First Dive Of The Season

I have not been feeling very happy lately, and I did not know why, but now I think it's simple. I have been out of my natural habitat.

Today I got back into it at Beadnell, where myself and a buddy had a happy 45mins floating around Lady Hole. Not too many fish, but velvet swimming crabs, hermit crabs, edible crabs, starfish and lobster were all there. I actually think I saw a spider crab, but left my camera at home, so can't verify it. (Picture on the left taken by buddy.)

I usually do leave the camera at home when I do refresher dives, either in the pool or in the sea. If I'm going to have any problems with either my gear or myself, it'll be on the first dive of the season, and cameras can distract you from problems. (Also I forgot to charge the battery. Oops.) I did a pool dive on Wednesday, which was fine apart from getting cramp in my foot, which was not fun.

On the plus side, we had 3-4m vis, temperature was very nice for the time of year, lovely sunny day, and my new dive torch (courtesy of a photo competition I won last year) worked a treat. Fun all round! Farnes and Oban, here I come.