Simon Campbell
Musings from an eclectic, eccentric, well travelled and generally funny bloke
Expeditions
St Kilda: Chapter three
The third edition of the St Kilda expedition saga, this one moving us from the almost cosmopolitan island of Eig to Village bay, St Kilda.
Day two (Sunday)
The O-ring King is not getting any younger and as I elected to room with him for the full two weeks (yes, I said elected), I felt it my duty to ensure he was still alive in the morning by shouting from the top bunk, “O-ring, are you alive?” You could certainly tell he was alive during the night, as his horrific snoring even awoke me a couple of times and I can usually sleep through anything. I am not just saying this, its a proven fact.
One year at Leeds festival when a riot broke out on the Sunday evening with gas canisters exploding and helicopters with searchlights overhead. Angela (my long suffering wife) was awake all night; I slept like a baby… Back to O-ring: After some research we established that he only snored if on his back or his left hand side; he was therefore restricted to the right side for the trip.
Our cabin was the biggest on the Elizabeth G, and it needed to be due to the amount of spares O-ring and myself had brought along. Gordon and Sandy were in the four berth cabin as he needed the top two bunks for the outrageous amount of camera equipment Gordon had brought aboard!
Before our fist dive, breakfast was served and consisted of the ubiquitous porridge followed by bacon rolls served by Rob’s Angels.
Dive #1: Canna wall (actually on Sanday not Canna).
Buddy: Teresa Darbyshire
Rob likes to have the bow of the Elizabeth G pointing towards the dive site and therefore he tells you swim towards the bow before descent. On the pick up DSMB’s are mandatory. Of course some of the team (ie me) didn’t listen to the brief and were shouted at when they arrived back on board. Oops.
I have done many walls and I have to say this dive was disappointing. Visibility was around four metres with little life. The wall goes down to around 50 metres and it did serve its purpose however as a check out dive.
Trish created a magnificent freshly made Potato and Leak soup and selection of sandwiches for lunch. She also made cakes during the day for little snacks. How was i going to keep my weight loss program up!
The ship carries a plentiful supply of wines and beers but I have to say for a BSAC expedition, the drinking was VERY moderate.
The weather wasn’t looking bad and so we pressed on through the feared Sound of Harris assisted by a favourable tidal stream. New lateral buoyage and a South Cardinal buoy had been installed following the running aground of a German ship the *** Fyne.
All around the entrance and exit to the Sound (and most other channels) are a profusion of pot and/or/ kreel buoys. These are truly the enemy of the mariner as if you catch one with the propeller, it can mean slipping the vessel which is indeed a lengthy and costly process. When approaching these areas we were all keeping a sharp eye out on the bridge and sometimes hanging over the bow of the ship. By far the keenest eye was Helen who seemed to be able to spot them miles away. She also was also constantly making us aware of birds, dolphins basking sharks and minki whales.
Once out of the Sound we were pushing against the tide, navigating around ‘Toe Head’ making about 6.8Kn. We were again treated to glorious views over the across to the Machar in Liath Bay close to the famous island of Taransay.
Dinner consisted of mushrooms with rice and balsamic vinegar, steak pie, carrots with ginger and orange, green beans, champ (mashed potatoes with scallions – spring onions) and a magnificent Cranachan for desert.
Day three (Monday)
I woke up asking O-Ring whether he was alive. Affirmative. I threatened to poke him with a sharpened stick if he woke me up one more time with his snoring…
Rob called ‘big hands Bill’ (the Warden of St Kilda for Scottish National Trust) first thing in the morning and, based on favourable weather information, we set out to St Kilda. As we cleared the Island of Pabbay, we could see the St Kilda archipelago on the horizon. The visibility was truly awesome.
I was trying to get as many miles navigating and helming the vessel as possible as I had my Coastal Skipper course and commercial certification in a few weeks time so the skipper entrusted me with the ship. As I intimated before, these ships are quite complex and the skipper needs to keep on top of the checks. His favourite being the ‘shaft temperatures’, which had to be blood hot and the ‘zero vacuum’ on the Racall fuel filters.
The crossing took five hours with moderate seas emanating from the South West. Passages such as this are never great for the passengers and this was no exception. One or two members of the team ended up a little green!! As we approached our first dive on Borray the swell was still substantial. We approached within 30m of the rock face and were in around 30m of water. Divers kitted up and we descended in to the clear waters.
