialties in camp fire building and pissing in the woods then discussing rebreather try dives with James.
Profile:
Dive: 2 My dive: 119 Start 14:20 (Twin 10’s) AIR in:103 Bar AIR out: 17 Bar Max Depth: 26 Metres Avg Water Temp: 10oC SAC: 17.9 SLM Duration: 35 Minutes
After a nice surface interval we walked back down the road and over to the shingle bay.
Kitted up near a group of six divers (at least a couple of where trainees) and got in the water just after them, it was a little silty but once we adjust our depth we managed to clear the silt and enjoy a nice 5-10 Metres of visibility once again.
Down over the rocks and onto the wall, I beckoned Stewart over as his backup regulator must have came off its loop and was floating about behind him, we sorted that out and descended down to the gnome garden, noticed a couple of new gnomes including a diver one! We had a nice wee guddle around spotting a couple of cod in one of the fissures and when we nearly got ran over by the other bunch of divers we turned around and spent some time working our way up in to the shallows.
I found a weird sort of Siamese crab that looked like it had one set of legs but had another body latched on underneath upside down, it looked very strange and called Fran over to have a look at it.
I was monitoring my Air closely and held my buoyancy no trouble even with the air in my twin tanks below 30 bar. Last time I had done a weight check it was with the arctic jumper on however as Stewart had a loan of it and was meant to be using it in preparation for his submarine dives next week I only had my normal under-suit on so was overweighted even down at 20 bar. oh did I mention Stewart left the lovely warm arctic under-suit lying on the floor of his wee sports car not the 4×4 he used to bring us up to the dive site…..
Profile:
After the dives we get the car loaded up (just about!) and head off down the rough road, a mile or so along the road Fran starts screaming in the back of the car “Fairy Castle! Fairy Castle!“, at this Stew and I turn to each other and just give each other a look that says in an unspoken way “What drugs is she on and how the hell can she be narced after a dive….” Stew stops the car and we all get out to see what the fuss is about.
Well here we go, we found a large tree stump with little holes all over it with a sign that clearly states “Fairy Castle” and toy fairies attached. Surreal!
We all get back in the car and head off to the George Hotel in Inveraray for soup and a pint.
Now things got even more psychedelic here as the George has fairy lights all over the ceiling in the main bar.
Another superb day diving in the sea lochs of Scotland Yehaaa! I love it, brilliant and unexpected & with great buddies!
Directions to get to Kenmore Point can be found on www.congeralley.com
