Tash Yates provides an insight into the St Kilda pinnacle named after a certain shy and retiring skipper
Colourful jewel anemones and a Leach’ s spider crab
Bo, selected
Tash Yates provides an insight into the St Kilda pinnacle named after a certain shy and retiring skipper
Briefing:‘ Bo Bob’ is a newer fixture on the St Kilda dive map – a pinnacle that popped up on the depth finder of the Clasina liveaboard in 2023, thus named by Bob Anderson, skipper of the well-known liveaboard.‘ Bo’, meaning rock, and‘ Bob’ meaning, well... Bob. A rainbow pinnacle of jewel anemones with more than enough to keep anyone occupied.
I was crewing on the Clasina, it had been the busiest of days and I only had time for a quick dive. I was almost out before I was in, and desperate to have spent more time down there. So, when we were back in May 2024, the conditions lined up, and I was ready- camera in hand this time.
The pinnacle drops into 60m, but you don’ t need to reach anything near that deep. Most of the life is between 15 – 30m. I dropped down the shot line and balanced on the shallow 10m top ledge, straight into thick, healthy kelp that’ s constantly on the move in the swell. Then suddenly, you’ re free of the kelp – and much more aware that you’ re in water that can only be described as a St Kilda blue. It’ s a colour that isn’ t even really captured by tropical waters. Maybe it’ s just the excitement and
novelty of such visibility in UK waters, but it’ s a sight to behold.
On reaching the rock below, you’ re rewarded with a carpet of jewel anemones that become the canvas framing everything else you see. Even with the visibility, it’ s easy to get drawn right in to all the detail. There’ s plenty of life here- nudibranchs, tiny longlegged spider crabs, and huge lobsters were some of my highlights that day.
The main pinnacle’ s a good size- you can circumnavigate it once or twice in a dive, varying depth each time for a new look. There’ s also a smaller offshoot pinnacle just a short swim away, sitting slightly deeper. It’ s just as abundant with life and it’ s my personal favourite.
Debrief: The fact it’ s not particularly well-known or dived is a novelty, but not the reason Bo Bob is a great site. It’ s everything you want and need from a St Kilda dive- colour, light, clarity, and magic. The walls boast everything that’ s truly great about British diving – it makes you instantly glad that you’ ve steamed 40 nautical miles off the west coast of the Scottish Hebrides to do so!
The Dive: Usually on trips to St Kilda you’ re lucky to grab a 24 – 48-hour window before the weather draws you back east, but on a rare visit in 2023 we got a break. We had four or five days to explore, with time to look beyond the Gordon Ridley classics in A Diver’ s Guide to St Kilda.
The view from below the kelp line
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