Dive #1: East side of Boreray – 57 52.113N 008 28.986W
Buddy: Teresa Darbyshire
The dive was not outstanding but had the St Kilda classics of great rock faces encrusted with jewel anemones, anemones but we did see a number of large wrasse and a few Pollock. We achieved 39m for 45 minutes with water temperature a balmy 14 degrees centigrade. There was plenty of surge above 18m but also down to 22m. Kelp down to 18/20m. As were so far from a suitable chamber I increased the safety factor to 20% on my VR3 dive computer (having the effect of increasing the inert gas calculation by 4%).
After the dive we steamed to village bay where Rob dropped the hook, assisted by Helen who was wearing very fetching Trojan rigger boots. As soon as we arrived we were served a very excellent Tomato soup followed by jam doughnuts. With the assistance of some of the team, Helen, myself and Rob deployed the floppy from the top deck to allow some of ‘team alpha’ to go ashore. For the landing party, the famous ‘Puff Inn’ is now closed to non base members due to ‘security issues’. Once ashore in Village Bay, the Warden gave a safety brief outlining do’s and dont’s on the island. Only sensible boots are allowed!
As per Crazy Ed’s plan, a few members of the team stayed behind to assist the skipper fill cylinders which as ever resulted in much argument and about the panel and operation of the compressor… Which brings me to my only issue I have with the Elizabeth G was the compressor. It’s 10 cu ft which is not big enough for the job taking up to 90 minutes to fill cylinders. Added to this the Nitrox blending panel and whip system was a pain. Having said that Rob has a 35 cu ft Hamworthy compressor already installed below just awaiting commissioning. It will be driven by one of the huge Detroit main engines and will be going live for next season. He is also asking my new chum Colin Glass from Undersea to make him a new blending panel.
Helen naturally checked for sheep droppings attached to boots on the Elizabeth G when the shore party returned.
Dinner was Greek salad followed by boiled gammon with bar-b-q sauce, spicy roast potato wedges, cabbage, turnips then Peach Melba iced cream with strawberries and cream followed by the ubiquitous cheese selection. Gasp… Conversation turned to all things technical and sensibly the crew made for their bunks…
Day four (Tuesday)
We woke up to the sound of rattling winds and big swells. I asked O-Ring whether he was alive; he said he was still thinking about it.
The weather prevented us from diving in the morning so Rob took many of the team ashore in two waves with a third trip with just Rob and myself to look at the weather synopsis in the island base. We met with Roy (head honcho at the base now run by Qnentiq on behalf of the military) and we went to the hut near the shop. The forecast was indicating considerable improvement showing that the winds were decreasing over the next two days.
Lunch was baked potatoes with cheese, salad, tuna and scallion mayo with good old Heinz beans.
Dive #1 An Torc
Buddy: Paul Saunders
This is an unbelievable pinnacle close in to the west of the island of Hirta. Due to the wind, heavy surge was evident around the pinnacle and was certainly not for the faint hearted or inexperienced. It drops very steeply down to 40m to the west of the pinnacle which stands guarding a small inlet. There is a chimney on North West side in which you can descend in good weather. Horizontal visibility was between 20/25m and the sight of shafts of light penetrating this deep led to an almost religious experience. I saw a huge crayfish out of its hole and a number securely wedged. All the rocks are encrusted with small life even though this side of the island takes a terrible battering in the winter gales. Astounding…
Helen had painted her toe nails a multitude of colours to complement her toe jewellery. O-ring couldn’t resist and donated to her a blue EPDM BS014 (tOe)-ring to match. More sensibly, Gordon showed some of his remarkable underwater photography to date. We can’t wait to see the results!
Dinner was mozzarella with cherry tomato and Captain Rob’s organic home grown strawberries followed by a amazing fish pie with Arbroath smokies, Loch Spelby mussels, cod, salmon, smoked salmon, prawns, smoked haddock, hard boiled eggs and squid rings topped with creamy mashed potatoes. Desert: home made apple tart with custard and cream – and more cheese.
OK. treat yourself. Go an grab some alcohol and continue reading chapter four…
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“St Kilda”
Chapters
I first visited the archipelago in May of 2005; an experience I will never forget. This expedition shared my passion, immersing 24 Divers in 13 days of adventurous, challenging and world class diving.
