UKDIVING
Catshark egg at Noup Head
Red Blenny at Noup Head through side-by-side . At this point my computer vibrated , informing me I was within two minutes of requiring a deco stop , which at this stage I wanted to avoid . So I signalled my buddy and deployed my dSMB to ascend . Following a safety stop I found myself exactly where the briefing advised against – the shallow side of the rock ! This provided an opportunity for some prolonged vigorous exercise , as I now had to fin about 400m around and away from the lump in a fair swell . I was happy to see I wasn ’ t the only one to surface in the wrong place though !
The boat moored at Westray for the night ; the northernmost part of the Orkneys . The Northerlies and lingering mist were still with us the next morning , so plans were made to dive a huge gulley at Noup Head . The gulley went around 100m into the cliffs at depths varying from 30m to 22m . The sheer sides were dramatic and our beams lit up the vivid colours of the sponges and anemones clustered on them . Simply put , we were diving inside the engine room of cliff erosion , where eventually a part of it would become an isolated Sea Stac .
We remained at Noup Head for the second dive . Again , the brief was simple : “ It ’ s a huge gulley between two flat headed pillars of rock . Depth is 30m , rising to about 15m . There ’ s a boulder choke at the far end , but avoid swimming across it or you ’ ll be at the mercy of a savage swell . The gulley is wide enough to get a boat inside .” As it happened , it was certainly wide enough , as we discovered when we found a big wreck so comprehensively jammed into the U-shaped boulder-strewn gulley that the remaining ribs of the stern had become moulded to the sides , resembling a set from the Alien films .
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